Uncommitted delegates speak during a sit-in outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Photo by Shaun Griswold / Source NM)
CHICAGO — Uncommitted delegates Thursday said they will continue their sit-in protest outside the United Center to advocate for a Palestinian American speaker at the Democratic National Convention, as Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to deliver her keynote address on the convention’s final night.
While Harris will aim to galvanize Democrats to aid her meteoric rise to the top of the ticket, the lack of a Palestinian American person speaking to the crowd is part of a larger concern over the massive death toll of Palestinians in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war.
That first spurred the Uncommitted National Movement, which has about 30 delegates at the DNC. There are 11 from Minnesota, the most of any state and the home state of the vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
It’s an inflection point that has fractured Muslims, Arab Americans and anti-war Democrats within the party, as it did with Harris’ predecessor who dropped out of the race last month, President Joe Biden.
Several progressive Democratic lawmakers speaking at the convention have called for a cease-fire, such as Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both were met with resounding cheers in the United Center.
On Wednesday, the Uncommitted National Movement said the Harris campaign denied its request to have speaking time for Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatric intensive care surgeon, to talk about her time treating patients in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“We’ve requested (she) get speaking time from the stage so that she can speak from her perspective as a health care worker who’s been on the ground in Gaza treating children whose lives have been obliterated and whose bodies have been destroyed using U.S. weapons,” Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the Uncommitted movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, said Wednesday.
Alawieh said the organization tried for two months before the DNC to get a speaker approved and that Wednesday night they negotiated with DNC officials and the Harris campaign until 2:30 a.m. Central time.
Frustration has mounted after DNC organizers have included speakers who are former Trump administration officials and Republicans who have pledged to vote for Harris.
“I’ve had some pretty crushing days, but to be honest today took the cake,” Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman said on social media Wednesday. “I do not understand how there’s room for an anti choice Republican but not me in our party. I need someone to explain to me what to do now.”
Romman is the only Palestinian serving in Georgia’s state legislature.
Florida U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who has a speaking slot Thursday night, advocated on social media for Romman to get a spot as well.
“Rep. Ruwa is a Democratic leader who has been working to keep Georgia blue and elect VP Harris,” he said. “She would be a unifying speaker for peace.”
The DNC Wednesday included a speaking slot for the parents of an American held hostage — their son — by Hamas, after the Oct. 7 attack in which hundreds of people were taken hostage and 1,200 people killed. On Tuesday, Israeli officials announced they had recovered six hostages’ bodies that were taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.
The decision from DNC officials to not include a Palestinian American speaker also caused a coalition group working to support Harris and Walz — Muslim Women for Harris-Walz — to suspend its campaign.
“The family of the Israeli Hostage that was on stage tonight, has shown more empathy towards Palestinian Americans and Palestinians, than our candidate or the DNC,” the group wrote. “This is a terrible message to send Democrats. Palestinians have the right to speak about Palestine.”
The Uncommitted movement has also received support from other organizations at the DNC like the United Auto Workers.
“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” UAW said in a statement . “If we want peace, if we want real democracy, and if we want to win this election, the Democratic Party must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight.”
Those uncommitted delegates earned a spot at the DNC after more than 740,000 voters across the United States voted “uncommitted” in primaries to protest then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Biden’s support of Israel in the war, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past 10 months, according to health authorities there.
While the movement started in Michigan, it soon went national and uncommitted delegates were sent from Hawaii, Washington, Rhode Island and Minnesota.
With Harris now the new Democratic presidential nominee, those uncommitted delegates said they were hopeful Harris would listen to them in asking for a cease-fire and an arms embargo on Israel. But all they want now is for a Palestinian American to be able to address the party.
“The Democratic Party’s platform includes specific language that insists that Israeli lives and Palestinian lives are equal in the eyes of this party,” Alawieh said. “We believe, like our party platform says, that every Israeli life and every Palestinian life is equal. There should also be a Palestinian American to speak from this stage. This is urgent.”
Ross Williams contributed to this story.
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