Kamala Harris: Singling out Israel Is Antisemitism

Vice President Kamala Harris condemned singling out Israel “because of anti-Jewish hatred” at an address at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now summit on antisemitism.

“I want to be very clear about this: When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism and that is unacceptable,” Harris told the ADL virtual summit on Sunday evening.

“In two days, we will mark 83 years since Kristallnacht, a night of unthinkable evil – that foreshadowed more evil to come,” she said, referring to the pogrom carried out against Jews across Nazi Germany on November 9-10, 1938. “Sadly, we know that antisemitism is not a relic of the past. In recent years, the Jewish American community has faced an alarming rise in hate crimes,” she added.

“Four years ago, white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, spreading hatred and instigating violence. Three years ago, we suffered the most deadly attack on the American Jewish community in the history of our nation at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,” she said.

Kamala added she and President Joe Biden are “fully committed to fighting antisemitism.”

“We must fight antisemitism and hate of all kinds. And call it out wherever it exists. We know: A harm against one of us is a harm against all.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (2nd L) meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (2nd R) on October 12, 2021 in the Vice Presidents Ceremonial Office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, in Washington, DC. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

A recent survey found that close to one in every four U.S. Jews have been targeted by antisemitism in the past year.

Harris’ comments to the ADL came weeks after she came under fire for hailing a student who accused Israel of committing “ethnic genocide.”

The Biden administration has also been prevented from holding a a Senate hearing confirming Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt as the U.S.’ special envoy on antisemitism after news of the appointment caused an outcry.

Lipstadt has accused former President Donald Trump of “soft Holocaust denial”” while she herself defended a controversial video published by the Jewish Democratic Council of America that showed Trump alongside images of Nazi Germany.

Recent extensive surveys have found that nearly one in every four U.S. Jews have been targeted by antisemitism in the past year, and almost half have subsequently altered their behavior.

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