The race to determine who will lead one of the United States’s largest cities took a twist Tuesday, when the two women battling to win Los Angeles’s mayoral race sharply diverged over Israel.
While the California metropolis holds the second-largest population of Jewish residents in the U.S., the issue of antisemitism, which is surging in the city, has been on the back burner in the race, as incumbent Mayor Karen Bass fights to stave off a challenge from progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
That changed this week when the two candidates spoke at a Jewish community forum. Raman reiterated her position that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, expressed sympathy for the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” movement — which targets companies and individuals that express support for Israel — and defended her decision to go on Hasan Piker’s show in May. In contrast, Bass said Israel is not committing genocide and vowed to oppose legislation that seeks to enact BDS at City Hall.
After Raman’s comments to hundreds of Jewish attendees, Jewish Federation Los Angeles, which hosted the mayoral forum, warned that calling Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide crosses a “red line” for elected officials.
“When a candidate describes what’s happening in Gaza as a genocide, it causes pain,” the federation’s CEO, Rabbi Noah Farkas, told Forward. “Some of that pain is in this room, and some of that pain is on our streets, where Jews are often accused, indicted, and convicted for actions of the Israeli government whether they agree with them or not.”
During the forum, Raman defended her decision to appear on Piker’s show, saying it is “incumbent upon someone who’s running for office to go out and speak to people on different platforms.”
The interview stoked controversy due to concerns that Piker holds openly antisemitic views. Much of the debate stems from Piker’s support for Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that controls Gaza and supports the elimination of Israel.
Raman was pressed during the forum on concerns that she did not push back against some of Piker’s stances during her interview with him. She defended the interview, saying she responded to the questions Piker asked “with honesty.”
The progressive city councilwoman reiterated Tuesday that she believes Israel has a right to exist but defended using the term genocide, saying she used the word “because other experts have used it to describe what’s happening.” When asked whether she supports the BDS movement, Raman said she believes it is “a legitimate form of peaceful protest,” adding she supports “people’s ability to protest,” a statement that earned her swift praise from Piker. Raman emphasized that she does not include a position on BDS as part of her official policy platform, and she sought to angle the discussion away from foreign policy issues, saying she doesn’t “want progressive politics to be conflated with antisemitism.”
“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,” she said. “My goal is to make sure Angelenos are safe, and there is a great diversity of opinions about foreign policy issues in this room, and even more diverse across the entire city. This city has to be a place where you can feel free to express those views, where you can feel free to worship as you wish, where you can be visibly Jewish and not feel unsafe.”
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, right, speaks as she is joined by moderator Alex Cohen during the Jewish Los Angeles Mayoral Forum at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?w=696" alt="Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, right, speaks as she is joined by moderator Alex Cohen during the Jewish Los Angeles Mayoral Forum at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. " class="wp-image-4748373" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AP26273115657182.jpg?resize=696,464 696w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px">
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, right, speaks next to moderator Alex Cohen during a Jewish community forum at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
In contrast, Bass said she did not agree that Israel is committing genocide. When asked whether she supports the BDS movement, Bass said she would oppose legislation that seeks to enact BDS at City Hall. The mayor noted that she grew up in Jewish communities around California, becoming friends with people whose parents and grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
“I saw tattoos at a young age and understood about antisemitism. And every moment that I have been in public office, I have always fought against antisemitism and will continue to do that,” she said. “I think that there is a lot of divisiveness that happens, and I don’t want to see that happen at all. I have spent my entire life working for unity and collaboration and safety.”
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The latest polling indicates Bass is trailing Raman by an 11-point margin ahead of the Nov. 3 election. However, the poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that roughly one-third of voters remain undecided, signaling Bass holds a key path to claiming a second term.
“It’s extraordinarily unusual to see this many undecided voters at this point in the race,” Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, told the Los Angeles Times. “Raman clearly has the advantage. Her task is a little less onerous than Bass’.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
