Uncommitted Delegates Speak Out After Sleeping Outside DNC to Protest Silencing of Palestinian Voices

AMY GOODMAN: Just outside the United Center, the convention center, we’re joined by Asma Mohammed, campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota and co-chair of the Minnesota uncommitted delegation, one of the 11 Minnesota uncommitted delegates at the DNC. She spent the entire night at the sit-in, though wasn’t planning to do that, and we were having her on to talk about Governor Walz. She is from Minneapolis.

But right now in this sit-in — that looked like it surprised all of you last night when you got word that your request for a Palestinian American speaker had been denied — can you describe what you understand is happening? I understand that Roger Lau, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee, stayed with you all overnight, concerned that — he wanted to make sure you weren’t arrested. But you haven’t had your demands met. Explain why you’re sitting there, Asma. I know the video might be a little dodgy here, but we thought it was really important to hear your voice from the sit-in site.

ASMA MOHAMMED: Yeah, and I will have Abbas share in a moment, as well. But it was important to sit here, because the demand hasn’t been met. We set the lowest bar for our party. And we’ve gotten questions like, “Why? Why now? Why is now the time?” Because this is our party. I spent over a decade of my life organizing for Democrats up and down the ballot, professionally. It is within my right as a Democrat to ask for a Palestinian. I’m not a Palestinian myself, but I’m advocating for a Palestinian, like Ruwa Romman, like Abdelnasser Rashid, like the brilliant Palestinian elected leaders and representatives that we have, to be able to have a chance to speak to what has been happening in Gaza over the past 10 months, to be able to speak to what they’re feeling right now as Palestinian Americans.

And to have that denied reminded me — it made me feel that this tent, this party, isn’t big enough. And I think for those who are watching, the messages that I’ve been getting from people in my community is: Do we have a place in this party right now? And as a Democrat, I never want to send that message to my people. I never want my people to feel like they don’t have a place in this party. I’m going to give it to Abbas.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, sitting alongside you, Asma, we see Abbas Alawieh, who has also been there overnight. Abbas, if you could talk about how this night has passed and what kind of response you’re expecting now from the DNC?

ABBAS ALAWIEH: Thank you so much. It’s great to be on with you.

As uncommitted delegates, Asma and I are 30 uncommitted delegates who came to the convention supporting a ceasefire that stops the bombs and that reunites all captives, all Israeli and Palestinian captives, with their families. We came here as 30 uncommitted delegates. We’ve been organizing as we’re here. A whole bunch of Harris delegates have joined us. We’re almost 300, what we’re calling, ceasefire delegates. The position that we’re representing is widely popular among Democrats. We need to stop sending weapons that kill civilians. That’s how we achieve a ceasefire. Those are the demands of our movement.

As we are continuing to push those demands, we had a secondary ask, that we thought — we think our demands are very reasonable. Stop killing people we love. But we had a secondary ask that we thought for sure was a slam dunk in the party of representation, in the party where everybody gets to at least be heard. We thought that in the party that allowed for an Uber executive to speak from the main stage — Uber, a company that treats its workers terribly, I might add — in this party, at least they would allow for a Palestinian American to speak from the stage in this moment when our own government has contributed so profoundly, unfortunately, horrifically, to the pain that Palestinians and Palestinian Americans are experiencing.

And so, overnight, we were thinking about our central demand. We need our government to stop sending weapons. We also, honestly, are in a state of shock. This level of silencing, this level of exclusion, this does not belong in our Democratic Party. And we know that the majority of Democratic voters across the country agree with us. We are appalled the Democratic Party leadership have given us an answer of no. We hope that will not be their final answer. We’re still sitting out here right in front of the United Center. I have my phone. I’m waiting for the Democratic Party to call back and tell us, hopefully, that this is not a party that silences Palestinians and those advocating for Palestinian human rights

AMY GOODMAN: When we heard you were having the sit-in and we raced over to the United Center, you all seemed as surprised as anyone to be having this, as you got what you thought at the time was the final no, though nothing is final. But you do have the executive director of the DNC right there, of the Democratic National Committee. Asma Mohammed, is that right? Roger Lau. And can you ask him these questions? I mean, he stayed with you all overnight.

ABBAS ALAWIEH: Yeah. So, we’ve been in touch with a whole bunch of folks, both at the DNC and on Vice President Harris’s team. So it’s not just one individual. We know that everybody in Democratic leadership has been aware of this request. So, the issue isn’t with any one individual.

The issue is with, unfortunately, a systematic problem in our party, a systematic problem in our country, where there are pro-war forces. There are pro-war forces in our country. They’re not the majority. We’re the majority, and we’re going to win. We will end the war. That’s what the American people want. But there are pro-war forces that make money off of every additional bomb that drops and kills babies. That is the difficult thing that we’re sitting in.

And for some reason, after a very long back-and-forth with the DNC, where they — where we were feeding them names, and we were having member of Congress after member of Congress also get in touch with the vice president’s team, and folks pushing from the inside — after all of that, and after we felt we were very close, out of nowhere — out of nowhere, the answer is no. Someone vetoed it. I don’t know who they are. They probably oppose Palestinian human rights. But we are people who support all human rights. We support human rights for all people, including Palestinians. And we are the majority in this country.

ASMA MOHAMMED: Eighty-six percent of Democrats support a ceasefire. I know the people at this convention want to hear from a Palestinian. They need to hear from a Palestinian. As someone who isn’t Palestinian, I want to hear from a Palestinian on that main stage. They deserve that stage. They need that stage. Do you not think that over the last 10 months, that we at least owe Palestinian Americans that? I do.

AMY GOODMAN: Asma, we originally booked you before this sit-in. You were going to be in the studio. You are an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota. And we wanted to ask you — and we’ll end with this question: What is your governor, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was speaking inside the convention center, where you planned to be last night, as you all sat down outside — what is his position around the uncommitted delegates and around Gaza?

ASMA MOHAMMED: Around uncommitted voters, he’s been actually very kind. After we 46,000 voters joined us to say that we want an end to the genocide, he said, “Those people need to be heard.” And right now he has an opportunity to tell his running mate to hear us. He has an opportunity to say, “We need to let them take the main stage.” He has an opportunity to say, “We need to stop sending bombs.” So, if he feels like we need to be heard, like he said on March 6th, the day after the primary election in Minnesota, then he needs to make that very clear in this moment, because, as Minnesotans, we always, always reference late Senator Paul Wellstone, and we say, “We all do better when we all do better.” Well, I think that includes Palestinians, too.

AMY GOODMAN: Asma Mohammed, we want to thank you so much for being with us, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, and Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan. They are both taking part in a sit-in. We’re speaking to them where they are, just outside the United Center, just outside the Democratic National Convention.