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 earlier 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 voters 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—from states including Texas, Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota, where 19 percent of 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 to 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 on X.
As the demonstration carried on into the night, Democratic Representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Senator Ilhan Omar of Minnesota dropped by in solidarity, while Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Facetimed in and Rashida Tlaib 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 yesterday to disband and the United Auto Workers union—whose president, Shawn Fain, spoke at the DNC—issuing a statement urging the Party to 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 a 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 that both 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 of either.
This divergence perhaps explains why so far 300 Harris delegates have signed onto a letter calling for her to “turn the page on Biden’s disastrous policy.” It is not uncommon to see “Ceasefire Delegates” walking through the packed halls of 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 to 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 by Mother 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.
