Protesters gathered outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago once again Thursday to keep pressure on the party to take a firmer stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, as Palestinian American activists said they were denied a chance to speak at the event’s final night.
Leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement, which garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries across the nation in protest of U.S. support of Israel, said Thursday negotiations with the convention broke down the day before. They and delegates who remain unpledged to U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris staged a sit-in overnight outside the United Center in response.
“I still hold some hope that Vice-President Harris can heed our ask, our small ask, to provide us a speaker even today,” Yaz Kader, an uncommitted delegate from Washington state, told Global News at the site of the sit-in Thursday.
Harris is set to formally accept her nomination as the Democratic presidential nominee Thursday night to close out the convention, which has been mostly marked by enthusiasm and joy inside the arena. But that show of unity has been pierced throughout the week by protesters calling for Harris to break from U.S. President Joe Biden’s support for the deadly Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
Thousands of protesters marched on the convention Monday, with demonstrators telling Global News Harris still needed to “earn” their votes.
Those same protesters gathered again in Union Park, less than a kilometre from the convention, holding Palestinian flags and signs calling for an end to U.S. military aid for Israel.
Monday’s march remained largely peaceful, though 13 arrests were made after some participants tore down portions of the security perimeter fencing surrounding the United Center.
On Wednesday night, more than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully past a park where pro-Israel demonstrators had gathered earlier. That demonstration came a day after violent clashes between police and protesters led to 56 arrests at a much smaller, unsanctioned protest outside the Israeli Consulate in downtown Chicago.
Two people were arrested Sunday night during another mostly peaceful march.
The news that the DNC had denied the request of a Palestinian American speaker, just a day after featuring the parents of an Israeli American hostage held by Hamas, which ignited fresh criticism from some on the left.
The United Autoworkers Union, which has endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, said the party “must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight.”
Democratic politicians including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, California Rep. Ro Khanna and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have publicly called on the DNC to reverse its decision. Ocasio-Cortez joined the overnight sit-in by FaceTime, while Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush met with the activists in person.
The “Uncommitted” movement said Thursday it provided a number of potential Palestinian Americans who could speak at the convention, including Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman.
Romman on Thursday released a draft of the speech she said she planned to deliver if asked. In it, she calls for electing Harris, defeating Donald Trump, and outlines demands for a ceasefire and to “end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages.”
As a candidate for re-election in the Democratic primaries early this year, Biden faced a significant protest movement that saw between 10 and 20 per cent of voters in critical battleground states write in “uncommitted” to show their opposition to his support for Israel. In Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the U.S., about 15 per cent of primary voters marked their ballot “uncommitted.”
Cook County, where Chicago and the convention is located, holds the largest population of Palestinian Americans in the country.
Kader, the uncommitted Washington delegate, told Global News those voters could make an impact in November’s presidential election if they stay home.
“It’s not just Michigan,” he said. “There’s Minnesota, there’s Wisconsin, there’s other key swing states. And there is a risk here that if Vice-President Harris says nothing, does nothing, that she can lose this election. There is that risk.
“We have heard her say that she is working around the clock. I’m not sure what that means. Vice-President Harris needs to actually tell us. She needs to say the words, and then we need to stop sending the bombs.”
The Biden administration has said it is working to help mediate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would include the release of all remaining hostages and the surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel had accepted a U.S.-backed proposal to bridge differences holding up the deal, but Hamas has so far not agreed in kind.
Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and “stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure,” the White House said in a statement. Harris was also on the call.
Kader said he remains “cautiously optimistic” that Harris will chart a new path from Biden, though he couldn’t speculate until the Harris campaign releases a detailed foreign policy platform.
“Between now and January, President Biden will still be president,” he said. “And we can’t wait. Children are dying now and we just can’t wait.”
—with files from Global’s Jackson Proskow and the Associated Press