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THE DNC STAYS COMMITTED TO SILENCE ON GAZA  
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Emilio Leanza
August 22, 2024
The Progressive
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_ The Democratic Party refused to allow a single Palestinian to speak
on stage at the convention. _

Abbas Alawieh and other uncommitted delegates call for the Democratic
Party to have a Palestinian speaker on the DNC stage in Chicago,
August 21, 2024, (Joeff Davis)

 

Abbas Alawieh waited for a phone call for three days. 

In press conference after press conference, each held near a heavily
barricaded United Center Arena in Chicago, he explained to a crowd of
reporters that, so far, top Democratic Party officials and members of
the Harris campaign have refused to allow a Palestinian American to
speak at the Democratic National Convention. Stuck in limbo, Alawieh
kept his phone hooked to a portable charger tucked in a blazer pocket,
so that he wouldn’t miss the call if it ever arrived. 

But before the end of Wednesday night, it was confirmed: The DNC,
despite making space
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in the evening for the parents of an Israeli-American hostage held by
Hamas, would not feature a Palestinian speaker. 

“We know that our own party’s platform includes specific language
that recognizes that Israeli and Palestinian lives are valued the
same,” Alawieh said earlier that afternoon. “We want to hear if
there is room enough in our party for those of us who are organizing
for Palestinian human rights.”  

Alawieh is an uncommitted delegate from Michigan and co-chair, along
with Layla Elabed, of the Uncommitted Movement, a coalition that grew
from the more than 700,000
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who, during the Democratic presidential primary earlier this year,
refused to vote for President Joe Biden due to his support for
Israel’s assault on Gaza. The movement has brought thirty delegates
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states including Texas, Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota,
where 19 percent
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voters cast “uncommitted” ballots—to the convention.  

The DNC’s decision spurred Alawieh—along with around forty other
delegates and activists—to hold a sit-in in front of the United
Center on Wednesday night. As thousands of attendees streamed out of
the arena, many still celebrating after Oprah and Tim Walz’s
speeches, Alawieh sat at the center of the demonstrator’s circle,
flanked by press. He was still closely monitoring his phone, hoping
for a reversal on what seemed like a small ask.   

“We got a call today saying, quote unquote, the answer is no. I was
told to just tell you the answer is no. That’s not an acceptable
answer,” he told the crowd. “We’ve run out of options as
uncommitted delegates through this institution, we’re stepping into
our power as regular, everyday people . . . . I’m not trying to stay
here all night. I’m waiting for the call. As soon as they call us
and tell us there’s a Palestinian American speaker who can speak
from the stage, the same stage that they made space for Uber
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speak from, I’ll go home.”

Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was a proposed speaker
and also at the sit-in, underscored how the movement’s demand for
stage space would not dampen the momentum behind Harris’s campaign.
“My speech urged us to unite behind Harris, criticized Trump, and
spoke about the promise of this moment,” she wrote
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As the demonstration carried on into the night,
Democratic Representative Summer Lee
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Pennsylvania and Senator Ilhan Omar
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Minnesota dropped by in solidarity, while Representatives Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez Facetimed
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and Rashida Tlaib [[link removed]] posted in support.

The DNC did not change its position, even though not allowing a
Palestinian speaker on the main stage is already causing problems for
the Harris campaign, with the group Muslim Women for
Harris-Walz’s deciding
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disband and the United Auto Workers union—whose president, Shawn
Fain, spoke at the DNC—issuing a statement
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change course. 

The uncommitted delegates’ protests came after they successfully
pressured the DNC brass to approve the convention’s first-ever panel
on Palestine, which took place on Tuesday at a separate venue. The
event featured
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group of doctors who provided health care in Gaza, including Dr. Tanya
Haj-Hassan testifying to a harrowing medical emergency in which 17,000
children have lost one or more parent in the past ten months in
Gaza. 

As Alawieh admits, these were small wins. They are far from the
Uncommitted Movement’s overall goal of a permanent ceasefire and an
arms embargo on Israel. But there’s some indication
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policy positions are supported by a majority of Democrats, despite the
fact that the Party’s platform—which was approved at the DNC on
Monday—makes no mention
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either. 

This divergence perhaps explains why so far 300 Harris delegates have
signed onto a letter
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for her to “turn the page on Biden’s disastrous policy.” It is
not uncommon to see “Ceasefire Delegates” walking through
the packed halls
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the Chicago Bulls’s arena with _keffiyehs_, t-shirts, and “not
another bomb” pins. 

“We want to make sure that the United States stands by its values,
stands with morality, and creates a situation that is good for all
people,” Arshia Papari, a nineteen-year-old organizer and Texas
delegate for Harris who signed on as a Ceasefire Delegate, tells _The
Progressive_. 

Pushing for an immediate ceasefire, for Papari, was also a matter of
political strategy, and an essential shift that would increase
Harris’s odds of turning out voters in swing states and younger
voters who are, by and large, more sympathetic
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Palestians than older generations. 

By being unwilling to extend its Big Tent narrative to Palestinians,
the Democratic Party is not only failing to uphold its own values but
also, as Minnesota [Congressional Representative] Ilhan Omar
underscored at an Uncommitted event on Wednesday morning, alienating a
key base of support.

“They are not asking—or helping Trump to win,” Omar said,
pointing to a line of Uncommitted delegates and elected officials
standing behind her. “They are asking, and want to help the
Democrats to win. And that [requires] our candidate to win their votes
. . . . We are all ready to work every single day until November 5 to
secure a win against Donald Trump.” 

Omar’s plea, delivered in a small park outside of the arena, seems
to have not breached the miles-long perimeter shielding the convention
from the rest of Chicago. 

On Thursday night, the Uncommitted Movement, making no further headway
with convention officials, are now demanding a meeting with Harris by
September 15. Romman, whose speech was published
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Jones_ earlier that day, delivered those remarks at a gathering
outside the arena.

_Emilio Leanza is senior editor at The Progressive._

_A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good! Since
1909, The Progressive magazine has aimed to amplify voices of
dissent and voices under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal
of championing grassroots progressive politics._

* Democratic National Convention
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* Uncommitted Movement
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* Palestinians
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* Ilhan Omar
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