‘They want to erase us:’ How DNC rejected demand for Palestinian speaker

Chicago, Illinois – Abbas Alawieh sat cross-legged on the ground outside the Democratic National Convention in an almost meditative posture.

Stretched out on the concrete in front of him were signs that read “Not another bomb” and “Arms embargo now”, their four corners pinned down by water bottles.

The searing August sun glared against his forehead. But Alawieh did not move, even as the concrete around him grew hot.

He and other delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement are staging a sit-in to protest the Democrats’ refusal to allow a Palestinian American speaker on the convention’s main stage at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

“This Palestinian speaker situation is a mistake on the party’s end, and I think that’s why we’re seeing an outpouring of support for the idea,” he told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

The Democratic National Committee confirmed its decision on Wednesday evening, sparking outrage from many progressives and Democratic-allied groups.

For many activists, turning down the request signalled an effort to silence Palestinians and exclude them from the “big tent” coalition that the Democratic Party claims to be building.

The move also highlighted the uphill political battle that Palestinian rights advocates say they are facing in their push to challenge the US’s unconditional support for Israel, as it wages a devastating war in Gaza.

That conflict has been looming over the Democratic convention, where the party has been celebrating and promoting Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy since Monday.

The ‘uncommitted’

Approximately 30 “uncommitted” delegates earned a spot at the event in Chicago after hundreds of thousands of people cast protest votes in the Democratic primaries against President Joe Biden’s staunch backing of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Uncommitted National Movement emerged out of that protest movement. It wants Harris to back an immediate, permanent ceasefire and impose an arms embargo on Israel.

The call for a Palestinian speaker at the convention was the simplest of their demands, advocates explained. And it still got turned down.

Nevertheless, Alawieh said the movement’s presence at the convention has succeeded in bringing attention to the issue, as evidenced by the media frenzy around him on Thursday.

“We are forcing a conversation about a critical issue: Palestinian human rights,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We’re forcing a conversation about a critical issue that otherwise would not be discussed here, which is the need for an arms embargo that saves lives and that delivers a lasting ceasefire. That’s what we’re doing here, and that’s what we’re going to continue doing long after here.”

After more than 10 months of Israeli bombing in Gaza, the Palestinian death toll has spiralled past 40,000 people, provoking fears of a genocide.

Rights advocates have called for a meaningful shift in US policy towards Israel, a country it has provided military and diplomatic support to.

After Biden stepped out of the presidential race in July, some activists saw an opportunity as Harris took over as the Democratic nominee.

The vice president, after all, expressed sympathy for Palestinian suffering and called for an end to the war. But advocates say they want to see action, not mere rhetoric.

‘They want to erase us’

In Chicago, the “uncommitted” delegates have said that their aim is to convince Harris that aligning with their “popular” demands would help her win in November’s presidential election, when she faces her Republican rival Donald Trump.

But rejecting a brief speech by a representative of the Palestinian American community appears to have had a profound effect on the delegates and their allies.

At a news conference earlier on Thursday, progressive political strategist Waleed Shahid took deep breaths to keep his tears at bay as he recounted how the request for a Palestinian speaker was turned down after two months of making the demand.

“We came here with the intention of mobilising our communities for Vice President Harris to defeat Donald Trump,” said Shahid, whose black blazer covered a beige shirt that read, “Democratic majority for Palestine”.

He added that the demand for a speaker was just about including “Palestinian Americans as part of this party, just like any other community”.

On Wednesday evening, the convention featured the parents of an Israeli-American captive held in Gaza.

“The platform of the party says that our Democratic Party believes that Israelis and Palestinians are equal,” Shahid said. “What happened last night is not in line with the value of the party.”

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who spoke virtually at the news conference, said the Democratic leadership does not want to hear the voices of Palestinians calling for an end to atrocities in Gaza.

“They want to erase us,” she said. “They want to pretend that Palestinians and the voices that we have and the harm and the hurt [don’t] exist.”

Several speakers noted that the Chicago area is home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in the country, but Palestinians were still excluded from the main stage at the convention.

Lawmakers voice support for delegates

Additionally to Tlaib, several lawmakers have voiced solidarity with the “uncommitted” delegates. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who delivered a forceful endorsement of Harris on Monday, phoned Alawieh at the sit-in on Wednesday evening to express her support.

Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who represents parts of Chicago, said many of the 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza were relatives of his constituents.

“As Chicago hosts the National Democratic Convention, we cannot ignore the Chicagoland Palestinian community as one of the largest in the country — and they, too, deserve to be reflected on the national stage,” Garcia said in a statement.

“It is crucial to recognize the humanity of the Palestinian community tonight with the Palestinian speaker.”

The United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest unions in the country, also called for a Palestinian speaker at the convention.

“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 union said in a social media post.

The UAW is particularly strong in the swing state of Michigan, home to the US car industry, which also happens to have the largest concentration of Arabs in the country.

Michigan state Representative Alabas Farhat told Al Jazeera at the sit-in that Democrats must listen to and acknowledge the pain of Palestinians and Arab Americans.

“There’s a genocide going on, and this government is playing an active role in enabling it in many ways,” he said. “Here today, the nominee for the Democratic Party is laying out a vision that has to include us.”

He said his constituents are “frustrated” with the political process, stressing that Harris has “work to do” to earn the votes of people in the antiwar movement.

Civic engagement implications

Biden, a Democrat, has provided staunch support for Israel throughout the war, leading some activists to question whether to work with the Democratic Party.

Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC, which has been organising protests around the convention, said there was “no chance” that the Democratic Party would let a Palestinian speaker address the convention.

While he saluted the “uncommitted” delegates’ efforts, he argued that it is more important to unite with other communities to “organise in the streets” and push for social justice.

“Clearly, the powers that be are not listening to us. They don’t care about what’s going on with [us], and they’re not going to stop the genocide unless we force them to,” he told Al Jazeera at a protest on Wednesday.

Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), which has been promoting civic engagement in Arab communities for years, said the Democrats’ decision to exclude Palestinians from the convention stage sends the wrong message about political participation.

“Our theory of change is based on saying: If you want something to happen, you must participate in the process,” she told Al Jazeera outside the United Center.

“And the very people who are participating in the process, who have devoted their lives to this process, had to step outside from inside that convention to spend the night here … because democracy didn’t work on Palestine. That can’t be the lesson,” she added.

“This is political malpractice that is harming people’s connection to their democracy.”