CHICAGO– Leaders of a “non-committed” movement that garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries across the country in protest of the war between Israel and Hamas have weeks of negotiations to secure a speaking engagement for a Palestinian American at the Democratic National Convention this week.
Negotiations stalled Wednesday night when leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement said a Democratic National Committee official called and gave a strong response: “The answer is no.”
The leader, Abbas Alawieh, a “non-committed” convention delegate and co-founder of the movement, described the call as shocking after weeks of conversations he found positive. In response, he and other delegates decided to stage a sit-in outside the United Center in Chicago, where the convention is being held. They spent the night on the sidewalk on Wednesday, vowing to stay until their request was granted or the convention ended Thursday night.
“When we ran out of options — doing everything we could and working from within, when we ran out of options as non-committed deputies, we just sat down together,” Alawieh said in an interview Thursday.
Harris’ campaign team declined to comment.
The sit-in at the United Center exposed the cracks in the Democratic Party, which has rallied behind Harris’ campaign, inspiring the vast majority of party members this week.
The news that the DNC had rejected the request of a Palestinian-American speaker came just a day after the parents of an Israeli American hostage held by Hamas has sparked new criticism from some on the left. The politically powerful United Autoworkers Union, which has signed Vice President Kamala Harris said in her presidential campaign that the party “needs to have a Palestinian-American speaker on the stage at the DNC tonight.”
Cook County, where Chicago and the convention are held, is home to the largest population of Palestinian-Americans in the country.
The party, however, is unfazed. The Senate’s top Democrat dismissed the potential political impact of the sit-in outside the convention. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer recalled Harris saying at the time protesters interrupted told her at a recent rally in Michigan that their disruptions could potentially benefit Republican Donald Trump.
“She said, ‘Be quiet, unless you want Trump elected,’” Schumer told a small group of reporters on Thursday ahead of the final night of the convention.
“We believe that we need unity, and there is overwhelming — I’ve never seen such unity,” he said. “A small handful of people doesn’t even represent anywhere near where the Democratic Party is right now.”
Tensions over the war in Gaza have escalated at times outside the convention center this week as thousands marched through Chicago to demand a ceasefire. A smaller group of activists clashed with the police Tuesday evening outside the Israeli consulate, arresting 56 people.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim Democrat, spoke at the convention on Wednesday, praising Harris for saying, “We need a ceasefire and an end to the loss of innocent lives in Gaza and we need to bring hostages home.” In an interview on Thursday, he said that “it’s not just the content of the message that’s important, it’s the messenger.”
“A Palestinian-American sharing their story, calling for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages, and urging everyone to support the ticket against fascism would be powerful,” Ellison said on social media Thursday.
Many other Democratic leaders urged the party to reconsider the request. In a statement, California Rep. Ro Khanna said that “the Democratic Party, which aspires to be the party of human rights, must not perpetuate this erasure of the Palestinian narrative in 2024.”
When asked during a roundtable discussion Thursday whether he agreed with the “uncommitted” delegates’ demand to add a Palestinian-American speaker to the DNC slate, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “Yes, of course.”
“We’re talking about thousands of babies and elderly people being abused by an act of war,” Johnson said. “You need to have a voice that can call for peace and for the release of hostages.”
According to Alawieh, the “Uncommitted” movement has produced a number of potential Palestinian Americans to speak at the convention, including Georgia state delegate Ruwa Romman.
Romman on Thursday released a draft of the speech she said she would give if asked. In it, she calls for Harris to be elected, Donald Trump to be defeated — and outlines demands for a ceasefire and to “stop the killing of Palestinians, free all Israeli and Palestinian hostages.”
Earlier this week, activists were given permission unprecedented space at the convention to hold a forum on the plight of Gazans, who have been under Israeli bombardment since Hamas attacked and took hostages on October 7, and to share deeply personal stories of family members killed in the conflict. The panel was seen as an olive branch from the Harris campaign, with the hope that other requests would be met later in the week.
During the convention, Harris was officially named the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. The overwhelming majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates voted enthusiastically for her.
But those calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas — among other demands, such as an arms embargo on Israel — believe they will have outsized influence on the November elections, now just 70 days away.
Michigan, one of the key swing states, has the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the country. The UAW, which hosted Harris at a union event earlier this month, also has its largest membership in Michigan.
Through Thursday, Democrats on their way to the convention stopped at the sit-in. Rep. Cori Bush, a member of the progressive congressional group known as the “plough”, who lost her primary earlier this month, stopped by to talk to the delegates who had not yet been assigned.
“We are Democrats. We are part of this party. And all we say is, ‘Listen to us, because it matters,'” Bush said.
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Associated Press reporters Will Weissert in Washington, Lea Skene in Chicago and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.