Watch: Palestinian American Lawmaker Gives Speech the DNC Wouldn’t Allow on Stage

DEMOCRACY NOW!
August 23, 2024
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Guest

Ruwa Romman
Democratic Georgia state representative.

Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel’s war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by the Uncommitted National Movement that the Harris campaign rejected, reading the speech she would have given on the convention floor had the DNC and the Harris campaign allowed her onstage.

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s go to what wouldn’t have been a throwaway line.

BARBARA RANSBY: OK.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is what the “uncommitted” delegates attempted to get all week. You have Harris accepting the Democratic nomination Thursday night, after a four-day convention where the Harris campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage. There were private negotiations that were going on throughout the week. But at a news conference on Thursday, delegates with the uncommitted movement said the Democratic National Committee told them it was the Harris campaign that denied their request to have a Palestinian American speak. After receiving the news on Wednesday, many of the delegates and their allies staged a sit-in and spent the night on the sidewalk just outside the United Center.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: [Uncommitted delegates were selected] in state Democratic primaries earlier this year to call for an end to the Biden administration’s backing of Israel in its assault on Gaza and for an arms embargo. The Uncommitted National Movement called on Harris to come to Michigan, where the uncommitted movement was launched, to meet with them and discuss U.S. policy on Israel-Palestine by September 15th.

AMY GOODMAN: Among those who spoke at the press conference yesterday was Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American who is a Georgia state representative in the Georgia Legislature. She was among a list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the Harris campaign refused to allow onstage. In her remarks, she read out the speech that she would have given at the convention had the convention allowed a Palestinian American onstage. This is Ruwa Romman.


REP. RUWA ROMMAN: So, what I’m about to read to you is, frankly, very sanitized. It was meant to have an opportunity to represent a Palestinian voice. But I’m incredibly dismayed, because we came here to offer a gift. We came here to offer an opportunity to bridge the gap between our party and our voters, because when you looked around that convention, everybody — I mean, you literally looked around, so many people wearing their pins, their keffiyehs, their flags. It’s very unfortunate.


My name is Ruwa Romman, and I’m honored to be the first Palestinian elected to public office in the great state of Georgia and the first Palestinian to ever speak at the Democratic National Convention.


My story begins in a small village near Jerusalem called Suba, where my dad’s family is from. My mom’s roots trace back to al-Khalil, or Hebron. My parents, born in Jordan, brought us to Georgia when I was 8, where I now live with my wonderful husband and our sweet pets.


Growing up, my grandfather and I shared a special bond. He was my partner-in-chief, whether it was sneaking me sweets from a bodega or slipping me a 20 into my pocket with that familiar wink and a smile. He was my rock. But he passed away a few years ago, never seeing Suba or any part of Palestine again. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.


This past year has been especially hard. As we’ve been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza, I’ve thought of him, wondering if this was the pain he knew too well. When we watched Palestinians displaced from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other, I wanted to ask him: How did he find the strength to walk all of those miles decades ago and leave everything behind?


But in this pain, I’ve also witnessed something profound: a beautiful, multifaith, multiracial and multigenerational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For 320 days, we’ve stood together demanding to enforce our laws on friend and foe alike, to reach a ceasefire, end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of building a path to collective peace and safety. That’s why we are here, members of this Democratic Party committed to equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here echoes around the world. They’ll say this is how it’s always been, that nothing can change. But remember Fannie Lou Hamer, shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on, and it’s her example we follow.


But we can’t do it alone. This historic moment is full of promise, but only if we stand together. Our party’s greatest strength has always been our ability to unite. Some see that as a weakness, but it’s time we flex that strength. Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump, who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur. Let’s fight for the policies long overdue, from restoring access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza.


To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, “Yes, we can.” Yes, we can be a Democratic Party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars, that fights for an America that belongs to all of us — Black, Brown and white, Jews and Palestinians — all of us, like my grandfather taught me, together.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American who is a Georgia state representative, reading the speech she would have given had the Harris campaign allowed a Palestinian American to speak onstage.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: After holding a press conference outside, uncommitted delegates locked arms and walked inside the convention hall wearing Palestinian keffiyehs.


UNCOMMITTED DELEGATE: We are going to walk in single file. Abbas and I will lead the way. [inaudible]


JUNE ROSE: What we’re demonstrating is that in a party that stands for freedom, there should be space for freedom for Palestine. So we’re taking up space as we walk a full lap of the halls of the United Center to stand for a free Palestine, to make sure that every person in this arena right now has to think about Palestine, as the war has killed over 16,000 Palestinian children, as the Israeli government uses bombs provided by the United States. We take up this space. We take this to the delegates head on, to our elected officials head on, with our message of peace, of freedom, of no more war, of no more violence, a future safe for Israelis and Palestinians alike, Jews and Muslims alike.


UNCOMMITTED DELEGATES: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!


HASSAN SAFFOURI: My name is Hassan Saffouri.


SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Do you feel that the other delegates in this convention see you?


HASSAN SAFFOURI: I hope they do. I don’t know that they have so far. I know that in the last couple of days, there have been a couple of moments where they have tried to block us. And when we did the roll call, there were delegates who stood up and took their signs, “U.S.A., U.S.A.,” and blocked us so that the media couldn’t see us. Now, that’s not just having blinders on. That’s putting blinders on. So, we want to make sure that that doesn’t happen anymore. I’m sure that the whole delegation, that everybody here is seeing us now.


UNCOMMITTED DELEGATES: I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was the protest — that was the uncommitted delegates walking arm in arm inside the convention center through the halls before they took their seats in their various delegations.