No. 2 House Democrat Refers to Israel’s Offensive in Gaza as a ‘Genocide’

Democratic Whip Katherine Clark in 2020 (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) called Israel’s offensive in Gaza a “genocide” at a forum on Thursday, according to video of the event reviewed by Politico.

In a call to action, Clark asked the audience to “take action in time to make a difference, …whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on.”

The forum was hosted by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a nonpartisan Quaker organization.

Politico reached out to Clark’s office, which maintained that her position on “the war has not changed.”

“It should not be controversial to say that Israeli children did not deserve to be kidnapped and murdered by Hamas, nor should it be controversial to say that Palestinian children, who bear no responsibility for Hamas’ atrocities, do not deserve to be killed by war or starvation,” said a spokesperson for Clark, Joy Lee, in a statement to Politico. “A secure future for Israeli and Palestinian children demands a real two-state solution and a permanent end to efforts to deny their rights to exist.”

In July, the UN released a report estimating that one in three Gazans is now going for days at a time without food, with hospitals treating “20,000 children for malnutrition since April.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an August 7 interview with Fox’s Bill Hemmer that he intends to take full control of Gaza, but “doesn’t want to keep it,” indicating he wants to hand it over to an Arab governing body other than Hamas.