Pro-Palestine delegates at Democratic Alliance convention to push for arms embargo on Israel By Reuters
Written by Andrea Shalal
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A number of Muslim delegates and their allies, angered by U.S. support for Israel's offensive in Gaza, are seeking reform in the Democratic Party and plan to push for an arms embargo this week, putting the group on alert for major disruptions. -profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago.
Calling itself “Emissaries Against Genocide,” the pro-Palestinian group says it will exercise its free speech rights during major events at the four-day Democratic National Convention on Monday to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as president in the Nov. 5 election against former Republican President Donald Trump.
Party organizers declined to give details, but said they are encouraging fans to wear Palestinian keffiyehs, or scarves, and carry Palestinian flags, and will demand changes to the party's venue, while urging guests to speak out at the rally.
On Sunday night, a crowd of approximately 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting, “Shut down the DNC.”
President Joe Biden will speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday.
Pro-Palestinian delegates say they deserve a bigger role in the drafting of the party's platform.
The group wants to include legislation that supports language that prohibits providing military aid to individuals or security forces who commit human rights violations.
“We will make our voices heard,” said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed another platform along with 34 other delegates. “Freedom of speech includes the right to stand up and be heard even when the authorities in the room tell you to shut up.”
“They want the meeting to go well. 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 held by many Palestinians in Chicago. “I'm sorry. A convention is a political vehicle, okay? And if we don't use it for that, then it's a beauty pageant.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
BIDEN WANTS TO CALL FOR FIRE
The party's draft platform released in mid-July calls for an “immediate and permanent halt” to the fighting and the release of hostages taken to Gaza during an October 7 attack by Islamist militant Hamas fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.
The forum does not mention the more than 40,000 people Palestinian health officials in Gaza say have been killed in subsequent Israeli attacks. Nor does it mention any plans to stop US arms shipments to Israel.
The United States approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel on Tuesday.
Mediators including the US want to create an agreement between Israel and Hamas, which governs Gaza, based on the plan that Biden put forward in May but so far they have not succeeded.
Israel's war with Hamas, now in its 11th month, has eroded support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent key votes in swing states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
While activists made up a small portion of the convention's delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could derail the party's plan to rally Democrats around Harris after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 under pressure from other Democrats.
'I WILL NOT BE QUIET,' HARRIS SAID
Pro-Palestine activists say Harris has been more sympathetic to Gazans than Biden. His national security adviser said on X this month that he does not support an arms embargo on Israel.
But after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris told reporters not only that Israel has the right to defend itself but also referring to Gaza: “We will not allow ourselves to be numb to suffering and I will not remain silent.”
About 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to show opposition to the Biden administration's stance on Israel. Organizers say the number could rise to more than 100,000.
Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at Florida's Barry University and a delegate, said about 60 delegates were Muslim, a fraction of the 5,000 total. But their concerns are shared by others, especially young voters, some of whom have split from the party, he said.
The Uncommitted National Movement, a separate effort to force Democrats to change policy on Israel that won more than 30 delegates in the first election, also wants an arms embargo.
It has focused, unsuccessfully so far, on gaining a larger speaking platform for a Palestinian American or Gaza worker, although organizers agreed Saturday to add a midday panel discussion on Arab and Palestinian issues to Monday's agenda and one on secularism. American Jews, traditionally Democratic voters, have expressed concern about the rise of anti-Semitism and Muslims have condemned the rise of American Islamophobia.
Layla Elabed, chairwoman of Uncommitted National, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Muslim friend of Biden's, and a doctor who worked on the front lines in Gaza will be among the speakers on the first panel, sources said.
Non-commitment, which he said he planned to disrupt the progress of the conference, pressured Harris to make a statement about the use of American weapons to kill the Palestinian people.
