Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris has once again found herself in a controversial position. The 36-year old took to Instagram, urging people who care about LGBT rights to defend Palestine, despite the fact that gay people can face up to 10 years in prison in Gaza.
On Wednesday night, Meena shared her stance on the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, re-posting a widely-shared image discussing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & women’s rights, condemn corrupt and abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression,” she wrote, seemingly failing to condemn the oppression of LGBT people in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Meena Harris’ online activism seems to have missed the mark rather spectacularly. It is pertinent to note here that while Harris thinks fighting against Israel is essentially fighting for the LGBT community in Palestine, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, enforce a law, specifically Section 152(2) of the penal code, that criminalizes homosexuality and makes it punishable to up to 10 years in prison. On the other hand, in the Fatah-ruled West Bank, homosexuality is decriminalized but huge social pressures exist against it.
According to an Amnesty International report from May last year, “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people continued to face discrimination and lacked protection.”
Interestingly, expecting criticism and severe backlash, Meena Harris turned off the comments on her Instagram post.
Meena Harris has been a constant source of embarrassment for her much more famous aunt, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. In February, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times, the promotional activities of Meena Harris raised eyebrows among Kamala Harris’ aides and advisors. These activities raised concerns that Meena will bring unwanted scrutiny on Kamala Harris.
In March, Meena Harris took to Twitter after the horrific Boulder shooting to claim that, “The Atlanta shooting was not even a week ago. Violent white men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country.” As it turned out that the killer was not a white man, Harris took a u-turn to apologize for her tweet and promptly delete the tweet.
“I deleted a previous tweet about the suspect in the Boulder shooting. I made an assumption based on his being taken into custody alive and the fact that the majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by white men,” she said.
