Democratic National Convention
Updated 2024-08-25
2024-08-24 ‘Muslim Women for Harris’ Abruptly Withdraws Their Support The group “Muslim Women for Harris-Walz” says they can no longer support Kamala Harris after being informed that a Palestinian American speaker could not address the Democratic National Convention (DNC), per Newsweek. The group responded, “We cannot in good conscience, continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the Uncommitted movement, that VP Harris’ team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/muslim-women-for-harris-abruptly-withdraws-their-support/ss-AA1pn6tq?
2024-08-24 Will the pro-Palestine protests at the Democratic National Convention make a difference? Day after day this last week, a crowd rallied and marched in Chicago’s Union Park, less than a mile from the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the United Center. They carried signs and banners calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and depicting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the enemy.
So now comes the question: will these protests matter? “In a word, no,” said University of Chicago Political Science Professor Paul Poast, with regard to the war on Gaza. However, he said, there is some potential for these protests to make a difference in the outcome of the US presidential election.
“We’re happy because we’ve united a lot of people around these demands for Palestine,” said Faayani Aboma Mijana, a representative for the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, which collaborated with nearly 300 other groups for the March on the DNC Monday and Thursday.
Alex Nelson, political lead for IfNotNow Chicago, had attended demonstrations all week and said the atmosphere felt more tense on the last day because the DNC declined to feature a Palestinian speaker. “I don’t know if they aren’t hearing us or if it’s just a collective lack of political courage,” she said. IfNotNow calls itself “a movement of American Jews organizing our community for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all: our neighbors, ourselves, Palestinians, and Israelis.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/will-the-pro-palestine-protests-at-the-democratic-national-convention-make-a-difference/ar-AA1pn2DN?
2024-08-24 Chicago Police Brutalized Gaza Protesters As Democrats Celebrated “Freedom” Earlier in the evening, as many as 400 police officers descended upon approximately 150 demonstrators gathered in front of the Israeli Consulate, kettling the crowd between one block and arresting 59 individuals—including four journalists.
After Snelling’s pep talk, officers congratulated themselves on a job well done, shaking hands and clapping each other on the shoulders. Down the block, a dozen arrested demonstrators were held upright and handcuffed with cable ties just beside a paddywagon, where they had been waiting for over an hour and a half.
“The City of Chicago has just displayed some of the best policing in America,” Mayor Brandon Johnson declared at a press conference Friday morning. The city mobilized 2,500 CPD officers and an additional 500 officers from departments across Illinois and in Milwaukee for the DNC. “If the 1968 convention went down in history as the example of police brutality, then the 2024 convention will go down as the example of constitutional policing.” Yet demonstrators and advocates have called into question the use of force during arrests, and whether the First Amendment rights of the pro-Palestine protesters were protected. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/chicago-police-brutalized-gaza-protesters-as-democrats-celebrated-freedom/ar-AA1pmxUW?
2024-08-23 ‘We Are Not Going Back’: Harris Rips Trump, Project 2025 in Nomination Speech “We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers,” said Harris, referring to the Heritage Foundation-led initiative that the Republican nominee has unconvincingly tried to disavow.
“Its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back,” said the vice president. “We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/kamala-harris-nomination-speech
2024-08-23 Uncommitted Delegates Denied a DNC Speaker Just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, delegates with the Uncommitted National Movement sat down on the ground outside the main entrance to the United Center, where speeches for the third night of the DNC were well under way.
Uncommitted represented over 30 delegates to the DNC. But while just over 30 delegates withheld their votes during the roll call that confirmed Kamala Harris’s nomination on Tuesday, nearly 300 signed a letter calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Uncommitted calls that larger group “cease-fire delegates.”
Over the past few weeks, Uncommitted delegates had been calling on the Harris campaign and convention organizers to allow a Palestinian American speaker or a doctor who has volunteered in Gaza to take the stage at the DNC. The ask was a humble one. Five minutes. A pre-vetted speech. Delivered by a preapproved speaker from a list written up by Uncommitted members. The speaker would be subject to the same rules as everyone else on stage.
Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor who volunteered in Gaza, was initially floated as a potential speaker, Uncommitted movement strategist Waleed Shahid told Mother Jones. That request was denied earlier this week, prompting the movement to send an expanded list.
Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat, became a favorite for the speaking role and even wrote up a draft of a speech, which Mother Jones published. Her draft ended with an appeal to unity within the party: “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,” Romman wrote.
But Uncommitted said the speech was never asked for or vetted by DNC organizers. By Wednesday night, the answer was given, and the request was denied. https://prospect.org/politics/2024-08-23-dnc-uncommitted-delegates-denied-speaker/
2023-08-23 ‘You Must Do Better’: Harris Rebuked Over Failure to Change Course on Gaza “Harris called for a cease-fire in Gaza, but she failed to commit to the change in policy that would secure a cease-fire: ending weapons transfers to Israel,” said one Palestinian rights group. Vice President Kamala Harris decried the “heartbreaking” suffering that Gazans are experiencing after 10 consecutive months of Israeli bombardment.
But Harris didn’t acknowledge, let alone condemn, the central role the United States has played in fueling the humanitarian emergency in the Palestinian enclave, where civilians face indiscriminate bombings daily as well as famine and appalling disease outbreaks—including a possible polio epidemic.
Instead, Harris repeated a line that has become commonplace for the White House and its allies, declaring that “President [Joe] Biden and I are working around the clock” to secure a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Nor did Harris explicitly denounce Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have included atrocities committed with U.S. weaponry.
“Harris wanted to portray herself as strong and brave, but when she had to switch to passive voice (“What has happened in Gaza”) to avoid calling out Israel’s war crimes, she showed stunning cowardice,” said Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. https://www.commondreams.org/news/kamala-harris-gaza-dnc
2024-08-23 It’s Now Clear: The DNC Does Not Care About the Slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza The Democratic National Convention did not go well for supporters of Palestinian rights.
The one positive to emerge from the DNC was that the first panel ever officially sanctioned by the DNC on the subject of Palestinian rights marked a major step forward politically, and was the result of a powerful grassroots movement to get Palestine mentioned in some official capacity at the Convention.
But aside from that small but still significant victory, the Democrats were largely successful in burying their deep complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Protesters outside clashed occasionally with police, and some protesters inside the convention and some associated events caused brief disruptions, but little attention was paid to Gaza on the whole, either from the stage or in the media. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dnc-doesn-t-care-gaza
2024-08-23 The DNC Hides the Reality of Genocide Behind a Curtain of Faith and Patriotism The message I hear is this: Democrats are as patriotic as Republicans! Democrats are as religious as Republicans! We can put on a good show too!
I was, gawking at the event’s opening ceremony of day two: A pastor delivers a public prayer, at one point saying we should treat all humans “as sacred creations of the Almighty.” Huh? Is he serious? Does he really mean this? The word “sacredness” has been let loose; joined by “God.” Someone sings the National Anthem. The delegates recite the good ol’ Pledge of Allegiance, their hands ceremoniously pressed against their hearts. Then “God bless America” fills the hall. Suddenly I felt called to be there, at this “interfaith vigil to honor those who have been killed in the genocide in Gaza, to highlight the urgent need for a permanent cease-fire and an end to U.S. weapons sales to Israel.”
The speakers would be Jewish, Muslim, Christian, as well as people who had lost loved ones in Gaza. And it would be taking place in the wake of the Biden administration’s latest approval of $20 billion in arms sales to Israel—you know, the reality the DNC event was hiding behind its curtain of faith and patriotism. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dnc-gaza-genocide
2024-08-23 WATCH: CN Live! — ‘Assessing the DNC’ Over the last four days of the Democratic Party convention, the party and those attending continued to ignore Palestinian Americans and their protests. Inside the convention hall, Palestinian Americans were not allowed to give a speech while the family of an Israeli hostage did. Outside the arena, attendees were seen physically covering their ears and mocking protesters who were broadcasting the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. The moment embodied Orwell in his novel 1984:“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
On Gaza, Joe Biden argued in his speech that his administration is working for a ceasefire to end the war, ignoring the $20 billion and $3.5 billion dollar arms deals for Israel just approved by his administration.
It also ignored the fact that the party has essentially declared itself beholden to Israel in its 2024 platform, which states that “the Administration opposes any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.”
Rep. Alexandria Occasio Cortez and other speakers echoed similar nonsense about Biden-Harris working towards a ceasefire. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/23/watch-cn-live-assessing-the-dnc/
2024-08-23 The Success of Messaging at the DNC Vice President Kamala Harris has accomplished amazing things in four weeks and is poised to be victorious in the 2024 presidential election. She may also be setting the stage for a win so big even Trump’s claim that illegal immigrants robbed him of his victory won’t be sustained for very long. That is a win for democracy. But she may also be able to achieve what is considered a landslide in our polarized times. That would give her a government majority and a win for social democracy.
What is happening? First, she consolidated and energized Democrats. President Biden had a historic presidency, and this week’s send-off could not be more deserved. But not very long ago, over 60 percent of Democrats said he should not be running. That suppressed Democratic turnout and support, but Democrats are now just as united by their candidate and determined to vote as Republicans. The Democratic National Convention will only re-enforce those gains.
Second, Biden passing the torch shifted votes to Harris from groups that had been the emerging base of the Democratic Party. She made significant gains with millennials and Gen Z voters, Blacks, and Hispanics. That cut the third-party vote in half, as many were looking for Democrats to be led by somebody speaking to their issues.
None of those groups that were part of the so-called “Rising American Electorate” of young people, voters of color, and unmarried women—except the youngest—are yet giving Harris the kind of landslide margins they did in past elections. The convention will likely get them much closer. https://prospect.org/politics/2024-08-23-success-messaging-dnc-polls/
202408-23 Isn’t It Moronic: America Is Ready For A Better Story Their unconscionable silence on Gaza still festers. But the lofty, boisterous, eloquent DNC was still both gratifying and revealing of the chasm between Democrats and the mean-spirited, blundering MAGA world of “that hateful man,” a dystopian pit where family love is “weird,” Coach Walz is a Chinese spy – TiananmenTim! – J.D. Vance is a cringey horror and a blithering felon calls “Comrade Kamala” a moron. “What kind of America do we want?” asks a Harris ad. Not their dark, daft, cruel, reptilian one, thanks.
Many of the DNC speeches, it was gladly noted, sought to reclaim “the roots of American democracy,” with its symbols and its hopeful theme of rising from humble beginnings, working through darkness and coming into light. Often, the rage at Trump and the devastation he wrought was palpable.
“Are you ready to make your voice heard?” asks Harris in the soaring ad. “When we fight, we win.” If she can summon the critical strength to stop killing and maiming children in Gaza, we will. https://www.commondreams.org/further/isn-t-it-moronic-america-is-ready-for-a-better-story
2024-08-23 Working-Class Journalist’s Speech Hailed as ‘Most Radical’ in DNC History John Russell urged Democrats to serve working Americans “looking for a political home, after years of both parties putting profit above people.”
The Democratic National Convention on Thursday featured a video and speech from More Perfect Union reporter John Russell, who stressed to the Chicago crowd that the party has an opportunity to win over working-class people. https://www.commondreams.org/news/john-russell
2024-08-23 Why Has the Dem Platform Veered Right on the Economy? The changes made in four years don’t just repudiate the left, they defy public opinion on one issue after another, driving the party backward even as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris runs as the candidate of change.
I reviewed the Democratic Party platform for 2024 and found something interesting: When it comes to economic policy, this year’s platform is less progressive and less ambitious than it was four years ago. Democrats have tacked right or retreated on health insurance reform, drug prices, Medicare and Social Security expansion, poverty, labor, taxes, Wall Street, and the minimum wage.
Why become less ambitious on economic issues, especially when public confidence in the economy remains low? Is it the influence of big donors? Is it the willingness of the party’s internal left to back its candidates without first demanding policy concessions? Is it both? https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dem-platform-right-economy
2024-08-23 The Politics of Joy Versus the Only Thing Republicans Have Left: Cruelty Compassion for a learning-disabled child is dead on the right: all they have left is cruelty.
During the 1950s, Republicans were the party that promoted labor unions, Social Security, and a top 91% income tax bracket and 70% estate tax on the morbidly rich. Dwight Eisenhower successfully campaigned on what we’d call a progressive agenda for re-election in 1956.
During the Reagan years, Republicans embraced Milton Friedman’s neoliberalism with its free trade, opposition to unions, ending free college, and tax cuts for the fat cats. They called themselves “the party of new ideas.” They may have done more harm than good, but for most Republicans it was a good-faith effort.
Today, they’ve pretty much given up on all of that. All they have left is cruelty.
This week Americans saw Democrats display compassion, care, respect, and reverence for our democracy. We saw the best of this country, hope for the future, and actual plans to improve the lives of Americans.
Last month, in sharp contrast, we watched the Republican convention and saw, instead, a cavalcade of anger, bile, grievance, hate, and, of course, cruelty. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-politics-of-joy-versus-the-only-thing-republicans-have-left-cruelty
2024-08-22 “Stop Sending Bombs”: Rep. Ilhan Omar Visits Uncommitted Sit-In & Demands Israeli Arms Embargo Democracy Now! spoke with Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar late Wednesday outside the Democratic National Convention, where members of the “uncommitted” movement launched a sit-in to demand a Palestinian American be allowed to address the convention from the main stage. Omar said she joined protesters outside the DNC because “there is no compassion in turning our heads away from the piles of dead bodies” in Gaza. “A ceasefire is only possible if we use every leverage that we have, and the biggest leverage that we have is to stop sending bombs,” says Omar, explaining why she is calling for an arms embargo against Israel and an end to “this genocidal war.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zpvz_biIig
2024-08-22 ‘Let Palestine Speak’: Uncommitted Shares Speech the DNC Won’t Allow What would a Palestinian speaker tell U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the thousands of delegates gathered at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and millions more people watching across the country and around the world as Israel—which is on trial for genocide at the World Court—continues its obliteration of Gaza?
On Thursday, the Uncommitted National Movement—which garnered hundreds of thousands of Democratic primary votes against the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s war—circulated a copy of the speech it still hopes to deliver on the DNC main stage.
However, DNC organizers are refusing to allow any Palestinian to speak on that stage, where the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 spoke Wednesday night with Uncommitted’s blessing. Uncommitted used a space away from the main stage to hold a first-ever DNC panel on Palestinian rights on Monday and a Tuesday press conference featuring testimonies from American doctors who recently volunteered in Gaza hospitals. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-dnc-speech
2024-08-22 Fact Check: Video Allegedly Shows DNC Attendees Covering Ears as Protesters Read Names of Children Killed in Gaza. Here’s What We Found Video authentically depicts attendees of the Democratic National Convention covering their ears as protesters read out the names of children killed in Gaza. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-video-allegedly-shows-dnc-attendees-covering-ears-as-protesters-read-names-of-children-killed-in-gaza-here-s-what-we-found/ar-AA1pgY6m?
2024-08-22 ‘Let Palestine Speak’: Uncommitted Shares Speech the DNC Won’t Allow The proposed DNC speech would be delivered by Uncommitted delegate and Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), who is Palestinian American.
Here’s what she wants to say: 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 …. This past year has been especially hard. As we’ve been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza …. 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. …. 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 cease-fire in Gaza.
Uncommitted toldMother Jones that it is open to having the speech vetted and even edited, but that the DNC has not asked to see it. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-dnc-speech
2024-08-22 Uncommitted Delegates Launch Sit-In After DNC Rejects Request for a Palestinian Speaker Delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their allies launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night outside the convention hall in Chicago after the DNC refused to honor their request to let a Palestinian American speak onstage, despite allowing family members of an Israeli American hostage to address the convention. We hear voices from the sit-in with uncommitted delegates and their allies. “Today I watched my party say, ‘Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,’ but it can’t fit an elected official like me?” said Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, referring to convention addresses given by anti-Trump Republicans. Romman was among the list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the DNC refused to allow on onstage. “We can’t take no for an answer here,” says Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpOfkjppmeU
2024-08-22 Major Union Backing Harris-Walz Joins Call for Palestinian American to Speak at DNC The United Auto Workers—a major union backer of the Harris-Walz presidential ticket—added its voice Thursday to the growing chorus demanding that a Palestinian American be invited to address the Democratic National Convention in Chicago over Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip.
“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the UAW said on social media. “If we want peace, if we want real democracy, and if we want to win this election, the Democratic Party must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight.”
The UAW had endorsed President Joe Biden and swiftly threw its support behind Vice President Kamala Harris after he passed the torch to her last month. While speaking at the DNC on Monday, the union’s leader, Shawn Fain, wore a T-shirt calling the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, a “scab,” and said that Harris “is one of us, she’s a fighter for the working class.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/dnc-palestine-protest
2024-08-22 Why Progressives Must Let Go of Their Democratic Goldilocks Complex In her impassioned speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama struck a chord with many progressives when she urged Democratic voters to overcome their “Goldilocks complex” regarding Kamala Harris’s electability. “We cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected,” she declared, addressing concerns about Harris’s racial background and gender.
While Obama’s call to action was inspiring for many, it inadvertently highlighted a much deeper and more problematic Goldilocks complex within progressive circles—perpetually searching for the “just right” Democratic politician who can somehow thread the needle between radical change and mainstream acceptability.
The Democratic Party, despite its occasional progressive rhetoric, remains fundamentally wedded to the capitalist system that perpetuates many of the issues progressives seek to address. While figures like Kamala Harris may represent important symbolic victories in terms of representation, their policies often fall far short of the radical changes needed to tackle the root causes of our societal problems. Democratic administrations have consistently failed to deliver meaningful change in areas such as economic inequality, climate change, healthcare, foreign policy, and criminal justice reform. These failures stem not from a lack of good intentions, but from the inherent limitations of working within a system designed to prioritize profit and maintain existing power structures.
As we confront the enormous challenges of our time—from climate change to rising authoritarianism to deepening inequality—progressives must abandon the Goldilocks complex that leads us to seek salvation in slightly better versions of the status quo. This doesn’t mean completely disengaging from electoral politics or ignoring the real dangers posed by far-right movements. Strategic engagement with centrist parties can sometimes be necessary as a defensive measure. However, progressives must never lose sight of the fact that these parties are structurally incapable of addressing the root causes of our current crises. Their solutions not in finding the perfect capitalist savior, but in our collective power to imagine and create a fundamentally different kind of society. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/progressives-democratic-party
2024-08-22 Capitalism Is Killing Us, But You Won’t Hear a Whisper of It at the Democratic Convention Neither politicians (across the continuum) nor corporate media pundits engage in meaningful public discourse on climate and the environment. They choose not to acknowledge the scope of the threat or to sincerely analyze real means of addressing the gathering onslaught. The bogus dialogue on climate is all smoke and mirrors, feeding the masses fatuous illusions—promising future technological triumphs—and wielding uncertainty as a means to disarm public ire. Our popular discussions about the environment are almost never about capitalism precisely because (in the real world, as opposed to the world of mass fantasy) it is always and obviously about capitalism.
The wealth of information on climate available at the click of a computer may be staggering, but only a few stilted, corporate approved narratives leak into the popular climate conversations featured in political debates or commercial media. Our climate stories have been mutilated, distorted or subtly degraded by the money and influence of those whose profits come from environmental destruction. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/capitalism-democratic-convention
2024-08-22 If You’re Looking for Democracy in Chicago, You’ll Find It in the Streets When first Biden and then Harris reject a position that is held by 77% of everyday Democrats who want the U.S. to stop sending weapons to Israel, then something is broken with American democracy.
Many of the folks who began pouring into this city’s Union Park ahead of Monday’s major protest against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza traveled great distances… I listened to speeches and walked with marchers past the endless thin blue line of bike cops. But mainly, I came to meet some of the estimated 5,000 to 6,000 marchers—a good crowd, but far short of the 20,000 some organizers hoped for—and to listen. That’s because ever since this war began with the unconscionable Hamas assault of October 7, demonstrators on college campuses and elsewhere have been portrayed by TV pundits mostly as cartoon characters, mysteriously propelled by nothing more than their alleged antisemitism. I never saw or heard anything offensive toward Jewish people, or even the words Jew or Jewish mentioned over five hours. Except when several of the attendees told me they were Jewish.
On Monday night, DNC delegates voted, without any serious debate, for a platform that was hashed out before most of them had even arrived in Chicago, that doesn’t address any of the protesters’ concerns. Such a debate might spoil the reality show of preapproved TV speechifying, which has become the only function of what used to be conventions. That’s not democracy. What is democracy is what 6,000 angry citizens did here Monday afternoon: exercising their First Amendment rights to speak freely, to assemble, and to air their grievances with a government that isn’t listening. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dnc-chicago-2024-protest
2024-08-21 The DNC Officially Refused to Put a Palestinian Speaker Onstage In one of the most moving moments of the Democratic National Convention, on Wednesday night, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, took the stage at the United Center and spoke of the anguish they’ve experienced over the 320 days since their son was taken hostage.
They called for the release of the other hostages, including 8 American citizens, and for a cease-fire deal that “ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza.”
But the DNC’s invitation to the family created an uncomfortable contrast with the party’s refusal to provide space on the main stage for a Palestinian-American or doctors who have worked in Gaza. On Wednesday night, following that speech, the DNC informed the leaders of the Uncommitted Movement that they would not be given the opportunity to put a Palestinian speaker on the main stage of the convention, to discuss the Israeli military has inflicted in Gaza, with the backing of the United States.
The Uncommitted Movement – representing the over 700,000 pro-Palestine voters who cast “uncommitted” votes during the Democratic presidential primary – had requested speaking time at the convention and a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-dnc-officially-refused-to-put-a-palestinian-speaker-onstage/ar-AA1pdF6G?
2024-08-21 As Gaza War Is Largely Ignored on DNC Stage, Doubts Grow over Blinken’s Claims on Ceasefire Talks The Israeli military has ordered new forced evacuations in parts of central Gaza, signaling the expansion of ground operations and the latest displacement of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times over the course of Israel’s war on the territory. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, pushing the official death toll past 40,200. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. In Chicago, where Democrats are gathered for the DNC, Gaza has been mentioned only in passing from the main stage of the convention. The party’s official platform adopted this week does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. “There’s been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on ‘how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?'” says human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for U.N. membership. “Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they’ll get more goodies from the U.S.?” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEop0c70Jxw
2024-08-21 ‘Uncommitted’ Backs Israeli-American Speakers at DNC, Says Palestinians Must Have Voice Too “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally.”
The Democratic National Committee’s 2024 platform states that “Democrats recognize the worth of every Israeli and every Palestinian.”
However, the platform also opposes human rights-based protests against Israel including the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, as well as efforts to hold Israel accountable at the United Nations. Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. organ, amid an ongoing assault on Gaza that has left at least 143,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and most of the coastal enclave flattened.
While welcoming a scheduled Democratic National Convention speech by the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement on Wednesday implored the DNC to ensure that Palestinian voices are also heard on the event’s main stage. https://www.commondreams.org/news/dnc-palestine
2024-08-21 ‘Uncommitted’ Backs Israeli-American Speakers at DNC, Says Palestinians Must Have Voice Too “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally.”
While welcoming a scheduled Democratic National Convention speech by the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement on Wednesday implored the DNC to ensure that Palestinian voices are also heard on the event’s main stage.
Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersh was abducted from the Nova rave near the Gaza border, are set to speak Wednesday night in what Forward, a progressive Jewish news site, described as “a counterpoint to the powerful appearance at last month’s Republican convention by Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of hostage Omar Neutra, who led the crowd in Milwaukee in chants of ‘Bring them home!'”
In a Wednesday statement, Uncommitted National Movement co-founders Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed said the 30 Uncommitted delegates attending the DNC “urge the Democratic Party to reject a hierarchy of human value by ensuring Palestinian voices are heard on the main stage.”
“We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” the pair continued, referring to the year in which the modern state of Israel was established amid the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine, an event known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/dnc-palestine
2024-08-20 Biden’s Cruel & Orwellian Remarks on Gaza at the DNC The speech that referred to Palestinian suffering was a journey into a universe of political guile from a president who had just approved sending $20 billion more weapons to Israel, writes Norman Solomon.
An observation from George Orwell — “those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future” — is acutely relevant to how President Joe Biden talked about Gaza during his speech at the Democratic convention Monday night.
His words fit into a messaging template now in its 11th month, depicting the U.S. government as tirelessly seeking peace, while supplying the weapons and bombs that have enabled Israel’s continual slaughter of civilians. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/20/bidens-cruel-orwellian-remarks-on-gaza-at-the-dnc/
2024-08-20 Thousands March on DNC in Chicago to Demand End to War on Gaza On the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, Democracy Now! was on the streets of Chicago during the March on the DNC as thousands of protesters held a rally and march to call on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party to end U.S. support for Israel amid its ongoing assault on Gaza. We bring you the voices of some of the protesters. Transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/2… Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMixGvHh5nY
2024-08-20 First-Ever DNC Panel on Palestinian Rights: We Need to “Restore the Soul of the Democratic Party” This year, the Democratic National Convention held its first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights. The panel came after persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. We play excerpts, including from the Arab American Institute’s James Zogby, a former executive member of the Democratic National Committee; Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who recently worked in Gaza; and Layla Elabed, co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement.
Later that day, during President Biden’s convention speech, protesters standing near the Florida delegation unfolded a banner proclaiming “Stop Arming Israel.” Democracy Now was at the scene. We speak with one of the protesting delegates, Liano Sharon, an elected DNC delegate from Michigan, as he was escorted off the convention floor. Sharon, who is Jewish, told Democracy Now! that he participated in the action because “’never again’ means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy6eu4IYDoQ
2024-08-20 “Stop Arming Israel”: Meet the DNC Delegates Who Unfurled Banner During Biden Speech During President Biden’s speech on the first night of the DNC, protesters briefly unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel,” before it was wrested away by convention staff. We speak to three members of the group Delegates Against Genocide who organized and carried out the action: Esam Boraey, a human rights activist and delegate from Connecticut; Florida DNC member Nadia Ahmad; and progressive Jewish activist Liano Sharon, an elected delegate from Michigan. “We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden,” says Ahmad, explaining why the protesters chose to disrupt Biden’s speech. “He’s the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that.” Transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/2… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFlTd8-YBDU
2024-08-20 WATCH: Police v. Protestors at Chicago DNC Tensions mounted between anti-genocide protestors and Chicago police outside the Democratic National Convention on Monday as seen in this footage from Ford Fischer at News2Share. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/20/watch-police-v-protestors-at-chicago-dnc/
2024-08-20 ‘History Is Watching’: Gaza Doctors Urge Harris to Back Israel Arms Embargo at Democratic Convention As humanitarians opposed to the U.S. government’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza continued to protest during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday, American doctors who recently volunteered in the besieged enclave implored the party’s presidential nominee Kamala Harris—based on the carnage and heartache they have witnessed—to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire.
during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the Uncommitted National Movement held a Tuesday press conference at which American doctors who volunteered in Gaza implored Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire.
Alawieh slammed the “hypocritical action” of Biden administration officials who, while “saying they want a cease-fire,” continue “to send more and more weapons” to far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “murderous government,” which “is using those weapons to kill civilians” and is “preventing any hope for all captives, Israeli and Palestinian, to be reunited with their families.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-dnc
2024-8-20 Pro-Palestinian protesters clash with police in US on second night of DNC Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters charged a line of police in an intense standoff with hundreds of officers outside the Israeli consulate on the second night of the United States Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pro-palestinian-protesters-clash-with-police-in-us-on-second-night-of-dnc/ar-AA1p9pTP
2024-08-20 Pro-Palestine protesters tear down fence at Democratic convention center as thousands take to Chicago streets The protests happened on Monday, ahead of an address by President Joe Biden, who has previously been the target of intense criticism from pro-Palestinian groups. “Biden, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” the marchers chanted amid the beating of drums. They also referred to him as “Genocide Joe” and lodged similar chants at Vice President Kamala Harris.
Protesters said their plans have not changed since Biden left the race and the party quickly rallied behind Harris, who will formally accept the Democratic nomination this week, closing the convention with remarks on Thursday. Activists said they were ready to amplify their progressive message before the nation’s top Democratic leaders.
“We have to play our part in the belly of the beast to stop the genocide, to end US aid to Israel and stand with Palestine,” said Hatem Abudayyeh,spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC, which includes hundreds of organizations. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pro-palestine-protesters-tear-down-fence-at-democratic-convention-center-as-thousands-take-to-chicago-streets/ar-AA1p4DXY?
2024-08-19 “It’s the Democratic Party’s War”: Gaza Protests Planned Throughout Week as DNC Begins in Chicago As the 2024 Democratic National Convention opens Monday in Chicago, we look at the protests planned throughout the week to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party on key policies, including the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza. Meanwhile, at least 36 delegates are also inside the convention as official delegates representing the “uncommitted” movement and are advocating an antiwar agenda to push for an end to U.S. arms sales to Israel. Although protesters this week come from a range of communities advocating on various issues, from economic injustice to reproductive rights, “Palestine is at the center,” says Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention and national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “All of those communities are standing up very publicly and very proudly, saying, ‘Free Palestine. End U.S. aid to Israel.'” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhou8JIeWSE
2024-08-18 Chicago Mayor Reverses Course on City’s Denial of Stage, Sound System for DNC Anti-Israel Protests Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson personally agreed to the demands of anti-Israel protest groups on Friday, allowing them to set up a stage and sound system for their planned demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention.
The City of Chicago previously denied those items and other accommodations to the Coalition to March on the DNC earlier in the week, prompting the anti-Israel group to file an injunction in federal court. In the emergency motion, Coalition activists alleged the city trampled on their First Amendment rights by restricting how their message of ending U.S. aid to Israel could be heard.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chicago-mayor-reverses-course-on-city-s-denial-of-stage-sound-system-for-dnc-anti-israel-protests/ar-AA1p08Ol?
2024-08-18 Protesters paused to consider opposing Harris at the DNC. They decided on full steam ahead. There was a moment after Vice President Kamala Harris was tapped to run for president, when pro-Palestinian activists prepping massive demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention paused to rethink their approach.
The main organization corralling more than 200 groups to protest at the convention, March on the DNC 2024, met for about half an hour the day Harris announced her candidacy. The meeting was to consider whether to move forward with the same confrontational approach they had aimed at President Joe Biden, who they dubbed “Genocide Joe” for his policies on Israel. Harris, despite being part of the Biden administration, was seen by some as being more sympathetic to the pro-Palestinian cause and made a forceful case for a cease-fire deal after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netantyahu.
“We all came to a consensus that it’s not going to make a difference, that [Harris] represents this administration,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “We’re going to stay full steam ahead.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/protesters-paused-to-consider-opposing-harris-at-the-dnc-they-decided-on-full-steam-ahead/ar-AA1oZLML?
2024-08-16 ‘Not Another Bomb’ to Israel Demand Grows Ahead of Democratic Convention Leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, calls for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip—widely denounced around the world as genocide—continued to mount on Friday.
“We join the millions of people who’ve taken action the last 10 months, taxpayers who don’t want to pay for genocide and are demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel,” U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) executive director Ahmad Abuznaid said in a statement Friday. “We know that politicians won’t change their unjust policies until it’s in their own self-interest to do so,” he continued. “We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we’ll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all.”
Pro-Palestine protests in Chicago are set to start Sunday, a day before the DNC officially begins. They will continue throughout the week, according to a schedule shared Friday by the Chicago Sun-Times. The March on the DNC is planned for Monday afternoon. https://www.commondreams.org/news/arms-embargo-on-israel
2024-08-16 Legal Coalition Says Chicago Police Must Protect Protest Rights at Democratic Convention “People have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights to speech and assembly, including rallying, marching, and demonstrating,” the letter says, calling on police “to respect and honor those cherished, sacrosanct rights.” Chicago’s history of “unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence” toward anti-war protesters over recent decades—including during the Democratic National Convention of 1968—is on the minds of peace advocates and legal experts planning demonstrations for this year’s DNC, kicking off next week, against U.S. support for Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
“We are a collective of progressive local and national legal organizations, attorneys, and legal workers writing to express our grave concerns about recent actions of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and city of Chicago to stop protestors from demonstrating at the upcoming Democratic Convention,” one coalition wrote in a letter made public Friday. https://www.commondreams.org/news/dnc-protests-2024
2024-08-12 Forcing Democrats to Confront the Gaza Genocide in Chicago Ahead of the DNC, the Arab American Institute and other prominent progressive groups are hosting three days of programming on Palestinian rights and U.S. support for Israel.
Democrats are approaching their 2024 convention aware of the many critical issues at stake in this election. There is deep concern with what a second Trump administration would mean for women’s rights, civil rights, environmental protections, immigration policy, civil discourse, and the very foundation of our democratic order. All of these issues and more are discussed at length in the 2024 Democratic Party Platform and will be addressed by an assortment of speakers at the convention.
What will not be discussed are: the genocide that has been unfolding in Gaza, the continued erosion of Palestinian rights in all the Occupied Territories, and the role the United States continues to play in supporting Israel’s unconscionable violations of international law and U.S. human rights legislation. These are topics that should be addressed, but because they won’t, the Arab American Institute (AAI), together with Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH organization and a number of other prominent progressive groups, are hosting three days of programs during the afternoon hours of Monday through Wednesday before the convention’s official proceedings begin. The topics that will be explored during these AAI events are:
“The Role of Dark Money in Politics.” “The Role of Congress in Sponsoring Legislation that Silences Free Speech.” “The Voices of Palestinians Who Should Be Heard.” “An Examination of What’s Not Included in The Democratic Party’s Platform.” “The Role the Gaza War Is Playing in Changing Public Opinion and Its Impact on the Future of the Democratic Party.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/democrats-gaza-chicago
2024-08-12 Anti-Israel agitators plan demonstrations for Democratic National Convention: ‘Equivalent’ to 1968 Anti-Israel agitators are planning large demonstrations for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as such protests have taken shape across the U.S. amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. “I think people really need to see it as the equivalent of the 1968 DNC in Chicago,” Deanna Othman, a resident of Little Palestine, Chicago, which is home to a large population of Palestinian-Americans, told the Washington Post. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/anti-israel-agitators-plan-demonstrations-for-democratic-national-convention-equivalent-to-1968/ar-AA1oF5tX?
2024-08-12 What are the March on the DNC protesters demanding? Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to mobilize during next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, calling for the U.S. to end aid to Israel as the conflict in the Middle East continues. The March on the DNC — a coalition of 223 organizations from 21 states — will host two demonstrations through the city’s streets during the four-day event. Much of its attention falls on pro-Palestinian efforts, but the group has taken on other issues like social justice. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-are-the-march-on-the-dnc-protesters-demanding/ar-AA1oG5FO?
2024-08-10 Inside protesters’ plans to disturb the Democratic National Convention With the Democratic National Convention slated to start days from now in Chicago, many in the party are thrilled to channel a sudden burst of energy surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris — who is already certified as the presidential nominee — and emerge unified in taking a “joyful” fight to Donald Trump in the general election.
Protest against the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel is expected inside and outside Chicago’s United Center, where the Democratic National Convention will take place. In interviews with Raw Story this month, pro-Palestine convention delegates, who together represent hundreds of thousands of voters who withheld their votes from Joe Biden during the primaries, indicate they’ll press the case on the convention floor for a ceasefire and arms embargo against Israel.
Meanwhile, in the surrounding streets, potentially thousands of protesters — some radicalized by the experience of police crackdowns against pro-Palestine college campus encampments earlier this year — are angling to the Biden-Harris administration for propping up what they consider the worst human rights atrocity of the 21st century. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/inside-protesters-plans-to-disturb-the-democratic-national-convention/ar-AA1ozZ2b
2024-08-01 Uncommitted Movement Demands DNC Speech for Doctor Who Volunteered in Gaza The Uncommitted National Movement on Thursday launched a campaign demanding that the Democratic Party allow a doctor who spent two weeks volunteering in a Gaza Strip hospital to speak at the Democratic National Convention later this month.
Uncommitted—a coalition of pro-Palestine, peace, and progressive groups that urged people to vote “uncommitted” in U.S. Democratic presidential primaries in a bid to pressure the Biden administration to push Israel for a Gaza cease-fire—and its 30 delegates want Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatric intensive care physician, to address the DNC in Chicago. “As American bombs fuel violence and suffering in Gaza, it is imperative that the Democratic Party hear directly from those who witness the atrocities firsthand,” said Uncommitted, which launched its campaign with a Thursday morning press conference on Zoom. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-delegates-dnc
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