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UNCOMMITTED DELEGATES DENIED A DNC SPEAKER  
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Emma Janssen
August 23, 2024
The American Prospect
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_ A sit-in outside the convention in protest and support from
numerous elected officials did not succeed. _

Pro-Palestinian delegates to the Democratic National Convention,
including Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted delegate from Michigan and
co-founder of the movement, seated at center, stage a sit-in Thursday
afternoon outside the United Center in Chicago, photo: David Dayan

 

CHICAGO – Just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, delegates with the
Uncommitted National Movement sat down on the ground outside the main
entrance to the United Center, where speeches for the third night of
the DNC were well under way.

Uncommitted represented over 30 delegates to the DNC. But while just
over 30 delegates withheld their votes during the roll call that
confirmed Kamala Harris’s nomination on Tuesday, nearly 300 signed a
letter calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Uncommitted calls that larger
group “cease-fire delegates.”

Over the past few weeks, Uncommitted delegates had been calling on the
Harris campaign and convention organizers to allow a Palestinian
American speaker or a doctor who has volunteered in Gaza to take the
stage at the DNC. The ask was a humble one. Five minutes. A pre-vetted
speech. Delivered by a preapproved speaker from a list written up by
Uncommitted members. The speaker would be subject to the same rules as
everyone else on stage.

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor who
volunteered in Gaza, was initially floated as a potential speaker
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Uncommitted movement strategist Waleed Shahid told _Mother Jones_.
That request was denied earlier this week, prompting the movement to
send an expanded list.

_MORE FROM EMMA JANSSEN_ [[link removed]]

Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat,
became a favorite for the speaking role and even wrote up a draft of a
speech, which _Mother Jones_ published. Her draft ended with an
appeal to unity within the party:

“Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and
defeating Donald Trump who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a
slur. Let’s fight for the policies long overdue—from restoring
access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to
reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza,” Romman wrote.

But Uncommitted said the speech was never asked for or vetted by DNC
organizers. By Wednesday night, the answer was given, and the request
was denied.

In response to that refusal, Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted delegate
from Michigan and co-founder of the movement, told the crowd:
“I’ve run out of options from my position as a delegate, so I’m
leaning into my power as a regular, everyday person, and I’m sitting
here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

For nearly a day, outside the United Center and just in front of the
“CNN Politico Grill” hospitality suite for lobbyists and elected
officials that on Thursday was sponsored by the private equity firm
Blackstone, Alawieh sat down on the concrete.

He was joined by roughly two dozen members of the Uncommitted
movement, who during the sit-in announced that they gave the Harris
campaign until 6 p.m. Thursday to approve their request. But the
answer didn’t change.

A poll of likely Democratic and independent voters in swing states
found that they would be more likely to vote for Harris if she pledged
support for an arms embargo on Israel.

In her closing remarks, presidential nominee Kamala Harris made an
equivocal statement about the war, denouncing the October 7th attacks,
calling for a cease-fire and hostage deal, stating that Israel has a
right to self-defense and that the United States “will always ensure
Israel has the ability to defend itself,” and also speaking to the
devastation and loss of innocent lives in Gaza and stating she will
work so “the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity.
Security. Freedom. And self-determination.”

This got the loudest applause in the speech outside of her acceptance
of the nomination. Other speakers who referenced the suffering in
Gaza, such as Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Minnesota Attorney
General Keith Ellison, were also met with resounding applause.

That fit with what Uncommitted delegates said in their initial sit-in
press conference Wednesday night, which began with a moment of silence
for those killed in Gaza. Delegates wore keffiyeh-patterned stoles
that read, “Democrats for Palestinian Rights.” In the background,
massive projections of Harris and Walz’s faces glowed from the
outside the United Center.

Alawieh and the other Uncommitted delegates maintained that calls for
a cease-fire were not just basic humanitarian appeals, but also a
smart electoral strategy for the Democrats. A poll of likely
Democratic and independent voters conducted in late July/early August
in key swing states found that voters would be more likely to vote
for Harris
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she pledged support for an arms embargo on Israel.

In Pennsylvania, 34 percent said they would be more likely to vote for
Harris compared to 7 percent who said they would be less likely. In
Arizona, 35 percent reported being more likely compared to 5 percent
less likely, and in Georgia 30 percent said they were more likely,
with just 5 percent reporting being less likely to vote for Harris.
This particular polling was conducted by YouGov and commissioned by
the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project.

“I am an American. I am also someone who has survived
American-funded Israeli bombing,” Alawieh told the crowd, reflecting
on his time in South Lebanon, which warred with Israel when he was a
child. “I thought that 100 percent I would be killed using bombs
that my own government sent over there, because our government’s
policy is to kill people like me. I remember what those bombs feel
like when they drop. I remember how your bones shake within your body.
I remember what they smell like. I remember what the dust feels like
when it fills a room after a bomb drops and I can’t even see my own
hand in front of my own face. I remember.”

Earlier on Wednesday evening, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an
Israeli American who lost part of his left arm and was taken hostage
by Hamas during the October 7th attacks, spoke on the stage of the
DNC. They gave a fairly universal speech about the grief of parents,
which moved many in the room to tears.

Alawieh connected the pain of Goldberg-Polin’s family to the pain of
Palestinians.

“I’m thinking about what I heard today as an Uncommitted delegate
who was privileged to hear from the parents of an Israeli hostage,
Hersh, 23 years old,” he said. “They were talking about how every
individual is the universe. And before they said it, I was thinking
about how, in the Muslim tradition, we know that if you harm or if you
kill any one person, it’s as if you harmed or killed all of
humanity.”

“So as I was seated inside as a delegate and hearing about the 109
hostages still in Gaza, the 109 universes, I sat with that. Every one
of those 109 people are people. They’re universes. And I was
thinking of the 16,000 children [killed in Gaza].”

On Thursday evening, Uncommitted delegates asked Harris to come to
Michigan and sit down with them by September 15th.

The protest was bolstered throughout the night and during the day on
Thursday by delegates who brought food and supplies to the sit-in
site, as well as politicians who supported the call for a speaker.

Just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) sat with the
protesters, giving a speech in support of them before leaving. Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called Alawieh over FaceTime,
emphasizing that she was working from the inside to support their
request. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) gave a speech to the group Wednesday
night, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) endorsed the request for a
speaker on Thursday; several of the participants in the sit-in were
her constituents from Washington. Jayapal told the _Prospect _that
she was disappointed in the decision of convention organizers. She
said that if they allowed a Palestinian speaker on stage, she expected
that they would have received the same strong emotional reaction as
Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents.

On Thursday, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who lost her primary just a couple
of weeks earlier thanks in part to a massive amount of spending
against her by pro-Israel interests, addressed the group.

“As a member of the United States Congress, I’m sitting here
because first of all, where should I be? Where else should I be when
people in our community and our country are saying: ‘We just want a
voice, we want to start with a voice on that stage.’ And why is that
important? It’s important because what we’re seeing on that DNC
stage are the priorities of the Democratic Party. As we move forward
to November, it is the priority. Those are the priorities of the
Harris-Walz campaign.”

_David Dayen contributed reporting._

_Emma Janssen is a writing fellow at The American Prospect._

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_Used with the permission. The American Prospect, Prospect.org, 2024.
All rights reserved. Read the original here
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* Democratic Party
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* Uncommitted Movement
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* Palestine
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* Gaza
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* Israel
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