Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday commemorated the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel by planting a pomegranate tree, which she called “a symbol of hope and righteousness” in Judaism, at her official residence in Washington.
In a brief speech, Ms. Harris condemned the attack, in which some 1,200 people were massacred in Israel last year, as an “act of pure evil” and said the scores of hostages remaining in Hamas’s hands should be released. Standing beside her was her husband, Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president.
“We must work to ensure nothing like the horrors of Oct. 7 can ever happen again,” she said. “And on this solemn day, I will restate my pledge to always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and that I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people here and around the world.”
While Ms. Harris did not call for a cease-fire in Gaza during her prepared remarks — as she has in the past — she acknowledged the more than 41,000 Palestinians who have died, according to local health officials, in Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas.
“We must work to relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year,” she said.
During the vice president’s remarks, protesters could be heard chanting in the background.
The brutality of the Oct. 7 attacks and the mass death and grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel’s response have complicated Democratic efforts to win support from Jewish, Muslim and Arab American voters, groups that have reliably backed the party in past elections.
Republicans have tried to use Israel as a wedge issue with Jewish voters, although former President Donald J. Trump has sometimes seemed to hamstring those attempts by claiming that American Jews who support Democrats hate their religion or are disloyal. And many Muslim and Arab Americans, particularly in the battleground state of Michigan, say they will not vote for Ms. Harris because she has not spoken out more strongly against the United States’ military and financial aid to Israel.
On Monday, all four candidates on the Democratic and Republican tickets publicly honored the Oct. 7 anniversary, as did President Biden, reflecting how deeply felt the attacks have been in the United States.
After Ms. Harris and Mr. Emhoff shoveled dirt over the base of the newly planted pomegranate tree, the vice president said in response to a reporter’s question that negotiating a cease-fire in Gaza was “one of the highest priorities of this administration.”
“We are not going to give up,” Ms. Harris said. “We are doing everything we can possibly do to get a cease-fire and hostage deal done. It’s one of the most important ways we will be able to end this war and bring any type of stability to the region.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Biden participated in a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House to remember those killed on Oct. 7. He lit a yahrzeit candle and briefly crossed himself without making remarks.
Also on Monday, Mr. Trump observed the anniversary of the attack by visiting the grave in New York City of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, an influential leader of the Lubavitcher movement, a Hasidic group, who died in 1994. Mr. Trump is also scheduled to travel to Florida for an event on Monday evening with Jewish community leaders at his resort in Doral.
His running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, attended a memorial in the shadow of the Washington Monument in the U.S. capital, and used the platform to criticize Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris for their policies in the Middle East, asserting that they “haven’t done a thing” to bring home the hostages still held by Hamas. He also denounced pro-Palestinian protesters as “pro-Hamas,” saying that their calls for a cease-fire were equivalent to calling “for a unilateral surrender.”
Ms. Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who was traveling in California, marked the anniversary by paying his respects at the Nova Exhibition, an installation that moved from Tel Aviv to New York to Culver City and is dedicated to the music festival where more than 380 people were killed in the Hamas-led assault.
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