De facto presidential nominee attracts consideration to Palestinians’ plight as she walks high quality line on divisive battle.
United States Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to not keep “silent” about human struggling in Gaza, shifting emphasis to the plight of Palestinians because the de facto presidential nominee walks a high quality line on probably the most divisive points inside her Democratic Occasion.
Talking to reporters after a gathering with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Thursday, Harris stated that her dedication to Israel’s existence and safety was “unwavering”, however that “far too many” harmless civilians had been killed within the conflict.
“What has occurred in Gaza over the previous 9 months is devastating. The photographs of useless youngsters and determined, hungry folks fleeing for security, typically displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris stated.
“We can’t look away within the face of those tragedies. We can’t permit ourselves to develop into numb to the struggling. And I cannot be silent.”
Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden’s resolution to finish his re-election marketing campaign, stated that she had urged Netanyahu to comply with a US-backed ceasefire proposal.
“It’s time for this conflict to finish and finish in a method the place Israel is safe, all of the hostages are launched, the struggling of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian folks can train their proper to freedom, dignity and self-determination,” Harris stated.
Harris additionally reiterated her help for Israel’s proper to defend itself, condemned Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organisation”, and listed the names of American captives believed to be in Hamas’s captivity in Gaza.
”I’ve had an unwavering dedication to the existence of the State of Israel, to its safety, and to the folks of Israel.”
US VP Kamala Harris says she expressed her ‘critical issues’ to Israeli PM Netanyahu concerning the ‘scale of human struggling in Gaza.’ pic.twitter.com/1U0KErqiDL
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 26, 2024
In a nod to divisions over Israel and Gaza, Harris additionally known as on People to acknowledge the “complexity” and “nuance” of the battle.
“Too typically, the dialog is binary, when the truth is something however,” Harris stated.
Whereas Harris’s remarks didn’t level to substantive coverage variations with Biden, her forceful invocation of Palestinians’ struggling drew a distinction together with her boss’s extra subdued, largely back-channel efforts to restrain Israel.
Biden’s coverage on Gaza has alienated progressive factions of the Democratic Occasion in addition to many Muslim-People, numerous whom dwell in Michigan, a key swing state that’s thought-about essential to the result of November’s election.
Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, stated that Harris spent extra time talking concerning the struggling of Palestinians than Biden has, at the same time as she sought to bolster her credentials as a pro-Israel determine.
“She talked concerning the variety of starvations. The variety of people who find themselves meals insecure. The quantity of people that have needed to transfer a number of occasions. She talked about seeing footage of useless youngsters,” Culhane stated.
“You don’t see that within the US media. You don’t see it on the entrance pages of newspapers. Nearly hardly in any respect. There’s little or no dialogue concerning the plight of the folks in Gaza.”
Whereas Harris positioned herself to the left of Biden throughout her failed 2020 presidential run, she has an extended observe file of sturdy help for Israel.
After getting into the US Senate in 2017, her first abroad journey was to Israel and certainly one of her first acts in workplace was to introduce a decision opposing a United Nations Safety Council decision condemning the nation.
Harris additionally spoke on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference that 12 months, telling the viewers that the bonds between the US and Israel had been “unbreakable” and “we are able to by no means let anybody drive a wedge between us”.
In an interview with the Israeli information website Ynet printed on Tuesday, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, stated Harris’s total file was “constructive”, however she had made “fairly a number of problematic statements” concerning the conflict in Gaza.
