Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speak in back-to-back conversations at the Jewish Los Angeles Mayoral Forum at the Skirball Cultural Center on Sept. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. Photo: Screenshot

Los Angeles Democratic mayoral candidate Nithya Raman drew backlash after reaffirming her belief that Israel has committed a so-called “genocide” in Gaza during a mayoral forum earlier this week.

During a sit-down discussion at a mayoral forum catered to the Los Angeles Jewish community on Tuesday night, Raman was pressed on her connections to antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker and her previous condemnations of Israel for perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian population. Raman doubled down on her position, referencing various reports from humanitarian organizations.

Raman, a member of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), conceded that she is “not an expert” on the topic of genocide, and that she looked to “international experts, Israeli experts” to help form her opinion on Israel’s campaign in Gaza. 

“And that is what guided me using that term in describing what’s happening in Gaza,” she concluded.

Raman’s answer drew audible protest from the crowd, prompting the moderator to ask the attendees to stay “respectful” of the candidate. 

The candidate acknowledged that the word “genocide” carried a tremendous “weight” for the Jewish community, seemingly referencing the Holocaust. However, Raman claimed that she felt “compelled” to speak out about the “targeting of hospitals” and “the deaths of children” during Israel’s campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Israeli adamantly denied charges of genocide and says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. .

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

 Under international law, once such civilian infrastructure is used for military purposes, their protected status is stripped.

Nonetheless, Raman attempted to reassure the crowd that, if elected, she would seek to serve as a unifying force in office.

“I do also want to say to this room that no matter what your feelings are about foreign policy issues, what your feelings are about what’s happening in the Middle East, I’m running for mayor to be mayor of this city,” Raman said. 

Ahead of the primary election in June, Raman appeared alongside Piker, who has expressed support for US-designated terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, during one of his livestreams. She defended her appearance alongside the controversial pundit, saying, “I felt like I responded to the questions that he asked me with honesty about where my platform and my views were.” 

Raman contested that she did defend Israel’s right to exist during her discussion with Piker. 

Piker has an extensive history of repudiating Israel as an “apartheid state” and defending atrocities committed against its civilians. In a 2024 livestream, Piker minimized sexual assaults committed against Israeli women at the hands of Hamas, saying “it doesn’t matter if rapes f—king happened on Oct. 7.”

Piker has also defended violence from Hamas and the Houthis as legitimate “resistance” and said he doesn’t “have an issue with” Hezbollah, which had pummeled Israel with an unremitting barrage of missiles and rockets from the southern Lebanon border in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass also appeared at Tuesday’s event. She said she does not believe that Israel has committed a “genocide” and that the discussion regarding the Middle East has caused “divisiveness” in Los Angeles. 

Bass recounted her experience in attending a Jewish school and forming relationships with Holocaust survivors. 

Raman, a progressive, is considered the frontrunner in the race, and various polls have shown Raman with a double-digit lead.