Baraa Abol-Alroose poses for a photo in front of his family members who he started living with in the U.S. after a recent bombing at his school in Rafah. (Photo by Shaun Griswold | Source New Mexico)
CHICAGO — Baraa Abol-Alroose sat in a wheelchair with one arm in a sling from injuries he suffered from a bombing at his school in Rafah several weeks ago.
Abol-Alroose, 7, smiled and waved a Palestinian flag with his other arm, as dozens rallied at Union Park calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, just blocks away from where the Democratic National Convention began its third evening.
“I’m so happy that there are so many people supporting here,” Abol-Alroose said through an older relative who translated his interview. “Thank God for everything. Thank God for everything.”
The young boy recently arrived in the United States after the bombing to live with relatives who said they previously fled Gaza.
He said he is excited to go to school and wants to learn English.
“I want to be an architect. I want to build a home,” Abol-Alroose said.
As he spoke, others in the crowd stood in solidarity with a vision of a future without attacks by the Israeli military against Palestinian people like Abol-Alroose. The protest Wednesday evening followed another rally the day before where 72 people were eventually arrested , according to legal observers.
“We are going to make sure that the American empire, in all of its bestiality in denying a genocide and enabling a genocide and acting as if it can proceed with business as usual, will not take place,” Dr. Cornel West, the academic running for president as an Independent, told the crowd.
As he finished his remarks, the stream of people asking to take a picture with Abol-Alroose grew.
Later in the evening inside the United Center, Democrats heard Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg discuss how their American-Israeli son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“At this moment, 109 treasured human beings are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists,” Goldberg said.
This is the incident that led to a scorched-earth response from the Israeli government over the last 10 months, with daily airstrikes and a ground invasion that have led to more than 40,000 Palestinian deaths and more than 500 schools destroyed, like the one Abol-Alroose attended.
Yesterday, Israel announced that it had recovered six hostages’ bodies that were taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.
This did not include Goldberg-Polin. His parents told the DNC crowd they have daily briefings with President Joe Biden, along with other families, who are holding onto hope that hostages will be released.
“In the Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region is a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza,” Polin said.
As of April, Israel was holding about 9,500 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza in captivity, according to estimates from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Back outside at the protest in Union Park, members of the solidarity movement from the NDN Collective handed out red flags that read “Land Back.” Founder Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota Nation) said the Indigenous-led group is active in this protest because of their shared experience of U.S. genocide with Palestinian people.
“The parallels of our struggle are real,” he said at the Union Park rally. “The same system that committed the Native American genocide is the same system that is fueling the genocide in Gaza.”
Tilsen said the group is calling for peace for Palestinians and making sure to hold Democrats accountable if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency.
“The DNC cannot continue to ignore the people. They can’t continue to ignore the fact that there’s an uprising in this country,” he said. “They don’t just automatically get our vote. They got to earn it. So we want them to take stances on these issues. We want them to take a stance on the issues that are a reflection of the real-life struggles that are happening in our country.”
Just after 9:30 p.m., Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, said he was told his group’s request to have a Palestinian-American speak on the stage inside the DNC was denied. The Uncommitted movement started as a protest vote within the Democratic Party to oppose current U.S. policies on Gaza.
The group petitioned the DNC to allow a speaker to speak on the issue from the Palestinian perspective.
Alawieh told reporters during a sit-in outside the United Center that he spoke with the Harris campaign and was told they would not receive permission for a speaker. The group said it plans to stay outside the venue until the DNC agrees to its request.
This story was originally produced by Source New Mexico which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Most Popular
Comments / 0