Uncommitted delegates at DNC say Harris risks losing states unless Israel policy is changed

Uncommitted delegates representing more than 800,000 Americans across the country who cast protest votes against then-candidate President Joe Biden for his military support of Israel are looking to Vice President Harris this week at the Democratic National Convention to articulate her Israel and Gaza policy and commit herself to preventing major loss of Palestinian life with US-funded weapons.

Pro-Palestinian protests began in Chicago on Sunday night ahead of the DNC’s official kickoff on Monday with more than 1,000 demonstrators marching through the streets. More than 40,000 protesters were expected near the convention’s venue on Monday, where Biden was to address the attendees in prime time.

An estimated 2k-5k Pro-Palestinian protestors at Union Park in Chicago. In about 1.5 hours they'll begin their 1 mile march to the DNC at the United Center. They want the U.S. to stop sending money and weapons to Israel. pic.twitter.com/LR5FMnGBex

— Alex Caprariello (@alcaprari23) August 19, 2024

“We need to know how the killing is going to be stopped and ensure that the discussion is not swept under the rug,” Abbas Alawieh, a Michigan delegate and leader of the Uncommitted Movement, said Monday.

Harris needs to proactively tell voters how her plan will differentiate herself from former president Donald Trump, who is signaling that he would support the full annexation of the West Bank, he told reporters at a news conference.

Alawieh asked Harris a hypothetical question: “Vice President Harris, as Donald Trump is planning on quelling pro-Palestinian activism and, in some cases, criminalizing pro-Palestinian activism, including pro-Palestinian protesters, what would be your plan?”

For the delegates to go back to uncommitted voters in their communities and urge them to vote for Harris, they need Harris to clearly state what her plan would be to stop the flow of weapons to the Israeli military that are being used to kill civilians, he said.

Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, said: “We want to be able to go back to our communities and say, ‘Hey, look, we made requests. Here’s what we’ve gotten.’ And the hope is that we can come out of the DNC excited to go defeat Trump in November. But we cannot do that at the expense of lives in Gaza.”

The uncommitted delegates are not the only ones who think there should be an arms embargo, and they are asking for all delegates, committed and uncommitted, to join the call for an arms embargo, he said.

Alawieh said if Harris says she supports a policy that stops sending Israel weapons that are being used to kill civilians, then the uncommitted delegates will mobilize for her election, because it is clear how important it is to beat Trump.

“Absent that, we won’t have the credibility to go back and tell those voters an affirmative message that embraces Vice President Harris’s plan, because we don’t know what her plan is,” he said.

Alawieh said the difference would be continuing to do the work they are doing now, which is educating their communities about the dangers of Trump while pressuring the Biden-Harris administration to stop the killing of civilians, to educating their communities about how dangerous Trump is, and also about how Harris plans to stop the killing of the people they love.

Layla Elabed, the sister of Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Michigan) and co-chair of the Uncommitted Movement and a Michigan delegate, said this messaging is crucial for Harris to the 101,000 Democratic voters in Michigan.

“Yes, I think that she’s 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,” she said.

Behind the Uncommitted Movement

Alawieh said the activists behind the Uncommitted Movement are pushing for a major policy overhaul to enact an arms embargo for Israel, but they are not naive about Harris’s opposition to an arms embargo.

“Saying the vice president doesn’t support an arms embargo is like saying the sky is blue,” he said. “Unfortunately, that has been standing United States government policy for decades. We want that to change.”

The uncommitted delegates advocated strongly for an arms embargo and permanent ceasefire during the party’s process of writing its official platform, Alawieh said.

The language the uncommitted delegates advocated for was not really incorporated, although there was some helpful language, he said.

“We know that the DNC platform specifically highlights the equal value of Israeli and Palestinian lives,” Alawieh said. “We want to make sure that that value is reflected from the main DNC stage.”

Another demand of the Uncommitted Movement is for Palestinian Americans to be featured on the convention’s main stage, he added.

Elabed said there would be a panel discussion of Palestinian human rights with Palestinian, Arab American, and Jewish participants for the first time in DNC history on Monday.

“That is one step in the right direction: to recognize the pain and suffering caused by our US policy decisions,” she said. “But it is not enough. We continue to demand that the DNC allow speaking time for a Palestinian American from the main stage, and that the policy changes, saves lives, and ends the occupation of Palestinians.”

“Not another bomb,” Elabed said. “This is our fight for the soul of the Democratic Party.”