Bass and Raman split on Gaza and the term genocide during Jewish Federation forum

The candidates for Los Angeles mayor gave opposing takes on the war in Gaza on Tuesday night, with Councilmember Nithya Raman saying Israel has committed genocide and Mayor Karen Bass asserting the term is inappropriate.

Appearing back to back at the Skirball Cultural Center, Bass and Raman both said they would fight to keep L.A.’s Jewish residents safe.

But Raman faced a spate of questions about her sit-down interview with leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, a vehement critic of Israel, and her support from Democratic Socialists of America, which has called for the boycott of and divestment from Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.

Moderator Alex Cohen, seated next to Raman onstage, asked the council member to explain her decision to portray Israel’s actions as genocide, calling it a “highly inflammatory term.”

Raman said she turned to international experts — including some Israeli experts — to make her decision.

“That is what guided me to using that term in describing what’s happening in Gaza,” she said. “I used it because I felt compelled to speak out about issues that we saw, and images that are coming, the targeting of hospitals, the deaths of children.”

The two candidates gave their remarks during a forum hosted by Jewish Federation Los Angeles and other groups, which focused on issues important to Jewish Angelenos.

Once Bass took the stage, Cohen posed the Gaza question a second time, asking whether the mayor views the term genocide as appropriate.

“When I think of foreign affairs, especially conflicts, my focus is on how they impact the city of L.A. — and no, I don’t,” Bass responded.

Bass said the schools she attended growing up had many Jewish students whose parents or grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

“My job is to keep Angelenos safe, and I think there is a lot of divisiveness that happens, and I don’t want to see that happen at all,” she said.

The war in Gaza began in 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Israel’s resulting counteroffensive has resulted in 74,000 Palestinian deaths, according to figures issued by the Gaza Health Ministry.

The death toll has sparked condemnation from global leaders and from human rights organizations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the U.N. last week, said assertions that Israel engaged in genocide were “the biggest lie of the century.”

Genocide is considered an international crime. In the wake of the Holocaust, a United Nations convention has been defined as actions that are committed with the intention of destroying — in whole or in part — a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Raman has been endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America, which censured her in 2024 for seeking and accepting the endorsement of Democrats For Israel-Los Angeles, a Zionist group. Asked about her decision to accept the endorsement, Raman told Piker in May: “I wouldn’t seek it out now.”

Cohen, the forum’s moderator, told Raman her that her appearance on Piker’s program was “deeply hurtful” to many “considering what Piker has said in the past about Jews.”

“You told ABC News, and I quote, that you ‘vehemently disagree’ with some of his statements,” Cohen said. “And yet that disagreement did not appear during that interview. We’d like to ask what specifically drove your decision to appear on his program, and were you concerned in any way, shape or form that it could signal to Angelenos an endorsement of many of his views?”

Piker has been accused of making antisemitic remarks, including calling ultra Orthodox Jews “inbred,” which he later said he regretted.

Raman said she has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism, and was the first elected official at City Hall to denounce the October 2023 attack on Israel.

On her interview with Piker, she wanted to reach voters on a wide range of platforms, particularly at a time when young voters don’t watch television news.

“It’s important for us as elected officials, as people running for office, to go and speak to them even when you disagree with parts of those individuals’ [views],” Raman said.

The two candidates offered different assessments of BDS, the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement targeting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Raman called the movement “a legitimate form of peaceful protest.”

“And I support people’s right to protest,” she said. “I will fight for that right even when I don’t agree with protesters, or when I agree with protesters.”

Raman also noted that she does not have BDS as part of her platform.

Bass said she would oppose legislation that seeks to enact BDS at CIty Hall.

“If it came before the city council — it depends on what it is,” she said. “But if it was calling for that I would oppose it.”