Vice President Kamala Harris has named Nasrina Bargzie as her liaison to Muslim and Arab voters, a move that has raised serious concerns among pro-Israel and Jewish advocates. Bargzie, who previously served as a policy adviser in Harris’s White House office, has a troubling history of anti-Israel activism and defending groups associated with antisemitism on college campuses.
Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Bargzie came to the U.S. as a refugee in the 1980s. Despite benefiting from America’s refugee resettlement program, she has frequently criticized U.S. policies and defended extremist groups.
While attending college, Bargzie reportedly made comments about the War on Terror that were alarming enough for her friends to report her to law enforcement, resulting in FBI questioning after 9/11. The exact nature of these comments remains unknown, but the incident raises questions about her views on national security issues.
Throughout her career, Bargzie has consistently opposed efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses. As an attorney for the Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, she was key in shutting down Department of Education investigations into antisemitic climates at three University of California schools. Bargzie dismissively referred to Jewish students’ civil rights complaints as “organized legal bullying,” showing a callous disregard for their concerns about campus hostility.
Bargzie has defended extreme anti-Israel groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is known for inflammatory tactics such as erecting mock “apartheid walls” and distributing fake eviction notices to Jewish students. She has argued that even calls for Israel’s destruction should be protected as legitimate political speech, demonstrating a troubling tolerance for rhetoric that many Jews find deeply threatening.
In her writings, Bargzie has consistently prioritized pro-Palestinian activism over Jewish students’ safety concerns. She co-authored an article arguing that investigations into campus antisemitism were suppressing free speech, apparently unconcerned about the chilling effect that extreme anti-Israel rhetoric has on Jewish students.
Bargzie’s legal career has included troubling associations with groups linked to terrorist organizations. She has worked closely with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization with a history of Hamas support. Bargzie even went so far as to appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission – a body often dominated by human rights abusers – in an attempt to halt U.S. investigations into campus antisemitism.
Her anti-American leanings have also been evident in her past work with the ACLU, where she argued that U.S. Marines should face murder charges over civilian deaths in Iraq, showing little regard for the complex realities faced by American troops in combat zones.
Bargzie’s appointment to a key role in Harris’s campaign raises alarming questions about the potential for a radical shift in U.S. policy towards Israel under a Harris administration. Combined with Harris’s simultaneous appointment of Ilan Goldenberg, who has advocated for sanctioning Israel during wartime, these staffing choices suggest a troubling pivot away from America’s strongest Middle East ally.
The fact that someone with Bargzie’s background was able to pass a government background check and rise to such a prominent position is deeply concerning. It reflects a dangerous shift in which support for anti-Israel extremism and associations with terror-linked groups are no longer seen as disqualifying for high-level government roles.
For the American Jewish community and supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Bargzie’s appointment represents a deeply troubling development that demands scrutiny and raises serious questions about Vice President Harris’s judgment and policy priorities.
