Dear Friend, I'm resending this to you because I want you to know our plans and I am hoping you can join us. While this is my 11th presidential convention, it is the most challenging in many ways. Because both parties will be formally nominating the candidates while a horrifying genocide is unfolding in Gaza and Israel is threatening a full-scale war on Lebanon. What’s especially upsetting is that these critical issues, and both parties' complicity in them, won’t be discussed at either the Republican or Democratic conventions - unless we do something about it. I really need your help to ensure that our voices are heard. That’s why AAI was created - to bring our concerns to the centers of power and challenge them to respond. If I’ve learned anything over four decades it’s that these gatherings provide opportunities to have issues heard, be covered in the media, and make a difference. There is one time, every four years, when party leaders, government officials, and 10,000 members of the media are together in one place, and this is it. AAI has never walked away when our community, or the values and beliefs we hold dear, are under attack, and this year will be no different. Inside the convention hall, the delegates won't hear about the genocide in Gaza, the violence escalating in Lebanon, or the role of dark money and congressional efforts in silencing debate. But outside of the conventions, AAI, along with our allies, is organizing programming with policy experts and activists to educate and challenge party delegates. Together we’ll let them know that Arab Americans will not be silenced, and Gaza and Lebanon will not, and cannot be, forgotten. They will hear us when we declare self-determination for the Palestinian people is a MUST. Since 1988, the Arab American Institute has led events voicing our community’s concerns at every major party convention. This year cannot be an exception. Too much is at stake, and we cannot be silent. Here is our plan so far. - AAI will conduct a poll of U.S. voters to be released during the RNC Convention in Milwaukee. This poll will drive home the importance of Palestinian rights in the November election. While programming for Milwaukee remains in progress, plans for the DNC Convention in Chicago, August 19-22, are more developed. - During the Democratic Convention, building on AAI’s Emergency Summit for Gaza held earlier this year, we will host three days of programming together with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Progressive Democrats. Topics include: To make all this happen, we will need your support. After reviewing all the pieces - the film, the poll, the program venues, printed materials and signs, and travel and housing for invited speakers – AAI needs to raise critical funds to ensure that your concerns about Palestinian rights and the safety of the Lebanese are heard at the conventions. Thank you, -Jim
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