Azad Essa & Umar A. Farooq
Middle East Eye / August 22, 2024
Democratic National Convention has made little reference to Gaza war, with many delegates responding to disruptions with disdain.
The Democratic National Committee rejected a call to have a Palestinian speaker on the main stage of their convention, after providing time to the relative of an Israeli hostage to speak on Wednesday evening.
The call to feature a Palestinian speaker had been made by the Uncommitted Movement, a group of activists and Democratic operatives who initially withheld from voting for Joe Biden in the primary elections over his support for the war on Gaza.
Since Biden dropped out, the Uncommitted Movement has called on Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and impose an arms embargo on Israel, but the group continues to support Harris for the upcoming US presidential election in November.
Earlier this week, the Uncommitted Movement held a panel on Palestinian human rights on the sidelines of the convention.
After receiving news of the rejection, members of the Uncommitted Movement and other democratic delegates joined a small protest outside the United Center, where the convention was being held.
However, the DNC’s rejection and subsequent protest highlighted fissures in the broader pro-Palestinian protests taking place in Chicago. The Uncommitted Movement has distanced itself from the protests outside the convention, noting that it wants to operate within the Democratic Party system.
“The intention of the Uncommitted delegates and the movement was not to disrupt the convention,” said Waleed Shahid, a progressive Democratic strategist who helped launch Uncommitted.
“We came here with the intention of mobilizing our communities for Vice President Harris against Donald Trump. Our ask last night wasn’t even about an arms embargo. It wasn’t about a policy ask. It was just about to include Palestinian Americans as a part of its party.”
Layla Elabed, co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement, said that the denial of a Palestinian speaker shows how the Democratic Party is unlikely to shift its policy on Israel.
“I was just told that I don’t have a voice here in this party,” Elabed said during a news conference on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the DNC told Middle East Eye that the convention provided space for a panel on Palestinian human rights, provided credentials for Uncommitted leaders to attend the convention, and DNC senior staff met with Uncommitted members over the past several days.
The spokesperson did not say whether the DNC rejected the request for a Palestinian speaker on the main stage.
Democrats shield their ears
Israel’s war on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the official toll released by the health ministry in Gaza, has become a major issue for Democratic voters.
The issue has received little attention inside the Democratic convention, however, with many leading Democratic figures like Barack Obama not even mentioning Gaza, Israel, or the war at all.
Meanwhile, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been rallying throughout the streets of Chicago this week during the DNC, demanding that the US impose an arms embargo on Israel over its killing of Palestinian civilians.
Since the DNC began on Monday, activists have been taking turns to call out the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.
Some delegates and attendees acknowledged the chants, showing their support. Others pressed their fingers to their ears or pulled out signs showing that they supported Israel. Some passersby heckled the activists, blocking their way or chanting over their voices, to drown out the names of the children.
Anwar Omeish, one of the protesters who read out loud on Wednesday the names of the Palestinians killed in Gaza, said that as she was reading the names, some people were supportive while others heckled and belittled their efforts.
“If us naming the names of children who have been killed bothers these people: good. It should. It should bother them so much that they demand an end to this genocide. They want to turn away. They can’t turn away,” Omeish told MEE.
“The blood is on their hands, whether they turn away from us or not. And it’s time for everyone here to stand up and make a very clear stand and say: we don’t want this blood on our hands. The Democratic Party needs to stop funding this.”
The protests outside the convention were at first calmer than anticipated. On Monday, dozens of protesters broke into a security fence set up by the DNC, and on Tuesday night, there were a few clashes as protesters charged a line of police, leading to several arrests.
However, the demonstrations have yet to resemble the anti-Vietnam War protests that took place during the 1968 Democratic convention.
There were also several pro-Palestinian disruptions inside the DNC that were met with attacks and disdain from Democratic delegates.
During US President Joe Biden’s speech on Monday night, delegates Liano Sharon from Michigan and Nadia Ahmad from Florida raised a banner saying, “Stop Arming Israel”. In response, another delegate physically assaulted Ahmad, and the banner was ripped out of their hands.
The assault was condemned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim rights group in the US.
Azad Essa is a senior reporter for Middle East Eye based in New York City
Umar A. Farooq is a journalist based in Washington DC
