Uncommitted Delegates Launch Sit-In After DNC Rejects Request for a Palestinian Speaker at Convention

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday was headlined by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepting the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nomination. The evening featured a host of celebrity speakers and prominent Democrats, but the most solemn portion of the evening was an address by the parents of an American Israeli hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who has been held in Gaza since October 7th. Polin’s parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, wore pieces of tape with the number 320, marking the number of days their son has been held hostage. As they spoke, the convention hall was largely silent. In his remarks, Jon Polin also called for an end to the war in Gaza.

JON POLIN: There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners. In our Jewish tradition, we say, ”Kol adam olam um lo’o,” “Every person is an entire universe.” We must save all these universes. In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse groups of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Jon Polin, the father of American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, addressing the Democratic National Convention last night.

At the same time, delegates with the “uncommitted” movement received word that their request for a Palestinian American to address the convention was denied by the DNC and the Harris campaign. Uncommitted delegates were selected in state Democratic primaries earlier this year to call for an end to the Biden administration’s backing of Israel in its assault on Gaza.

After the Democratic National Committee denied their request for a Palestinian American speaker onstage, uncommitted delegates and their allies staged a sit-in outside the convention hall. They remained throughout the night; the sit-in is still ongoing at the time of this broadcast. These are some of the voices from that sit-in last evening, beginning with the co-founder of the uncommitted movement, Abbas Alawieh.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: The Democratic Party is actively suppressing a Palestinian American from speaking from the stage. We urge the Democratic Party to reconsider. I’ve worked across the aisle. I’ve written bipartisan bills. I was a congressional staffer. I’m proud of it. I’m proud that I was a Democratic congressional staffer. And so, as part of our negotiation with the DNC, we gave them a list of names. One such name is a Palestinian American elected representative from Georgia. Her name is Ruwa Romman. And for some reason, Ruwa didn’t pass the vetting. And I want to know what the issue is. I want Ruwa to speak.

REP. RUWA ROMMAN: Good evening, everybody. My name is Ruwa Romman. I am a Georgia state representative. I am an elected Democrat. I come from the swing state of Georgia.

We are not here to create any divisions. As my colleagues have said over and over and over again, the only reason we are here — the only reason we are here — is to ensure that Donald Trump will never make it to the White House, and save the lives of the people that we love. It’s about the fact that today I watched my party say, “Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,” but it can’t fit an elected official like me? I do not understand. I do not understand why being a Palestinian has become disqualifying in this country.

I don’t know how much more we have to prove. All of us have decade-or-more-long résumés working for this party, because we know that this party is the only one that’s ever tried to meet the promise of our country. We are here to literally save the soul of our party. I do not understand why that is a bad thing.

This would have truly and sincerely been a beautiful gesture to show this party cares about the cries of an Israeli child the same way they care about the cries of a Palestinian child. We are not asking for too much. All we wanted was to be on that stage and show people desperate for hope there is something to hope for.

JUNE ROSE: My name is June Rose. I came into this week feeling hopeful. When President Biden was the nominee, I felt hopeless, hopeless because our presidential nominee, who we were putting forth to take on Donald Trump, was enabling a genocide of Palestinians, was providing the bombs used in the genocide of Palestinians, and hopeless because I felt, like so many others, that he had no chance of beating Donald Trump anyways. And then Vice President Harris became the nominee, and I felt hopeful. For the first time in a long time, I felt like we might beat Donald Trump. And then I heard her speak about Palestinians. I heard her speak when Benjamin Netanyahu, a genocidal leader, came and visited this country, and disgracefully, Congress let him speak in front of it, and I heard empathy in her voice for Palestinian suffering. And I thought, “Maybe we’re turning a page. Maybe we’ll get something different.”

What is a bigger issue in this moment than in the midst of a housing crisis where no one can afford a place to live, in the midst of a climate crisis posing an existential threat to our planet, when every single dollar in this country is meaningful towards creating the world that we want to see, and instead billions of dollars going to kill children across the world, billions of dollars, instead of addressing the crises in front of us, are going to tear families apart, where generations are wiped off the map, where children will have to go the rest of their lives without knowing another member of their family? Is that what we pay taxes for? Is that what we elect these people to do?

SABRENE ODEH: My name is Sabrene Odeh, and I’m an uncommitted delegate from Washington state, a Palestinian uncommitted delegate from Washington state. To know as a Palestinian, my voice, my people’s voice is not important enough to be on the main stage is heartbreaking.

The Palestinians in Gaza are suffering the most unimaginable circumstances. These are teachers. These are doctors. These are artists. These are dreamers. They deserve to live. All four of my grandparents were survivors of the Nakba from a village called al-Malha in Palestine. My family still lives in a refugee camp, internally displaced in the West Bank to this day. They live under occupation to this day, since 1948.

How many more Palestinians need to die until the American government stops sending arms to kill them? What more do we have to do? What more do we have to do? They have our names on the lists of the dead. They have our sisters’ names, our brothers’ names, our parents’ names, our grandparents’ names.

ASMA MOHAMMED: Asma Mohammed. I’m the co-chair of the Minnesota delegation of uncommitted delegates. Every single one of us who are sitting here have been getting calls and texts from our family members and people from our community, the nearly 740 — no, the nearly million voters who voted for us to be here as delegates, asking what’s happening, asking for updates on what is happening, because they asked for us to be here. They elected us as delegates to be here to represent them inside.

They wanted a reason to support the vice president. They wanted us to leave this convention saying Vice President Harris supported a plan for a ceasefire, and she did that by putting in an arms embargo. She did that by stopping the bombs. Imagine all 1 million, nearly 1 million of those voters watching right now and saying, “That party isn’t representing me right now.” I want you to imagine you are a young Muslim woman watching right now. You’re a Palestinian watching right now. You’re a young anti-Zionist Jew watching right now. You’re a Gen Z voter watching right now, wondering, “How is this party representing me in this moment?” wondering, “Where do I fit in?”

When I was organizing in Minnesota, we got 46,000 votes in just eight days. Imagine if we had the three weeks that Abbas had in Michigan. I imagine we’d have a lot more.

UNIDENTIFIED: We do it.

ASMA MOHAMMED: Yeah, we do it. We do it.

UNIDENTIFIED: Challenge accepted.

ASMA MOHAMMED: Challenge accepted. At this convention, I brought a young Muslim woman with me who the other day said, “Asma, sometimes it feels like they don’t even want us here.”

I challenge you, Vice President Harris, to make Palestinians, to make young Muslims, to make the anti-Zionist Jews, to make Gen Z voters welcome in this party, to remind everyone that this tent is big enough for all of us, to remind everyone that we can be the Democratic Party that stands up for human rights, the one that I know and love, because I know the Republican Party does not give a damn about me. I know that this party is the only party that can and will uphold human rights. I want a reason to believe in this party again. Give us that reason, Vice President Harris.

DAN ENGELHART: Dan Engelhart. It’s a big night for Minnesota. I’m from Minnesota, uncommitted delegate. In 2002, I was staff. We had a paid canvass for the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who voted against the Iraq War, and the polls went up. Tim Walz likes to talk about Paul Wellstone. They need to have that courage and realize that people respond to that. And we all know that that was a horrible mistake, the Iraq War. And this is exponentially worse, what’s happening with our bombs and our money.

With 70 — a little over 70 days left, this is about winning. I’ve been doing a lot of talking to delegates here and getting people to sign that letter and come out and support. Somebody in the elevator said — she was really having a hard time, and she finally got it out and said, “So, do you think Palestine matters more than saving democracy?” And I said, “They are connected. They are absolutely connected. That’s what this is about.”

ASMA MOHAMMED: Now that the vice-presidential pick is our Governor Tim Walz, you’re going to hear him and people from Minnesota talk a lot about Paul Wellstone and the famous quote, “We all do better when we all do better.” That should include Palestinians. I say that to the vice-presidential pick: Governor Walz, if you’re hearing this, we all do better when we all do better, and that includes Palestinians.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: I’ve got June Rose right here. We became quick siblings through this work. I didn’t know June before. I didn’t know that June lived in Israel and that I had a very different experience and that we would end up, in this moment, speaking up for our siblings, who are no different than June and I, in Gaza. We make siblings with people who are willing to put themselves on the line, who are willing to put their names on the line, who are willing to take the professional risk to do the right thing. One such sibling I’ve gained very quickly, Lily Greenberg Call, who will tell you herself who she is and why she’s here. Lily.

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Well, I saw the live stream, and I had to come down and join all these brave folks. My name is Lily Greenberg Call. I am a Jewish American. I was a Kamala staffer. And until May 15th, I was an appointee in the Biden-Harris administration, and I resigned in protest of the president’s unconditional support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

PROTESTERS: Thank you! Thank you!

LILY GREENBERG CALL: I resigned because for 10 months I watched the president, who was my boss, who I was supposed to represent, this administration that I was supposed to serve, the American — you know, serve the American people through this administration — I watched the president make my community the face of this war machine. I watched him use our safety and abuse and abuse the death of my friends on October 7th.

I’m very proud to be a Jewish person. It’s the first thing I identify as. It is the most important part of what makes me a person. And I grew up in a really beautiful Jewish community, very strong, went to Jewish day school for 20 years, did Torah study, chose to do text study in high school in my free time because I was a nerd.

And I grew up learning that Judaism, at the end of the day, is about a lot of things. We can’t really agree on anything. That’s kind of our whole shtick. We say “two Jews, 10 opinions.” The word “Israel” means wrestle with God. That’s the name Jacob was given after wrestling with angels. I learned that to be Jewish is to question authority, is to know that laws and the people who make them do not always have your best interests at heart, because we, as Jewish people, know what it is like to be persecuted, know what it is like to be victims of state-sponsored violence, know what it is like to have an entire country dedicate itself to your extermination. That is what I learned about being Jewish, that because of that obligation, you stand up for other people.

UNIDENTIFIED: That’s my congresswoman! That’s my congresswoman!

ABBAS ALAWIEH: The most honorable from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is here.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: I love you all.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: We love you.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: And I am pained by the fact that we have to go through this, that everybody doesn’t feel the pain and the anguish of others as we talk about seeing people as their neighbors, that that is not extended to Palestinians.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: Doesn’t make any sense.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: And it’s almost certainly mostly never really extended to anybody that is Muslim, which — which is sad. And I hate that we have to beg for our humanity to be recognized, for our children’s pain, the loss of their dreams and aspirations. But as those who came before us never lost hope, we are not going to lose hope.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: We’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re going to win.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: And I am in this with you all for as long as it takes.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: We love you, Congresswoman.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: Yes.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: Thank you for leading.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: Please do not — do not despair.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: I have an update: The vice president’s team is aware of what we’re doing here. DNC leadership is aware of what we’re doing here. We’ve been trying to have this conversation in private. This is a moment when over 16,000 children have been killed, with the help of U.S. bombs, in contravention of international humanitarian law and American law. So we were trying to be reasonable. We are reasonable. We feel like we’re being very reasonable. Just let a Palestinian American speak.

And so, the response that we just received is, a speaker is not happening. Could something else work? Would you be open to a private meeting? And I want to be clear: This is a conversation that is long overdue. Our party is long overdue for a reckoning about Palestinian human rights. There is no suppressing this conversation. We will not be silenced. We will not be silenced. If you believe me, say, “We will not be silent.”

PROTESTERS: We will not be silent.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: We will not be silent.

PROTESTERS: We will not be silent.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Abbas Alawieh, the co-founder of the uncommitted movement. Formerly, he was the chief of staff of Congressmember Cori Bush. He, along with other uncommitted delegates and their allies, are still at the sit-in just outside the United Convention Center, waiting for a call from the Democratic National Committee or the Harris campaign.

Joining us here in the studio at CAN TV in Chicago is Jeremiah Ellison. He’s a Minneapolis city councilmember, one of the 30 uncommitted delegates at the DNC. He was at the sit-in last night until the early hours. He was going inside the convention for the speeches and coming outside, as well.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you give us an update on what’s taking place just outside? This is a sit-in these uncommitted delegates did not plan to have.

JEREMIAH ELLISON: Yeah, no, we didn’t plan it at all. And, you know, I think we initially thought that our demands were going to get met. We’ve had good conversations with the DNC throughout the week. Abbas and Layla Elabed have been really great about those conversations. But when we were denied the chance to have a speaker — and we’re not asking for someone from uncommitted to speak. We’re not asking for any of our members to speak. We’re asking for a Palestinian American to address the crowd. There are tons of Palestinian American elected officials who have endorsed the administration, who can speak on this issue, who can speak for their families. That’s the request, not for us to be up on that stage. And when the DNC denied that request, it felt like, you know, this is a low bar, we can’t take no for an answer here.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Was there any explanation given?

JEREMIAH ELLISON: No, there was no explanation given, not any that we thought would — you know, not any that was communicated to us, just it’s a no.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go to the sit-in in the second hour of Democracy Now!, where some of the people were sleeping. Also, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee, Roger Lau, stayed overnight to ensure that they weren’t arrested?

JEREMIAH ELLISON: Yeah. I left around 2 a.m. to get some folks home, but that’s my understanding from, you know, my colleagues on the ground, is that Roger Lau was there.

AMY GOODMAN: So, we’ll get more information. Also congressmembers visited the site. Ilhan Omar, congressmember from Minneapolis, your city, and also Summer Lee. On the phone, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congressmember, also called in. Jeremiah, we’re going to ask you to stay with us as we have a discussion about Tim Walz, who has just accepted the nomination as a vice-presidential candidate last night here in Chicago. Jeremiah Ellison is a Minneapolis city councilmember, one of 30 uncommitted delegates at the DNC. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: Stevie Wonder performing “Higher Ground” last night at the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago.