August 19, 2024
A Democrats sign is seen on the exterior of the United Center ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 16, 2024.
[Jacek Boczarski – Anadolu Agency]
Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at US support for Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, are seeking changes in the Democratic platform and plan to press for an arms embargo this week, putting the party on guard for disruptions to high-profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago, Reuters has reported.
Calling itself “Delegates Against Genocide”, the pro-Palestine group says that it will exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events at the four-day Democratic National Convention convening on Monday. The convention is expected to nominate Vice President Kamal Harris as the party’s candidate for president in the 5 November election against Republican former President Donald Trump.
Group organisers declined to give details, but said that they were encouraging supporters to wear Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and to carry Palestinian flags, and would seek changes in the party platform, while urging delegates to speak on the convention floor. On Sunday night, a crowd of roughly 1,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting “Shut down the DNC”.
President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday. Pro-Palestine delegates say that they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform. The group wants to include language backing the enforcement of laws that ban giving military aid to individuals or security forces that commit gross violations of human rights.
“We’re going to make our voices heard,” said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed an alternative platform along with 34 other delegates. “Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to stand up and be heard even when the authority in the room says to shut up,” he explained at an event hosted by Chicago’s large Palestinian population. “They want the convention to go smoothly. They don’t want to have any kind of disruption or any kind of statement or anything like that. I’m sorry. A convention is a political engagement vehicle, okay? And if we’re not using it for that, then it’s just a beauty pageant.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
READ: UK, France, Germany, Italy back Gaza ceasefire mediation, saying ‘too much at stake’
The party’s draft platform released in mid-July calls for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the war and the release of remaining hostages taken to Gaza during the 7 October cross-border incursion by Palestinian resistance fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Media reports claim that many of the victims were killed by so-called “friendly fire” from the Israel Defence Forces.
The platform does not mention the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s military offensive now in its eleventh month, nor does it mention any plans to curtail US arms shipments to the occupation state. The US approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel last Tuesday.
Mediators including the US have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Biden put forward in May, but, so far, the efforts have not succeeded.
The Israeli war against the Palestinians in Gaza has reduced support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent crucial votes in election battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. While the activists make up a tiny fraction of convention delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could mar the party’s plan to unite Democrats around Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July.
Pro-Palestine activists say Harris has been more sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza than Biden has. Her national security adviser said on X this month, however, that she does not support an arms embargo on Israel. After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris told reporters not only that Israel had a right to defend itself but also in reference to Gaza, “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Some 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to demonstrate against the Biden administration’s position on Israel. Organisers say that the number could swell to over 100,000.
Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at Florida’s Barry University and a delegate, said that there were about 60 Muslim delegates, a fraction of the overall total of 5,000. However, their concerns are shared by others, especially young voters, some of whom have disengaged with the party, she pointed out.
The Uncommitted National Movement, a separate effort pushing Democrats to change policy on Israel that won over 30 delegates in primary elections, also wants an arms embargo.
It has focused, unsuccessfully so far, on winning a main-stage speaking slot for a Palestinian American or Gaza humanitarian worker, although organisers agreed on Saturday to add a daytime panel discussion on Arab and Palestinian issues to Monday’s agenda and one on anti-Semitism. Jewish Americans, traditionally Democratic voters, have voiced concern about rising anti-Jewish activity and Muslims have denounced rising American Islamophobia.
Layla Elabed, the Uncommitted National co-chair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim ally of Biden’s, and a doctor who has worked on the Gaza frontlines will be among speakers on the first panel, said informed sources.
Uncommitted, which said it is not planning to disrupt the convention proceedings, is pressing Harris to make a statement about the use of US weapons to kill Palestinians.
Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at US support for Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, are seeking changes in the Democratic platform and plan to press for an arms embargo this week, putting the party on guard for disruptions to high-profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago, Reuters has reported.
Calling itself “Delegates Against Genocide”, the pro-Palestine group says that it will exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events at the four-day Democratic National Convention convening on Monday. The convention is expected to nominate Vice President Kamal Harris as the party’s candidate for president in the 5 November election against Republican former President Donald Trump.
Group organisers declined to give details, but said that they were encouraging supporters to wear Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and to carry Palestinian flags, and would seek changes in the party platform, while urging delegates to speak on the convention floor. On Sunday night, a crowd of roughly 1,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting “Shut down the DNC”.
President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday. Pro-Palestine delegates say that they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform. The group wants to include language backing the enforcement of laws that ban giving military aid to individuals or security forces that commit gross violations of human rights.
“We’re going to make our voices heard,” said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed an alternative platform along with 34 other delegates. “Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to stand up and be heard even when the authority in the room says to shut up,” he explained at an event hosted by Chicago’s large Palestinian population. “They want the convention to go smoothly. They don’t want to have any kind of disruption or any kind of statement or anything like that. I’m sorry. A convention is a political engagement vehicle, okay? And if we’re not using it for that, then it’s just a beauty pageant.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
READ: UK, France, Germany, Italy back Gaza ceasefire mediation, saying ‘too much at stake’
The party’s draft platform released in mid-July calls for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the war and the release of remaining hostages taken to Gaza during the 7 October cross-border incursion by Palestinian resistance fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Media reports claim that many of the victims were killed by so-called “friendly fire” from the Israel Defence Forces.
The platform does not mention the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s military offensive now in its eleventh month, nor does it mention any plans to curtail US arms shipments to the occupation state. The US approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel last Tuesday.
Mediators including the US have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Biden put forward in May, but, so far, the efforts have not succeeded.
The Israeli war against the Palestinians in Gaza has reduced support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent crucial votes in election battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. While the activists make up a tiny fraction of convention delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could mar the party’s plan to unite Democrats around Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July.
Pro-Palestine activists say Harris has been more sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza than Biden has. Her national security adviser said on X this month, however, that she does not support an arms embargo on Israel. After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris told reporters not only that Israel had a right to defend itself but also in reference to Gaza, “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Some 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to demonstrate against the Biden administration’s position on Israel. Organisers say that the number could swell to over 100,000.
Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at Florida’s Barry University and a delegate, said that there were about 60 Muslim delegates, a fraction of the overall total of 5,000. However, their concerns are shared by others, especially young voters, some of whom have disengaged with the party, she pointed out.
The Uncommitted National Movement, a separate effort pushing Democrats to change policy on Israel that won over 30 delegates in primary elections, also wants an arms embargo.
It has focused, unsuccessfully so far, on winning a main-stage speaking slot for a Palestinian American or Gaza humanitarian worker, although organisers agreed on Saturday to add a daytime panel discussion on Arab and Palestinian issues to Monday’s agenda and one on anti-Semitism. Jewish Americans, traditionally Democratic voters, have voiced concern about rising anti-Jewish activity and Muslims have denounced rising American Islamophobia.
Layla Elabed, the Uncommitted National co-chair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim ally of Biden’s, and a doctor who has worked on the Gaza frontlines will be among speakers on the first panel, said informed sources.
Uncommitted, which said it is not planning to disrupt the convention proceedings, is pressing Harris to make a statement about the use of US weapons to kill Palestinians.
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