CHICAGO ― Critics of President Joe Biden’s role in the war in Gaza said Wednesday night they had lost a high-profile battle to secure a speaking spot during the Democratic National Convention ― and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee.
“Vice President Harris, unfortunately, has made the decision that the child in me, the American child in me, who was certain my own government was going to kill me, is not going to get to be heard at this convention,” said Abbas Alaweih, a DNC delegate from Michigan. Alawieh, an Arab American political operative, lived through U.S.-backed Israeli bombardment in Lebanon and now is a leader in the “uncommitted” movement of Democrats who declined to support Biden in presidential primaries earlier this year.
Alawieh announced Wednesday evening that he was launching a sit-in outside the convention unless there is a shift in policy from the DNC, despite risking arrest.
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The “uncommitted” campaign had sought speaking time on the DNC’s main stage for a representative of their group, which had won support from hundreds of thousands of voters. They initially requested two slots ― the other for a doctor who had served in Gaza, to address the humanitarian crisis there ― but later in the week said they sought only one: a Palestinian American speaker. They and their allies said that was vital to show equal concern for Israelis and Palestinians amid the latest cycle of violence in the region following the Oct. 7 attack inside Israel by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, and they highlighted that the DNC agreed to give a high-profile speaking slot to the parents of an Israeli-American hostage captured by Hamas in that assault. That was appropriate, they said, but could appear one-sided.
The developments represented a new escalation in a simmering confrontation between the “uncommitted” delegates and other critics of the war, including prominent Democratic politicians, and the party establishment.
Less than an hour earlier, organizers with the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine had held a fiery march called Shut Down the DNC, where a crowd of largely Palestinian, Arab and Muslim protesters raged that the convention had become a bubble, and they lambasted Democrats for doing too little to end the fighting.
Critics of Biden’s near-total support for the Israeli attacks had spent days arguing that the party’s limited concessions to their concerns, such as Biden referencing efforts to reach a cease-fire deal in his speech to the convention on Monday, were deeply insufficient.
“It’s been unconscionable for me in the last few months to witness my colleagues in this administration … not understand that ‘working tirelessly for a cease-fire’ is really not a thing, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said at a news conference on Wednesday morning, describing the humanitarian toll of Israel’s moves in the Palestinian region by speaking of horrors such as families digging dead babies out from the wreckage of bombed buildings.
Biden and Harris must leverage U.S. influence over Israel if they really want a deal, opponents of the policy say ― for instance, by suggesting American backing for the country’s campaign could end if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not move toward an agreement.
Still, a visible policy shift from the party’s top ranks remained elusive throughout the week of the convention.
For some in the Democratic coalition, that’s for the best. After months of anxiety that protests would disrupt or distract from the marquee event, the party’s official programming has dominated national headlines, and demonstrations, while persistent, have not reached dramatic levels. Voices leery of big changes to the historic U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are predicting Harris is unlikely to alter it, as Halie Soifer, a former Harris adviser, did at a Tuesday side event. And throughout the party’s ranks, there’s limited sympathy for protests amid the overall celebration of Harris.
Spokespeople for the Democratic National Convention did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the convention floor, delegates on Monday hid a “Stop arming Israel” banner that they unfurled during Biden’s speech and, according to one protesting delegate, other delegates nearby then hit those holding the banner. On Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told demonstrators who interrupted a climate event to instead go interrupt a Donald Trump rally.