While the first night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) kicked off on Monday, a panel of pro-Palestinian activists gathered to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and their demands for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The panel, hosted at McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, took place outside the site of the main stage for the DNC, and featured a group of uncommitted Democratic delegates that are demanding an immediate ceasefire and a weapons embargo against Israel.
Speakers at the forum shared stories of losing loved ones in the ongoing war, which broke out after the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. In its attack, Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. About half were released during a week-long ceasefire in November. Meanwhile, Israel’s offensive has killed at least 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Speakers at Monday’s forum also put pressure on Harris, slated to officially accept the Democratic Party’s nomination at the DNC later this week, to adopt policies that align with the Uncommitted National Movement, which is demanding the White House stop sending military aid to Israel. The vice president has said that she supports a ceasefire deal but remains committed to supporting Israel’s “right to defend itself.”
It comes as President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing for a breakthrough in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. The White House has been seemingly positive about the possibility of success, with a senior Biden administration official saying on Friday that the goal was to reach a deal “over the coming week.”
“We need the vice president to keep pushing the envelope,” former Michigan Representative Andy Levin said during Monday’s panel, according to a report from journalist Prem Thakker in an X, formerly Twitter, post.
“She can say things that don’t betray [Biden],” Levin, who is Jewish, continued. “She can say that ‘in my admin, we’re going to follow U.S. and international law’…I have faith in her, but we need her to do more.”
Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ campaign via email for comment Monday evening.
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Democrats, meanwhile, have been fractured over the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Gaza. Protestors, led by the Uncommitted National Movement, voiced their demands for a ceasefire during primary voting this spring where Democratic voters casted “uncommitted” ballots instead of selecting a candidate.
Thousands of activists gathered in Chicago on Monday as well, marching and waving Palestinian flags while yelling demands for Washington to end its military aid to Israel. In total, 30 Democratic delegates remain uncommitted.
“We need meaningful policy change,” June Rose, an uncommitted delegate from Rhode Island, said Monday, per a report from Roll Call. “We as Democrats cannot oppose Donald Trump’s fascism at home while supporting [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide abroad.”
Israel, meanwhile, has denied that its military operation in Gaza is genocide.
Another uncommitted delegate, Abbas Alawieh from Michigan, said that activists were looking to hear from Harris herself on how she would be “different” than Trump’s policies in Gaza, adding, “We know how dangerous Donald Trump’s agenda around Palestine and Israel [is].”
Trump has expressed unequivocal support for Israel, although he said to reporters at a press conference last week that he told Netanyahu during his meeting with the Israeli leader at Mar-a-Lago last month to “get” the war “over with fast.”
During the same briefing, he also criticized the Biden administration’s calls for a ceasefire, saying, “From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hand behind its back, demanding an immediate ceasefire, always demanding ceasefire.” The former president added that a ceasefire deal “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7 style attack.”
Harris’ entry into the 2024 presidential race was viewed by some activists as a chance to reopen conversations on the U.S. policies with Israel. Prior to a rally earlier this month in the battleground state of Michigan, the vice president met with leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement to hear the group’s demands. Organizers of the pro-Palestinian panel on Monday also said that the forum was a first for the party.
Panelist Jamese Zogby, a founder of the Arab American Institute, told the AP that while there was continued discontent over how Democrats have handled the war in Gaza, the forum on Monday was a first step.
“It is not the prize,” Zogby said. “The prize is a change in policy. But what is historic here is we are having an officially sanctioned panel to talk about it.”
Uncommitted National Movement leader Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American and sister of Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, said during a news conference Monday morning that Harris must adopt the demands of uncommitted voters in order to lock in key battleground states this fall.
“She is at risk of losing key swing states, especially in states like Michigan, where we have the largest concentration of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans—people who know firsthand the effects and the impact of American-funded bombing,” Elabed said while responding to a question from Politico.
She added: “Right now, the majority of Michigan voters.. cannot put their support behind Vice President Harris in her race to the White House and combating a [Donald] Trump presidency. And so what we need right now is a policy change.”
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