After House Speaker Rejects, Uncommitted Movement Begins Sit-In Outside DNC – Mother Jones

Illustration by Mother Jones; photo courtesy of Noah Lanard

Wednesday evening, The Uncommitted movement held a surprise press conference outside the United Center Arena. Under giant, illuminated signs of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, delegate Abbas Alawieh announced that hours earlier, Harris’ campaign had called him. After about two months of requests, the Uncommitted movement had received the news: He would not be granted a speaking role at the Democratic National Convention.

That means that, barring changes, no Palestinian or Palestinian-American will get a chance to take the DNC stage. Alawieh, a longtime Democratic congressman — a man who has dedicated his life to working within the system — said he was “stunned” by the denial of the request: “I said, what do you mean? We just want our voices to be heard.”

At the DNC, Republican staffers were given a chance. An Uber lawyer who is prominent in the campaign got a prime-time slot. But not a single Palestinian got five minutes on stage. The Uncommitted movement tried, as Alawieh explained, to calm things down. He said they offered the DNC a long list of potential speakers — and even offered to find a Palestinian speaker who would endorse Kamala Harris from the stage. (Which, as Alawieh noted, “is a hard thing to do” right now.) They offered to send a pre-written speech, promising not to deviate from the script.

“I’ve had some pretty rough days, but to be honest, today was the cherry on top,” Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American representative from Georgia, wrote on X. Romman was one of the people the Uncommitted candidates offered to Harris’ campaign. “I don’t understand how there is room for an anti-choice Republican and not me in our party. I need someone to explain to me what I should do now.”

It was the smallest and most immediately achievable of the Uncommitted movement’s demands, a simple matter of representation. Their larger goals—a ceasefire, an arms embargo, an end to the slaughter of thousands of Palestinian children by American bombs—were not mentioned. And yet, after weeks of silence, the answer was “no.”

At the press conference, Alawieh picked up his phone and called Harris’ campaign back in front of his allies and reporters. “No, that’s not acceptable,” he said. Then he sat on the sidewalk and refused to move. “Call me if you change your mind. Thank you. Please pass it on. Tell the vice president I’m sitting outside. I’m not going anywhere. I hope you change her mind.”

At 9 a.m. Thursday, as Harris was ready to accept the nomination, Alawieh was still sitting on the sidewalk. He was joined by delegates June Rose, Sabrene Odeh and Rima Mohammad. Supporters brought them blankets to sit on as they struggled to get comfortable on the concrete.

Word of their sit-in spread. Representatives including Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) reached out to the group via FaceTime. About 30 minutes into the sit-in, other Democratic groups representing voters began speaking out. Muslim Women for Harris-Walz said they could not continue to advocate for the candidate in light of the decision. The United Auto Workers tweeted that “if we want peace, if we want real democracy, if we want to win this election,” a Palestinian must be allowed to speak from the stage.. Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish PAC that rarely speaks out on international issues, sent a rabbi to join the sit-in. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) arrived at the scene around 11 p.m. and hugged Alawieh, who was sobbing into her shoulder. As the clock ticked past midnight, delegates took turns talking about the more than 10,000 Palestinian children killed by the IDF, the targeting of civilians evident in Gaza hospitals, and their hope that maybe the Democratic Party would listen and stop the violence.

Harris’ campaign texted a counteroffer. “There will be no speakers,” they said. Would Uncommitted want to send representatives to a private meeting instead of speaking? Uncommitted representatives might have agreed to the meeting three weeks ago. But now it’s being presented as a way to deny a Palestinian presence “on the stage of a party that professes equal rights for all,” as Uncommitted organizer Waleed Shahid put it.

The denial comes in light of a convention that attempted to paint a picture of the strength of big tents among Democrats.

The day before the denial, former President Barack Obama preached to the DNC crowd about the need for unity. “Our politics have become so polarized lately that all of us — across all parties — seem so quick to assume the worst in each other unless they agree with us on every issue … Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace that we hope they will give us.” Obama then criticized the left in his party for failing to show sympathy to those who don’t always want to vote for Democrats. “If we’re going to convince those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and perhaps learn from them,” Obama said.

And yet this grace, this choice to listen and learn, did not extend to allowing a Palestinian to speak from the DNC podium. Instead, the uncommitted delegates remained on the sidewalk waiting. They plan to sit there until the end of the convention.

“My back hurts, my body is tired… it’s a real shock to the system,” Alawieh said early Thursday morning. “I guess most acts of repression, exclusion and silencing are.”

He still sounded confused, having run a campaign imbued with all the respectability that Democrats demand of dissidents: “We talked to the DNC, we offered options, we said we would identify someone who would be willing to express support for Vice President Harris… we did everything right, you know?”

Noah Lanard contributed reporting.

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