DNC panel discussion of Gaza War serves as an olive branch of sorts
CHICAGO– The Democratic Party has been divided for months by the war in Gazawhich led to a protest movement that threatened President Joe Biden’s electoral coalition.
But with Biden out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris now leading the party, there were some indicators Democratic National Convention Monday that Harris takes more assertive steps to defuse tensions.
Organizers said it was a first for party activists at the congress to have a forum to discuss the plight of people in Gaza, who have been bombed by Israel since Hamas attacked the country on October 7 and took hostages. They were also able to share deeply personal — and often heartbreaking — stories about family members who have died in the conflict.
While their core demands — a ceasefire and an end to U.S. support for Israel’s continued war — have yet to be met, the decision to allow activists to hold a forum amounted to Harris extending an olive branch. And it’s one that many doubt Biden would have extended if he were still the nominee.
James Zogby, a panelist and founder of the Arab American Institute, acknowledged that there was still dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party’s handling of the war in Gaza. But he said the forum was nonetheless a first.
“It’s not the price. The price is a change in policy,” Zogby said. “But what’s historic here is that we have an officially sanctioned panel to talk about it.”
For an hour, the panelists shared horrific stories of ruined lives, mutilated children and broken families.
Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American physician who treated patients in Gaza during the war, told the story of a young boy whose family had been killed and who told her he no longer wanted to live because everyone he loved “is now in heaven.”
The forum was the product of secret negotiations between Harris’ campaign and members of the so-called Movement of ‘non-committed’ — a group that encouraged Democratic voters to withhold their support from Biden and vote “undecided” during the primaries earlier this year to send a message.
Top Democrats had spent weeks meeting with “disengaged” voters and their allies — including a previously unreported meeting between Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan — in an effort to respond to criticism in key swing states like Michigan, which has a significant Arab-American population.
Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American from Dearborn who is a founder of the “uncommitted” movement and sister of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, said Harris’ candidacy offered a glimmer of hope and called the panel discussion a “small victory.”
“Biden has been a burden to the Democratic Party because of his unpopular and immoral (Gaza) policies. With Vice President Harris at the top of the ticket, the window of opportunity to move the Democratic Party is a little bit better,” Elabed said.
“On the other hand, President Biden will be in office until January,” Elabed said, “and we cannot wait for a transition of power … before we make a policy change.”
Elabed, who met Harris, said she found the vice president’s “empathy and compassion to be genuine and authentic,” but added that it’s not enough.
“We need more than sympathy and empathy,” because “Palestinian children cannot eat words,” Elabed said.