In the days after Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the paper’s editorial board’s plan to support the vice president Kamala Harrishis daughter — who said she was part of the decision — accused the Biden-Harris administration of supporting what she described as Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians as part of the reason.

The United States is a strong ally of Israel and has provided the country with billions in military assistance and diplomatic support over the years, with recent reports showing a record $17.9 billion in aid since the start of the Gaza war last year.

Following HamasThe attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and another 250 hostages, the White House supported Israel’s military operations.

In addition, the Biden-Harris administration has dislocate thousands of additional US troops, along with warships and fighter jets, to the region in recent weeks. The Pentagon also deployed a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system along with about 100 US personnel to the Middle Eastern country.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced an additional US$135 million in aid to the Palestinians. During his time trip to the region Blinken called on Israel to seek a cease-fire agreement with Gaza that would end the war and return the remaining hostages.

In series of posts on X, previously TwitterLate Thursday night local time, Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, shed light on her family’s decision to block the paper’s endorsement of Harris, the California-born Democratic candidate, ahead of November’s presidential election, writing: “For me, genocide is the line in the sand.”

Newsweek reached out to Harris for comment via email on Saturday.

In another post, she added: “For my family, apartheid is not a vague concept. My father was an emergency surgeon at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. He treated students shot by police during the Soweto riots – where 176 died protesting the brutal system of racial segregation,” she wrote.

The Soweto Uprising was a series of protests led by black schoolchildren in apartheid-era South Africa in 1976 after the Afrikaans language was imposed on students. The demonstrators were met with police brutality. Her father, Patrick Soon-Shiong, was born in South Africa in 1952 and is a skilled surgeon and medical inventor.

Apartheid in South Africa lasted about 50 years. Last year, South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and has violated the Geneva Convention. Several other countries have signed on to support South Africa’s case.

Israel has strongly denied that it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying its operations are necessary defensive measure against Hamas.

Nika Soon-Shiong’s Thread X continued: “Apartheid was not just a political project. It was a lucrative one, backed by Washington lobbyists, US defense contracts and an international market for arms, diamonds and gold.”

She included a screenshot of a New York Times headline in June 1964 and wrote: “Many US news organizations and politicians were complicit. The headline reads: “The Official Case for Apartheid; South Africa’s foreign minister outlines the history and philosophy behind his country’s ‘separate development’ policing for whites and non-whites.”

Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said that Israel is adopting apartheid policies against the Palestinians. Israel has repeatedly denied the claims.

The following X post by Nika Soon-Shiong addressed the current context in which Israel’s ground and air operations in Gaza have killed more than 42,000 people in the past year, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Throughout the year, there were repeated Israeli attacks on hospitals and shelters in the region. On Thursday, Israel struck a school where displaced people were sheltering, killing 17 people, almost all women and children, according to the Associated Press. On the same day, 42 people were injured in a strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, with 13 children and three women killed.

Nika Soon-Shiong wrote: “Apartheid, illegal settlements and genocide in Palestine are also profitable – supported by US arms dealers who have made record profits. Shares of Northrop Grumman rose 28%, General Dynamics 37%, Lockheed Martin 55%. “

Lockheed Martin manufactures the THAAD system. In addition, pro-Palestinian and anti-war demonstrations took place outside the facilities of all three US arms manufacturers in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.

She clarified that disapproving Harris “is not a yes vote Donald Trump. This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate who oversees a war on children. I am proud of the LA Times decision, as I am sure there is no such thing as children of darkness. There are no human animals.”

Palestinians faced repeated dehumanization throughout the war, with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calling for a complete siege of Gaza, stating shortly after Hamasattack, “We fight against human animals.”

One New York Times article published on Saturday, Nika Soon-Shiong sent a statement and said: “As a citizen of a country that openly finances genocide and as a family that experienced apartheid in South Africa, the approval was an opportunity to reject the justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists. and the ongoing war on children’.

Three editors resigned over the newspaper’s disapproval, and more than 200 journalists signed an open letter to management on October 25, demanding transparency on the matter.

Days after Los Angeles Times’ decision, The Washington Post announced that he would not endorse Harris or Trump in the presidential race, which also sparked a flurry of responses and a number of unsubscribes.