'An Opportunity': How Do Pro-Palestinian Advocates Feel About a Kamala Harris Candidacy?

On July 21, President Joe Biden stepped down from the 2024 presidential election, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee. And soon after, reports began to circulate that Harris may shift away from her predecessor’s long-standing support of Israel.

The crisis in Gaza came into even sharper focus last week after Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday during his visit to Washington, D.C., following her decision not to preside over Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Harris said that while she had an “unwavering commitment to Israel,” which she said “has a right to defend itself,” she nonetheless urged a cease-fire deal.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” Harris said in her official remarks after the meeting with Netanyahu. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.” It was a marked contrast from Biden’s previous statements around Gazans, which many criticized for his seeming lack of empathy for Palestinians.

Pro-Palestinian activists say they are now watching Harris’ campaign cautiously — and that they’re seeing this election season as a key moment to set the political priorities of the next few years. For these advocates, “Palestine has never been a single issue,” said Samer Araabi, San Francisco resident and member of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC). “It’s the perspective of how a government should function, vis-a-vis war and militarism.”

“This is our moment to articulate a vision for a better version of this country,” Araabi said. “A version of this country that actually upholds the values that it espouses.”

Twenty-year-old Vallejo resident Halimah Houston said that while they saw Harris as “more competent than both Joe Biden and Trump to do the job,” they “hope she recognizes we need a cease-fire since she’ll have more power as president.”

Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said Harris and the Democratic Party now have “an opportunity” to rebuild with their voting base — and engage younger voters like Houston too.

For Miller, Biden “has essentially broken apart the broad progressive coalition that helped him defeat Donald Trump in 2020” — something she attributes in part “to his unquestioning support for the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s visit met with absences — and protests

Israeli forces have killed over 38,000, injured over 88,000 and displaced nearly 2 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations. Now in its 10th month, the siege of Gaza began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. More than 100 of the hostages have been released or rescued. A network of human rights clinics in the United States — which includes institutions like Cornell and Yale universities — found in a May report that Israel’s actions “constitute breaches of the international law prohibitions on the commission of genocide.”

In addition to Harris, dozens of members of Congress were also absent from Netanyahu’s Wednesday address. In fact, according to Axios, 100 of 212 House Democrats and 27 of 51 Senate Democrats were absent from Netanyahu’s address — a possible signal of change in the party’s reception to Israel, Araabi said.

This included at least six Bay Area representatives, like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee, who said in a statement that “the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has taken countless lives, including the lives of women and children, and destroyed Palestinian homes and communities,” and that she would not “condone” Netanyahu’s “deeply divisive policies [that] put the peace and security of both Israelis and Palestinians at risk” with her presence.

In Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu was greeted with applause and cheers by many pro-Israel activists — some of whom are elected representatives. Watching parts of Netanyahu’s visit from the Bay Area, Palestinian Santa Clara resident Ken Afi said the welcome that the Israeli PM received showed him that “these congressmen don’t stand for us. They don’t stand for the people. It’s just about trading power between them and suppressing the people.”

“If the United States and our Congress and our executive branch had a shred of moral clarity, they would be putting this man behind bars as soon as he landed his flight,” Afi said.

AROC’s Araabi was one of thousands of protesters who took to the streets of D.C. to protest the Israeli PM’s visit and attempt to block his passage to Congress. Protesters were reported to have been pepper sprayed, and relatives of the remaining Israeli hostages, who wore shirts demanding a cease-fire deal to free their loved ones, were also detained by police.

Unlike some of her fellow Democrats, Harris did not say anything publicly about Netanyahu’s presence at Congress, either before or in her remarks after their meeting. And on Thursday morning, Harris condemned some of the protesters, specifically denouncing “pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric,” the burning of the U.S. flag and “despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters.”

For some, this has soured the optimism they felt around Harris and Gaza, saying Harris’ remarks were Islamophobic for equating these protesters with terrorists and for conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionist activism.

Kamala Harris and Israel

Harris’ decision not to preside over Netanyahu’s address to Congress was, for many onlookers, the greatest indication yet that she might split from Biden’s support for Israel if she were to become the official Democratic nominee. The Wall Street Journal also reported that current and former officials say Harris is not likely to keep key Biden advisers and staff, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

An anonymous Israeli official was reported as reacting negatively to Harris’ speech after the Netanyahu meeting — which centered on the suffering of Palestinians — saying it could lead to “regression in the [cease-fire] talks.” Miller of Jewish Voice for Peace Action — which describes itself as a “multiracial, intergenerational movement of Jews and allies working towards justice and equality for Palestinians and Israelis by transforming U.S. policy” — said that while she “was glad to see that [Harris] was more stern in her wording around her meeting with Netanyahu,” she insisted that “we cannot and will not just accept rhetoric.”

Several news outlets and commentators have noted Harris has historically appeared more sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians — as well as to the pro-Palestinian activists protesting in the United States on their behalf. In March, she described the conditions in Gaza as a “humanitarian catastrophe” and called for a temporary cease-fire. In the same speech, Harris said she was also more willing to be stricter with Israel’s blockade of aid being delivered to Gaza — something Biden had shied away from. Her 25-year-old stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, whose father, Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, is Jewish — has also publicly raised money for Gaza.

But back in June, pro-Palestinian activists protested Harris’ official appearance in San Francisco. Araabi said activists like him are observing Harris’ burgeoning campaign “cautiously,” especially for her pick of vice president. Names like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro have been circulated — and critics are worried about Shapiro’s hostile attitudes toward pro-Palestinian college campus protests.

“There’s a lot of disillusionment with the Biden-Harris administration generally,” Araabi said, adding that he thinks Harris is now “trying to chart a different course.”

Araabi said he was ultimately “cautiously optimistic” that elected representatives will be more supportive of Palestinian self-determination and rights — that Americans are recognizing Palestinian rights as part of the wider progressive movement and anti-racism advocacy — but asked “how much of that shift is genuine and how much of it is campaign rhetoric?

“The fact that she’s not going to Netanyahu’s Congress address is a good sign,” Araabi said. “The fact that she’s meeting with him is not a good sign. We do not need to be meeting with war criminals.”

Berkeley resident Ellen Brotsky, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said she hoped Harris saw that many Americans are waiting for her to take “concrete actions to put pressure on Israel to stop the genocide.”

“That’s an important part of her constituency,” said Brotsky, who has been involved with pro-Palestinian activism for a decade. “Words are helpful, but action is what is needed.”

Gaza and Biden’s legacy 

Biden’s ongoing financial support of Israel has drawn continued criticism in an election year, setting up a difficult potential inheritance for Harris and the Democrats.

Since October 2023, the bombardment of Gaza has sparked an outpouring of protests in the streets — and in the last month, on college campuses — demanding a cease-fire in the Bay Area and across the country. Protesters have repeatedly called on the United States to cut its sizable aid to Israel’s military. In April alone, the United States approved $14.1 billion for Israel’s military. In contrast, around $1 billion was given to support humanitarian aid services in Gaza.

“We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars, sending weapons to Israel, and that money has much better uses here at home to actually fix our aging infrastructure and provide support for people who need it,” Araabi said.

While Biden stated he has “red lines’” when it comes to Palestinian deaths and his support of Israel, his views came across as contradictory as Israeli forces have attacked refugee camps, aid workers and hospitals, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that includes sickness and starvation. For the activists, Biden’s legacy is forever intertwined with the suffering in Gaza.

“He’s going to go down in our community known as nothing but a butcher,” Santa Clara’s Afi said.

Jewish Voice for Peace Action’s Miller said Biden made the United States government “directly complicit” in the siege of Gaza. ”I’m incredibly glad that he is not running for reelection because he has shown himself on this issue to be absolutely — both morally and politically — on the wrong side,” she said.

Voter opposition to the war in Gaza has already made itself known to Democrats in 2024 during the primaries. In swing state Michigan — home to a large Arab American and Muslim population — over 100,000 uncommitted votes were cast. A May poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos found that “44% of Democratic registered voters responding to the May 7–14 poll said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the crisis. Democrats who disapproved of his response were less likely to say they would vote for Biden.” According to a recent Gallup poll, only 58% of Americans approved of his presidency.

Araabi said that during the primary process, he’d heard from many people “who are self-proclaimed Democrats who said that they would never, ever, ever vote for Joe Biden.”

“And the question now is, can Harris bring those people back in?” he said. “I don’t know.”

Looking ahead to November

At the Washington, D.C., protest, Araabi said it was “really incredible to see all those people together, all saying very clearly, ‘We won’t stand for this anymore. This can’t be done in our name,’” he said. “This is the thing that I’m sure every fight for social justice has experienced, in the same way that Congress wouldn’t let go of its support for apartheid South Africa until it absolutely was forced to.”

Hundreds of Jewish American activists were at the Netanyahu protest, which, according to Brotsky, made the world see “that Israel is not committing genocide in the name of Jews. That Jewish safety doesn’t come from oppressing Palestinians.”

Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, who is Palestinian American, told NPR last week that if she had “tried to go to a mosque or Arab community event and urged them to vote for Joe Biden, I would never be invited back. The anger was so deep. And the hurt was so deep — even for me.” Nonetheless, Romman said she believed constituents would now be open to hearing Harris make her own case.

Activists want Harris to take a bolder stance on Gaza. Some, like Santa Clara’s Afi, say they’re considering third-party options like Jill Stein. Eighteen-year-old Aniya Butler told KQED last week they would not be voting for Harris due to the absence of a cease-fire.

“As an African American young woman, it’s amazing to think about the possibility of someone who looks like me being in that state of power,” Butler said. “But what is that power even rooted in? And what is that power being used for? And in terms of right now, it’s rooted in inequity, violence and oppression.”

Brotsky said that whoever the Democratic presidential candidate is, Jewish Voice for Peace Action activists will continue to push for an arms embargo on Israel and a permanent cease-fire. The group also supports other pro-cease-fire candidates like Cori Bush of St. Louis and plans to march at the Democratic National Convention.

“Nothing has changed,” Brotsky said. “[Cease-fire and arms embargo] was a demand of Biden in the Democratic Party. It’s still a demand of whoever the presidential nominee is.”

Many activists are nonetheless worried that amid a media storm around the U.S. 2024 election, the death toll in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians will be forgotten. Miller said she also fears that the government will wait until election season is over to take any action on Gaza and that “Palestinians cannot wait until November.”

“We can’t afford to slip back into a sense of normalcy,” Afi said. “That’s kind of a scary concept to think the average American might just forget that people are being killed by bombs made in this country and shipped for free.”

“We’re trying to stay focused.”

KQED’s Ezra David Romero contributed to this story.