Uncommitted delegates have been staging a sit-in outside the Democratic National Convention hall after being informed last night that a Palestinian American would not get be given a speaking slot in the event.
In response, a number of progressive lawmakers and officials, as well the United Auto Workers, have called on the Harris campaign and DNC officials to reverse the decision.
Several progressive lawmakers have issued public statements of support for a Palestinian speaker on the final night of the convention, including Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Greg Casar, D-Tex.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also endorsed the idea today, as did Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison — who was the first Muslim elected to Congress before running for his current job — and actors and activists Mandy Patinkin and Mark Ruffalo.
“We’re not here to cause trouble, nobody is trying to sneak in or anything. We won delegates. We negotiated with the campaign. We did everything we were supposed to and we can’t even get a symbolic gesture," Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American who was one the proposed speakers, said through tears Wednesday night.
I’m surprised they wouldn’t just find someone to do a speech compatible with the ambiguously pro-peace stance of the Harris campaign while also focusing on how much worse Trump would be. It’d be a hard thing to pull off if Biden were the nominee, but Harris can be a blank slate. And she probably actually will be less pigheadedly pro-Israel than Biden.
“This is a horrible war and we need to do More™ to end it. Trump and the Christian nationalists would be happy supporting explicit genocide and annexation.” That’s the whole argument, get someone to say it in language of empathy and hope.
That’s basically what the person they offered to speak said they wanted to say. It would build up Kamala and denigrate Trump like everyone else speaking. But they wouldn’t have it for some strange reason.
Idk. Harris has been part of the ticket that’s been giving billions of dollars in weapons and letting Netanyahu spit in their faces when they ask him to ease off on the killing at least for a little while.
I used to be more opposed to things like the “uncommitted” vote than I am now. I do still think Trump will be way worse. But honestly, just seeing a still photo of Rashida Tlaib’s face at a Michigan event was enough to make me realize. They’ve got a right to be 0-tolerance furious and disgusted with all this “lesser evil” bullshit while their families are dying and watching their children suffer and starve, and the US government under Biden is bankrolling the whole operation. I don’t see how any Palestinian could speak at a DNC event right now without (a) selling out their home and their family in a laughably pathetic Uncle Tom fashion, or else (b) condemning the entire event from top to bottom, whatever the white people want to get up and say about how important a cease fire is.
Harris doesn’t have shit for influence with Biden. She was treated as the dumping ground for bad issues and never given any of their successes.
And the Uncommitted movement is all about making the Democrats better. There are plenty of people in it who want the Democrats to both win and simultaneously be better on Israel, and with Harris there’s a chance to chart a new course.
Harris doesn’t have shit for influence with Biden.
Yeah, that’s fair I guess. US policy for the last four years is Biden policy; she’s not gonna go out and say “actually I think we should be doing this other thing instead.”
She was treated as the dumping ground for bad issues and never given any of their successes.
Well… I don’t think a VP is really supposed to do a lot of leadership. Supposedly she was pretty involved in a lot of the behind-the-scenes discussions, and she got given some moderately important things (e.g. going to Central America to investigate the root causes of the surge in migration). What did she get blamed for / used as a dumping ground for if you want to call it that?
And the Uncommitted movement is all about making the Democrats better. There are plenty of people in it who want the Democrats to both win and simultaneously be better on Israel, and with Harris there’s a chance to chart a new course.
Yeah. I hope so. I take some hope from the fact that she skipped Netanyahu’s address and met with him separately from Biden. But again it’s cold comfort if you’re watching month by month as your family is getting chased around in the blasted wasteland and dying, one by one.
Well… I don’t think a VP is really supposed to do a lot of leadership. Supposedly she was pretty involved in a lot of the behind-the-scenes discussions, and she got given some moderately important things (e.g. going to Central America to investigate the root causes of the surge in migration). What did she get blamed for / used as a dumping ground for if you want to call it that?
The Central American immigration issue was the biggest dumping ground of them all. She had no ability to fix the issue, it’s the right’s chosen attack line, and talking tough is unpopular with Democrats. “Important” doesn’t make it a beneficial issue for delegation. There was no “win” in that assignment. When Biden saddled her with that it completely blew apart my prior assumption that the plan was to to do the transitional presidency thing and prep her to run in 2024.
The other two I remember were voting rights and abortion. Again, big important issues for Democrats, but without any possibility for success. She didn’t have the bully pulpit (or Biden’s own support) to shame or threaten the centrists into killing the filibuster, and without that her options just amount to ineffectual talking while women die. Even the efforts the administration did take were reported as coming from Biden, not from Harris (obviously the EOs have to come from the president, but they could have made it sound like her effort). I think he also dumped gun violence on her too. Just a whole heaping pile of issues where the Democrats were incapable of making headway and the right loves to attack.
Meanwhile she was never part of the story on big win issues that just amounted to giving people and states money.
pigheadedly
Was that an antisemitic joke??? /s
This has to happen.
This seems like the make or break issue for Democrats, and they’ve really set themselves up for failure on it by refusing to separate the concept of Israel from the concept of Judaism over the previous 12 months. Their votes in the house and senate on censoring protest speech wherein the specific definition cited conflates the two concept isn’t on accident.
Harris really hasn’t done what she needs to do to create daylight between her and Biden on this issue and its likely going to cost her the campaign if she doesn’t end up on the right side of it. The problem she has is the previous 9 months of Democratic propaganda and intentional confusion around the concept in mainstream media that the Biden/ Harris administration has been directly fueling. Hence the student protest ban, hence the tictok ban; they’re entirely on the wrong side of the issue.
Not allowing for a Palestinian to come up and speak at this convention more than enough to give Trump a viable chance in enough states that it entirely erodes the gains the campaign has seen over the previous month. Its an unforced error that the administration has continuously been on the wrong side of, and with better messaging and actually using the bully pulpit (a completely foreign concept to Biden), they never needed to have boxed themselves into this now untenable position of their own mediocrity and unwillingness to lead.
Also, inb4 blue maga saying the voters just need to suck it up and vote for genocide. If that works for you, please understand that there are enough people who have an actually calibrated moral compass for whom the active support of a genocide is a deal breaker. You can’t expect them to come to your position when its 100% in the wrong.
yeah im sure trump should be much better for the palestinians /s
A yes. The imbeciles gambit.
How was that strategy working out when it was Biden v Trump?
horseshoe theory perpetually online leftists want trump to win anyway so i don’t know what your point is.
If I could roll my eyes any harder.
Yes, I’m sure the 100k undecided voters in MI, a make or break state for Kamala are just “perpetually online leftists”, a group for whom supporting a genocide was a bridge too far.
Blue maga tried blame the voters schtick when Biden was candidate. It was giving us Trump. That approach is the problem and if I scratch beneath your tinfoil rafter of wanting to abuse people who have a stronger moral code than you, what will I find?
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the palestinian protesters need to sort out their antisemitism problem first before being given a national platform
its fine to support a ceasefire like harris does but the vitriol against the israelis is too far
Which part of asking for an end of an Apartheid state is antisemitic?
probably the fact that they’re absolutely labelling israel an apatheid state or calling israelis “genociders”.
nevermind the blatant attacks on zionism. when white nationalists are on your side, you probably want to rethink your position.
Labeling it an apartheid state in agreement with the international court of Justice?
And zionists have white evangelicals who just want Jews to go to Israel to die in Armageddon while they get raptured on there side. There are also a lot of Zionist white supremacists as well, even Hitler thought it was a good idea for a while. Get all the Jews out of Europe and the Americas and onto the one spot in the Middle East that doesn’t have oil to fight with the Arabs sounds great if your a Nazi and don’t want to go full final solution.
This is the second time this account has posted this exact transparent bullshit. Everybody, this would be a good account to block to clean up your Lemmy experience.