Pro-Palestinian delegates to Democratic convention to push for Israel arms embargo

[August 19, 2024]  By Andrea Shalal

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at U.S. support for Israel's offensive in Gaza, are seeking changes in the Democratic platform and plan to press for an arms embargo this week, putting the party on guard for disruptions to high-profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago.

Calling itself "Delegates Against Genocide," the pro-Palestinian group says it will exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events at the four-day Democratic National Convention convening on Monday to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the Nov. 5 election against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Group organizers declined to give details, but said they were encouraging supporters to wear Palestinian keffiyehs, or scarves, and to carry Palestinian flags, and would seek changes in the party platform, while urging delegates to speak on the convention floor.

On Sunday night, a crowd of roughly 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting "Shut down the DNC."

President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday.

Pro-Palestinian delegates say they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform.

The group wants to include language backing enforcement of laws that ban giving military aid to individuals or security forces that commit gross violations of human rights.

"We're going to make our voices heard," said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed an alternative platform along with 34 other delegates. "Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to stand up and be heard even when the authority in the room says to shut up."

"They want the convention to go smoothly. They don't want to have any kind of disruption or any kind of statement or anything like that," he told Reuters at an event hosted by Chicago's large Palestinian population. "I'm sorry. A convention is a political engagement vehicle, okay? And if we're not using it for that, then it's just a beauty pageant."

The Harris campaign declined to comment.

BIDEN SEEKS A CEASEFIRE

The party's draft platform released in mid-July calls for "an immediate and lasting ceasefire" in the war and the release of remaining hostages taken to Gaza during an Oct. 7 attack by Islamist militant Hamas fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.

The platform does not mention the more than 40,000 people that Palestinian health authorities in Gaza say have been killed in Israel's subsequent offensive. Nor does it mention any plans to curtail U.S. arms shipments to Israel.

The United States approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel on Tuesday.

Mediators including the U.S. have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Biden put forward in May but so far have not succeeded.

Chicago, August 18, 2024. REUTERS/Marco Bello

The Israel-Hamas war, now in its 11th month, reduced support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent crucial votes in election battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

While the activists make up a tiny fraction of convention delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could mar the party's plan to unify Democrats around Harris after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 under pressure from fellow Democrats.

'I WILL NOT BE SILENT,' HARRIS SAYS

Pro-Palestinian activists say Harris has been more sympathetic to Gazans than Biden has been. Her national security adviser said on X this month that she does not support an arms embargo on Israel.

But after meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris told reporters not only that Israel had a right to defend itself but also in reference to Gaza: "We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

Some 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to demonstrate against the Biden administration's position on Israel. Organizers say the number could swell to over 100,000.

Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at Florida's Barry University and a delegate, said there were about 60 Muslim delegates, a fraction of the 5,000 overall. But their concerns were shared by others, especially young voters, some of whom have disengaged with the party, she said.

The Uncommitted National Movement, a separate effort pushing Democrats to change policy on Israel that won over 30 delegates in primary elections, also wants an arms embargo.

It has focused, unsuccessfully so far, on winning a main-stage speaking slot for a Palestinian American or Gaza humanitarian worker, although organizers agreed on Saturday to add a daytime panel discussion on Arab and Palestinian issues to Monday's agenda and one on antisemitism. Jewish Americans, traditionally Democratic voters, have voiced concern about rising anti-Jewish activity and Muslims have denounced rising American Islamophobia.

Layla Elabed, the Uncommitted National co-chair, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim ally of Biden's, and a doctor who has worked on the Gaza frontlines will be among speakers on the first panel, sources said.

Uncommitted, which said it is not planning to disrupt the convention proceedings, is pressing Harris to make a statement about the use of U.S. weapons to kill Palestinians.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Joey Roulette and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons, Howard Goller and Michael Perry)

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