JTA — Former US vice president Kamala Harris held back from labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” on Sunday but said it was an appropriate question.
“A lot of folks in your party have called what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. Do you agree with that?” correspondent Eugene Daniels asked Harris during an interview on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
“Listen, it is a term of law that a court will decide,” Harris responded. “But I will tell you that when you look at the number of children that have been killed, the number of innocent civilians that have been killed, the refusal to give aid and support, we should all step back and ask this question and be honest about it, yeah.”
Several lawmakers, including Vermont’s Jewish Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, and far-right Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have described Israel’s conduct in Gaza over the past two years in Gaza as a genocide, but the allegation has not gotten mainstream support in Congress.
Israel has vehemently denied charges of genocide in Gaza, where war was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage. The IDF has accused Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure and looting aid deliveries.
Throughout Harris’s book tour for “107 Days,” her new memoir about her truncated, failed 2024 presidential campaign, the former vice president has drawn pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests accusing her of being a war criminal and of supporting genocide in Gaza during her term. She has at times rebuffed the protesters and also given airtime to their concerns.
“I was the first person at the highest level of our United States government or administration to talk about the fact that the people in Gaza were starving,” Harris told protesters at a book event last month, according to the Washington Post.
Later in the MSNBC interview, Daniels asked Harris whether she agreed that US President Donald Trump should be “commended” for his role in brokering the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that saw the release on Monday of the last 20 living hostages abducted in the October 7 onslaught.
“I don’t think we should hold any credit where it’s due,” said Harris. “I really do hope it becomes real and that the hostages are out, that Gaza is no longer being treated with such brutality of force, that aid goes in. I commend the people who have been a part of this process. I commend the Qataris, the Egyptians and the president.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.