The Democratic Party’s decision not to allow a Palestinian American to speak at the Democratic National Convention could have major ramifications in November.
The Uncommitted National Movement expressed anger on Thursday after a Palestinian American was reportedly denied permission to speak onstage on the last evening of the DNC. The group’s publicized frustration cast a shadow over the DNC as Democrats named Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee.
Leaders of the movement, which is protesting the Biden administration’s stance on the war in Gaza, have shown ire that Palestinian voices have been shut out of the celebration of the convention. Uncommitted leaders are especially upset because family members of the victims of Hamas’s attack on Israel and Republicans were allowed to address DNC attendees.
Uncommitted delegates kept their voices raised throughout the four-day convention, and on Thursday night, they entered the convention floor holding hands, vowing not to be “shut out.” Separate protests led by other groups upset over the war in Gaza were staged throughout the week.
Harris issued her standard talking points during her acceptance speech on Thursday night, as she reflected on Israel’s right to self-defense, her commitment to a ceasefire deal, and the “devastating” loss of life in Gaza. She also expressed her hope for the day when “the Palestinian people can live out their rights to dignity, security, and freedom.”
However, her words halfway through her convention speech are not likely to do enough to earn her the uncommitted movement’s support.
Earlier on Thursday, CNN host Wolf Blitzer pressed a senior adviser to Harris’s campaign on the DNC’s exclusion of a Palestinian American speaker.
“Is this going to potentially hurt Kamala Harris in a state like Michigan which has a significant Arab American, Muslim American population?” Blitzer questioned Ian Sam. The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls indicates Harris holds a slim lead of 2 percentage points over former President Donald Trump in the battleground state.
In February in Michigan, more than 100,000 voters cast ballots for “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary race, earning them two delegates and showing the movement’s strength. In 2020, Biden won the state by just over 150,000 votes.
“I think we’ve given them a lot of opportunities to engage in this process at the convention,” Sam deflected. His comments come as the pro-Palestinian effort has gained strength as the war in Gaza has stretched longer than 10 months and tens of thousands of Palestinians have reportedly died.
Still, a ceasefire has not been reached and pro-Palestinian lawmakers and voters have grown increasingly upset over actions not reflecting words. “Palestinians can’t eat words,” the Uncommitted movement wrote on X in response to Sam’s comments.
Members of the progressive “Squad,” including Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Summer Lee (D-PA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have vigorously defended pro-Palestinian groups. All of them have come to the defense of the Uncommitted movement this week as well, warning fellow Democrats to take the group’s worries seriously. Some of them even joined the Uncommitted National Movement during a nearly 24-hour staged sit-in outside the DNC convention center.
“Why are you saying that Israeli children are more valuable than Palestinian children? Where is our shared humanity? Stop erasing Palestinians. We exist. We deserve to be heard,” Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress, posted on X in support of the group’s request to be represented at the DNC.
The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped from Israel by Hamas terrorists, received a standing ovation during their speech at the convention Wednesday. “This is a political convention. But needing our only son — and all of the cherished hostages — home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” said Jon Polin, whose son lost part of his left arm during the Oct. 7 attack at a music festival.
“Our voices belong here at the DNC. We will not be shut out,“ the Uncommitted group posted to X late on Thursday evening as they urged the DNC to relent and allow a Palestinian to speak. ”We are winning. The hallways of the DNC are filled with discussions of Palestinian human rights.”
According to the Uncommitted movement’s website, it is “half a million anti-war voters” calling on the Democratic Party to “change course on Gaza to end the suffering and death” and “fight racism.”
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The group claims Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “murderous” and says President Joe Biden is “funding war crimes and the mass killing of Palestinians.”
The Uncommitted movement is calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Gaza and is committed to an arms embargo against the Middle Eastern nation.
