Harris only shows care for Palestinians to gain votes.
Joe Biden’s position on Palestine and the genocide in Gaza has long been made clear. He continues to fund the Israeli occupation as it enacts its complete disregard for human life with his administration providing Israel with $20 billion more in weapons as recently as Aug. 13. His continual claims of working around the clock for a ceasefire deal, assertion of a red line Israel must not cross and supposed warnings to Benjamin Netanyahu are empty words that are meant to give those who hesitate to support him because of his Gaza policy a reason to overlook his role in Gaza’s genocide.
However, with Biden dropping out of the race and Kamala Harris officially becoming the nominee at the Democratic National Convention, she is using the same tactics as Biden. Much like Biden, she has an active role in this genocide. For instance, she pushed the debunked lie that on Oct. 7, Israeli women were raped by Hamas — one of the main two lies that were initially used to validate Israel’s genocide in Gaza. She did this by hosting a White House screening of a film in which Palestinians, who were likely tortured into saying whatever Israel wants as Israel is prone to doing, confess to committing these acts, and she has continuously held onto her support for these lies. She claims, “Rape can never be used as a weapon of war,” yet has made no comment about the videoed gang rape of a Palestinian man or the fact that hundreds of Israelis broke into the prison where the rapists were held to demand the rapists’ release nor has she spoken against claims in the Israeli parliament that Israelis have a right to rape Palestinians — that “everything is legitimate to do! Everything!” She also hasn’t made any statements of condemnation in response to the numerous reports of sexual violence committed by Israel against Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Instead, she focuses on the debunked allegations of mass rape by Hamas on Oct. 7, caring about the idea that Israeli women were raped en masse more than the actuality that Israel continuously enacts sexual violence against Palestinian men, women and children, thus holding Israelis in high regard as she completely disregards Palestinians.
Much like the claims that Biden is doing what he can for the Palestinians, which is blatantly untrue as Biden could end this genocide with a phone call as he did in 2021 when he urged Netenyahu to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, the claims that Harris wants and is working towards a ceasefire is a result of statements she makes that people circulate without context. For instance, there has been a widely circulated claim that Harris has long been a proponent of a ceasefire when, earlier this year, she stated in a speech that there needs to be a ceasefire and this bit of her speech was circulated without the remainder in which she said that she wanted it to last for six weeks and necessitates the release of those taken on Oct. 7. Had this been done, this would allow Israel to, after these six weeks, claim that negotiations fell through and continue its assault on Gaza without accidentally killing Israelis or facing pressure from hostages’ families to enact a ceasefire agreement, thus preventing the government from facing domestic backlash. So, her statement was not her being a proponent of peace but, rather, serving Israeli interests.
Claims of her wanting a ceasefire were reignited recently due to a speech in which she responded to pro-Palestianin protesters at one of her campaign rallies by saying that she hears them and wants to achieve a ceasefire as well. What is missing, however, is that only a few days earlier, in response to pro-Palestnians protesting her, she said, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that,” trying to guilt trip those protesting her involvement in genocide into silence by spouting the same rhetoric her supporters use to silence pro-Palestinians. She continued, saying, “Otherwise, I’m speaking,” clearly attempting to reignite the same support she received when she told Vice President Mike Pence the same statement four years earlier. Except, this time, rather than silencing someone who was interrupting her during a structured debate, she essentially told her potential voters, those she is meant to be serving in her current office and who she will be serving if she wins the presidency, to shut up. Furthermore, she made this statement in Michigan, which, famously, has a large Muslim community and is also the state in which over 13% of Democrats voted Uncommitted in the Democratic primaries. Thus, her response to protests days later was an attempt at damage control and not proclamations of something she fundamentally believed in.
There have also been claims that she met with leaders of the Uncommitted movement before the DNC to discuss the possibility of an arms embargo and that she was open to the idea. In truth, she had a run-in with a leader of the movement and they had agreed to meet to discuss an arms embargo later on. Thus, she is not open to an arms embargo — she is open to meeting to discuss an arms embargo. Even this characterization may be too far stretched as there have been no reports of that meeting occurring. Additionally, her national security advisor squashed these rumors, saying that she is not in support of an arms embargo, which Harris made clear herself last month, stating, in response to an interview question asking if she would enact an embargo, that she is “unequivocal and unwavering” in her “commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself” and that would not change. In other words, despite her saying that Palestinian civilians are suffering in ways they should not, she does not intend to let her policy stray away from Biden’s. Instead, she plays into his tactic of saying words she thinks will garner her support from the Uncommitted movement and hopes that voters will either not look beyond the surface or somehow lose the moral compass that pushed them away from her in the first place.
While she is not the one signing the billion-dollar deals to make Israel’s genocidal attempts easier, she has not made a move to stop the massacre of innocent civilians. She, Biden’s most powerful advisor, has not pressured him to cease funding Israel for the duration of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip nor has she asserted her position of a permanent ceasefire in any believable sense, simply making the same claim Biden has for almost an entire year now. While she may not be able to go directly against Biden when acting from her office, she is able to take a more progressive stance, especially seeing as she is campaigning for herself to become the next president.
Yet, she has not. Nor has she, in her current office, attempted to prevent the murder of innocents, and if given the presidency, she will no doubt continue enacting the same policies as Biden and sign similar deals. Instead of taking what she says at face value, then, voters must put her words into context and draw conclusions from her actions as she is currently showing us her Gaza policy. Furthermore, those supporting Harris cannot pretend that she is some kind of arbiter for the justice of Palestinians as, with regards to her position on Palestine, she is no different than Biden and is similarly guilty.
