Over the past ten months, Minnesota state representative Ilhan Omar has been one of the lone voices in the U.S. political Establishment to consistently speak out in support of the Palestinian people. On Wednesday, she joined a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Democratic National Convention.
CNN reports that the sit-in was organized by Uncommitted Movement co-founder Abbas Alawieh after he received a phone call from a DNC official denying the group’s request for a Palestinian speaker. The demonstration followed a statement by the Uncommitted Movement — an anti-war, pro-Palestinian group of would-be Democratic voters who are choosing to stay uncommitted in order to advocate for a cease-fire in Palestine and an arms embargo against Israel — calling for Palestinian voices to be heard at the convention. “We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” the statement read.
As protesters at the sit-in read out the names of Palestinian children who have been killed in the genocide, some DNC attendees were filmed covering their ears as they passed by:
The Uncommitted statement noted that the group had provided the Democratic Party with a list of names of potential speakers. Georgia Representative Ruwa Romman, who would have been a potential pick to speak, tweeted that her speech would’ve “urged us to unite behind Harris, criticized Trump, and spoke about the promise of this moment” and later published the full speech with Mother Jones.
Omar wasn’t the only politician calling for Palestinian voices to be heard at the DNC. AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and others — including United Auto Workers — tweeted their support:
Meanwhile, the group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz said in a statement that they would be disbanding following the news. “We cannot in good conscience, continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the Uncommitted Movement, that VP Harris’ team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC.”
Over the course of the DNC this week, the violence in Gaza has gone nearly without mention on the main stage. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Omar gave a speech alongside Uncommitted activists that expressed her support for the effort and her pride in the 32 percent of constituents in her own district who cast uncommitted ballots in the Democratic presidential primaries. “It’s been unconscionable for me, in the last ten months, to witness my colleagues in this administration refusing to recognize the genocidal war that is taking place in Gaza; to not see the mothers who have lost countless children, the babies whose dead bodies are being dug out, to not understand that working tirelessly for a cease-fire is really not a thing, and they should be ashamed of themselves for saying such things,” she said. “Because we supply these weapons, so if you really wanted a cease-fire, you’d just stop sending the weapons.”
Her comments were widely interpreted as being a response to AOC’s DNC speech on Monday, in which she said that Kamala Harris “is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home.” It’s worth noting, however, that Omar tweeted in support of AOC’s speech, and on Wednesday she went on to talk specifically about the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “How do we allow our secretary of state to go into Israel, say, ‘We are close to securing a cease-fire,’ now for the 11th time, to leave for Egypt, only for Bibi Netanyahu to have a press conference right after him and say, ‘We are not taking a deal that ends this war?’” She went on to thank the uncommitted voters and her colleagues Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.
As for Kamala Harris, when she was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters at a rally earlier this month, she responded defensively, saying, “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” According to the New York Times, she met with Alawieh and his Uncommitted Movement co-founder, Layla Elabed, earlier that same day. Describing the meeting, a campaign spokeperson told the Times that Harris had “reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities.” But as of right now, it sounds like the Harris-Walz campaign’s willingness to engage doesn’t include giving Palestinians a chance to speak for themselves at the DNC.
