Palestinian speaker expected to appear at final DNC night – The Forward

CHICAGO — The coach-turned-candidate delivered a pep talk filled with sports metaphors as he accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday night: In the fourth quarter, he was down by a field goal but carrying, blocking and tackling. Meanwhile, just outside the doors of the United Center, another sports metaphor was playing out: what in tennis is called an “unforced error” or in soccer, an “own goal.”

Delegates representing the 700,000 primary voters who cast “non-committal” ballots to protest the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza began the sit-in with a simple demand: that a Palestinian-American join the array of people speaking from the convention’s main stage, something that has so far, disconcertingly, been deemed out of reach.

The Uncommitted movement also called on Vice President Kamala Harris to support its call for an arms embargo on Israel, a measure that is — and should be — doomed to fail. But it should have been an easy win for the Democratic National Committee and Harris’ campaign:

Of course, the convention and the country should hear from a Palestinian this week, just as they heard so powerfully Wednesday night from the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polinone of more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Rejecting the “uncommitted” movement’s claim flies in the face of Democrats’ claim to be the party of inclusiveness. It flies in the face of the message of “freedom” preached from the United Center podium, because freedom includes freedom of speech.

It also contradicts what Harris herself said she told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, days after President Joe Biden stepped aside and, like our gold-medal relay runners on the track, handed him the baton.

“We cannot look away from these tragedies,” Harris said of what she called “the deaths of too many innocent civilians” in Gaza. “We cannot afford to become numb to the suffering, and I will not remain silent.”

So why don’t she and her team let the Palestinians speak out in Chicago?

I don’t know, because DNC and campaign spokespeople did not respond to my request Thursday.

Waleed Shahid of the National Uncommitted Movement said party and campaign officials were at the site from the start of the sit-in, around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, until around 3 a.m. Thursday, trying to find a solution with the dissident delegates. They proposed meetings with junior Democratic Party staffers, Shahid said, and then with more senior staffers.

What they didn’t offer was a slot in tonight’s program, which will conclude with the most important speech of her life, delivered by Harris herself.

“It was so painful to see their reactions,” Shahid added, tears in his eyes. “Not being able to speak for two, three or four minutes on the stage of a party that advocates equal rights for all.”

Shahid said his group has been calling for about two months for the DNC to bring in a Palestinian-American speaker and has submitted “countless names” as possibilities, including state lawmakers from Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Virginia. Mother Jones The magazine published a Thursday project of what one of these legislators, Representative Ruwa RommanI meant.

Shahid, the Uncommitted spokesman, said the movement “fully supports” the decision to have Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel and Jon, speak at the convention, but “to do so to the exclusion of the Palestinian-American experience does not seem to align with the values ​​of the party.”

After months of lamenting how the conflicts over Israel and Gaza threaten to divide Democrats, the war was largely absent from the debates this week. A pro-Palestinian rally on Monday attracted only a few thousand peoplea fraction of what organizers had anticipated. Only a handful of speakers have addressed the issue, generally calling for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the same breath. Pollsters and pundits say the war is unlikely to be a factor in November.

I agree with you: this election is in no way a referendum on Israel-Gaza, as some activists claim. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. And, as Harris told Netanyahu, it means we shouldn’t deflect from any aspect of this issue.

Democratic voters and all Americans—and especially American Jews—can and should hear the testimony of Hersh’s parents and also of the Palestinians whose loved ones have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. We can mourn for them and with them. It is the Jewish thing—and the human thing—to do.

Over the past year, too many people, on all sides, have tried to portray this conflict as a sports game in which there is a clear winner and a loser, and observers must choose a team. This includes anti-Zionist activists who have tried to cancel Jewish authorsand a misguided college administrators who forbade students from decorating their dormitory doors. This includes Jewish leaders who say we are “not safe” when in reality we are simply uncomfortable.

The Democratic Party – or the Republican Party – should not be attending. (No, last month’s Republican convention in Milwaukee did not feature any Palestinian speakers. So this is another opportunity for Harris to distance herself from her opponent.)

On Thursday, the United Auto Workers supported the demand by uncommitted delegates for a Palestinian speaker, and a group called Muslim Women for Harris Disbanded despite the Democrats’ refusal to do so.

Tweets of support for the sit-in were also posted. Alana Zeitchikan Israeli-American whose family members were among the 240 hostages kidnapped on October 7 — one of whom remains in captivity — and who appeared on the show “Jewish Women for Kamala“Zoom call.

“Rachel and Jon deserved every second on that stage,” Zeitchik wrote. “I also believe that a Palestinian-American voice deserves to be heard on that stage.”

The Goldberg-Polins were among 40 speakers Wednesday night, and more than 100 since the convention began. We heard from actors and activists, candidates’ relatives, first responders and “content creators,” former presidents (and their spouses), even two lead-pipe removal advocates and a basketball coach.

It’s not too late to add a Palestinian-American to tonight’s list.