As activists are turning up the heat on the Kamala Harris campaign to come out strongly against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a top Harris adviser said on Thursday that the vice president doesn’t support the idea of an arms embargo on Israel — one of the most crucial and consequential demands of pro-Palestine advocates calling for an end to Israel’s slaughter.
Harris’s national security adviser and assistant Phil Gordon wrote on social media that Harris has been “clear” about her support of Israel.
“[Harris] will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law,” Gordon said, ignoring the fact that experts have said that states must end their weapons transfers to Israel in order to comply with international and even domestic law.
Gordon’s statement came after reports circulated that leaders of the “uncommitted” movement had spoken briefly with Harris before a rally in Michigan this week, with Harris reportedly saying that she was open to the idea of meeting with activists and discussing cutting Israel off from weapons deals.
The report on the interaction circulated widely among those hoping that Harris would break from President Joe Biden on enabling the genocide — but was met with skepticism by some advocates who pointed out that politicians will often meet with advocates purely as a PR ploy.
Adding to the skepticism was Harris’s dismissive response to a different set of activists who disrupted the rally, chanting “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide.”
In response, Harris said, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”
The protest brought attention to Harris’s complicity in the genocide in a way that the campaign is reportedly hoping to avoid.
The uncommitted movement wrote in a statement in response to Gordon’s post that they will not stop pushing the campaign to support an arms embargo, pointing out that the U.S.’s flow of weapons to Israel is exactly what is enabling Israel to target and kill civilians in Gaza — far from protecting civilians, as Gordon claimed the administration is doing.
“It’s exactly because the current White House policy allows bombs to flow to Netanyahu unconditionally that he has been emboldened to kill tens of thousands of civilians,” movement leaders wrote on social media. “We pray that Vice President Harris can unite our party by correcting course because our democracy cannot afford to pay the bill for disregarding Palestinian lives should it come due in November. Not another bomb.”
In interviews, the leaders of the movement in Michigan also emphasized that Harris is risking her own candidacy and, ironically, making it easier for Trump to win by not supporting an arms embargo. They said they are heartened by Harris’s pledge to meet with them, but are concerned that their message isn’t breaking through.
Layla Elabed, one of the founders of the movement, said that Harris will lose Michigan if she doesn’t commit to breaking with Biden on Gaza policy. Michigan is a key swing state with a large population of Muslim and Arab voters, and analyses have shown that the path to victory for Democrats becomes much harder without it.
“Biden, in 2020, could not win his race to the White House without Michigan, and that win came largely from Muslim and Arabic voters,” Elabed said in an interview with Status Coup on Thursday.
She pointed out that Biden won the state by roughly 155,000 votes, while roughly 145,000 Muslim and Arab voters participated in the election. Polls have shown that Biden’s support among Arab Americans has plummeted amid his support of the genocide — meaning that this group of voters could potentially make or break Democrats’ chance of winning the state this fall.
“There are folks here in Dearborn, Michigan, who know, firsthand, the impact of American-funded bombs. Right now we are pretty much faced with an impossible choice,” said Elabed. “We are asked to choose between a candidate that supports a far right-wing government [that] carr[ies] out war crimes against Palestinians; or a far right-wing government here at home that, right now, threatens to reenact policies like the Muslim ban and also to give the greenlight to Netanyahu.”