Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman defended her previous use of the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza during a debate Tuesday night with Mayor Karen Bass.
Raman, the Los Angeles City Council member who’s running against Bass for mayor in the Nov. 3 election, added she condemned the terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that prompted the Israel-Gaza war.
For her part, Bass said she wouldn’t describe Israel’s actions as “genocide. ” She added she opposes economic actions against companies in Israel or with ties with the Jewish nation.
The two Democratic candidates debated foreign policy, housing, policing and homelessness before an audience of hundreds of people at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. The forum was co-hosted by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.
There is a great diversity of opinions about foreign policies, Raman told the audience.
“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,” said Raman, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Raman explained why she used the word “genocide” during a May interview to describe Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
“I recognize that genocide is a deeply painful word,” said Raman. “I used it because other experts have used it to describe what’s happening, and I used it because I felt compelled to speak out about issues that we saw, the images that are coming, the targeting of hospitals, the deaths of children.”
Bass noted she grew up with many Jewish students whose parents or grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Speaking as a mayor and former federal and state lawmaker, Bass said she has always fought for vulnerable communities.
Bass added she would oppose any efforts to boycott, divest or sanction Israeli-based companies or companies with ties to Israel.
“I would oppose that and if it came before the City Council, it depends on what it is, but if it was calling for that, I would oppose it,” said Bass, who was first elected in November 2022.
On local issues, Bass said she felt that Los Angeles does not have enough police officers and needs to speed up hiring.
In January 2026, Bass issued a statement to media that the “second largest city in the United States cannot have an effective police department while it is operating with the lowest staffing levels in years.”
Raman said she wants to alleviate strain on law enforcement and optimize 911 dispatch.
“I want to make sure we’re building out a citywide system of unarmed response that can be integrated into our 911 system that can be responded to as quickly as we do our armed officer calls right now and that we can actually through that work take call load off of LAPD,” said Raman.
In terms of homelessness, Raman promised to speed up housing construction across the city and move beyond shifting encampments to getting people indoors. Bass said she too has worked on moving unhoused people indoors.
“There just shouldn’t be people sleeping on our streets,” said the mayor, who promised to address homelessness during her 2022 campaign. When she took office in December of that year, she declared a state of emergency and started the Inside Safe Program to bring homeless individuals indoor.
According to the mayor’s website, the program brought 5,808 unhoused people inside and found permanent housing for 1,431 of them. The website added many thousands have been helped by all of the city’s efforts and that the city addressed 121 encampments.
But critics have charged that a good portion of those helped have returned to the streets after leaving temporary housing during the $300 million program. The Los Angeles Times reported 40% went back on the streets.
The mayor, who faced criticism over her handling of the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025, admitted that her first term did not get everything right, but she added she believes Angelenos can have a city that is affordable.
“And the No. 1 way a mayor can impact affordability is housing,” said Bass.
