Chicago – In In one of the most poignant moments of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, the parents of Hersh Goldberg Bolin, a 23-year-old American kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, took the stage at the United Center and spoke of the pain they have endured over the 320 days since their son was taken hostage.
They called for the release of other hostages, including eight American citizens, and a ceasefire agreement that “ends the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza.”
But the Democratic National Convention’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, in the wake of that speech, the Democratic National Convention informed leaders of the non-conformist movement that they would not be given the opportunity to put a Palestinian speaker on the convention’s main stage to discuss Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on Gaza.
The Uncommitted Movement — which represents more than 700,000 pro-Palestine voters who cast “uncommitted” ballots during the Democratic presidential primary — had requested time to speak at the conference and meet with Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
The DNC has given the movement a voice in several non-televised forums. On Monday, a doctor shared harrowing stories from Gaza, where the Israeli military has imposed an unprecedented 10-month blockade that began after Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. The party has refused to meet the broader demands of the uncompromising movement.
“I’ve been working on this every day for the past week or more,” said James Zogby, who has held leadership positions in the Democratic Party for decades. “The campaign made an unintended mistake. This was not supposed to happen the way it did, and now it needs to be fixed.”
The decision by the Harris campaign and the Democratic National Convention threatens to burn the goodwill the campaign has enjoyed since Harris rose to the top of the ticket. There have been no major protests inside the arena so far this week, and demonstrations outside have been smaller than expected. But that began to change Wednesday night. As delegates and convention attendees filed out of the United Center, protesters carrying signs and megaphones read out the names of children killed in Gaza and encouraged passersby to return and join a 24-hour sit-in outside the arena that uncommitted delegate leaders had begun earlier that evening.
“We are awaiting a phone call from Vice President Harris and the Democratic National Convention to allow one Palestinian American speaker to speak from the convention stage,” the delegates — Abbas Alawiya, John Rose, and Sabreen Odeh — said in a statement. “Our party platform states that every life counts: whether American, Palestinian, or Israeli. We will do the moral thing by sitting in the convention to push our party to better align our actions, rather than just our words, with the idea that every life counts once a Palestinian American is allowed to speak from the convention stage.”
Progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of two Muslim women serving in Congress, joined the non-committal sit-in Wednesday evening.
“It's a very good idea,” says one Democratic congressman who was in Chicago this week. Rolling Stone Frankly: “If we lose Michigan by a hair…it would be hard not to conclude that it was because we didn't treat these guys with the respect they deserved, and instead just wished they would go away and stop complaining.”
Representatives for the Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Harris campaign declined to comment on the decision.
“The British erased the Palestinian right to self-determination with the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which only mentioned civil and religious rights but not political rights for the Palestinian people,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said late Wednesday. “The Democratic Party, which aspires to be the party of human rights, must not continue in 2024 to erase the Palestinian story.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who declared on stage at the United Center on Monday that Harris is “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza,” responded to the Democratic National Committee’s decision to exclude Palestinian votes on Wednesday.
“Just as we must honor the humanity of the hostages, we must also focus on the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment,” she wrote on her X page. “To deny this story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The DNC must change course and affirm our common humanity.”
