'Let Palestine Speak': Uncommitted Shares Speech the DNC Won't Allow

What would a Palestinian speaker tell U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the thousands of delegates gathered at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and millions more people watching across the country and around the world as Israel—which is on trial for genocide at the World Court—continues its obliteration of Gaza?

On Thursday, the Uncommitted National Movement—which garnered hundreds of thousands of Democratic primary votes against the Biden-Harris administration's support for Israel's war—circulated a copy of the speech it still hopes to deliver on the DNC main stage.

However, DNC organizers are refusing to allow any Palestinian to speak on that stage, where the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 spoke Wednesday night with Uncommitted's blessing. Uncommitted used a space away from the main stage to hold a first-ever DNC panel on Palestinian rights on Monday and a Tuesday press conference featuring testimonies from American doctors who recently volunteered in Gaza hospitals.

"We don't know why the campaign said no. We literally have no feedback. We are in the dark."

The DNC rebuff prompted a sit-in protest by some of the approximately 30 Uncommitted delegates and their supporters, as well as calls from progressive lawmakers, human rights defenders, and allies including the United Auto Workers for the Democratic Party to change course.

Uncommitted and allied groups including Let Palestine Speak and Not Another Bomb held a Thursday evening press conference outside the United Center, the Chicago arena hosting the DNC and the site of large protests before and during the convention.

"We are waiting for a phone call from Vice President Harris and the DNC to allow a single Palestinian American speaker from the convention stage," Uncommitted said earlier Thursday. "Our party's platform states that every life is valuable: whether American, Palestinian, or Israeli."

The proposed DNC speech would be delivered by Uncommitted delegate and Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), who is Palestinian American.

Here's what she wants to say:

My name is Ruwa Romman, and I'm honored to be the first Palestinian elected to public office in the great state of Georgia and the first Palestinian to ever speak at the Democratic National Convention. My story begins in a small village near Jerusalem, called Suba, where my dad's family is from. My mom's roots trace back to Al Khalil, or Hebron. My parents, born in Jordan, brought us to Georgia when I was eight, where I now live with my wonderful husband and our sweet pets.

Growing up, my grandfather and I shared a special bond. He was my partner in mischief—whether it was sneaking me sweets from the bodega or slipping a $20 into my pocket with that familiar wink and smile. He was my rock, but he passed away a few years ago, never seeing Suba or any part of Palestine again. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him.

This past year has been especially hard. As we've been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza, I've thought of him, wondering if this was the pain he knew too well. When we watched Palestinians displaced from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other I wanted to ask him how he found the strength to walk all those miles decades ago and leave everything behind.

But in this pain, I've also witnessed something profound—a beautiful, multifaith, multiracial, and multigenerational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For 320 days, we've stood together, demanding to enforce our laws on friend and foe alike to reach a ceasefire, end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of building a path to collective peace and safety. That's why we are here—members of this Democratic Party committed to equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here echoes around the world.

They'll say this is how it's always been, that nothing can change. But remember Fannie Lou Hamer—shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on, and it's her example we follow.

But we can't do it alone. This historic moment is full of promise, but only if we stand together. Our party's greatest strength has always been our ability to unite. Some see that as a weakness, but it's time we flex that strength.

Let's commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris, and defeating Donald Trump, who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur. Let's fight for the policies long overdue—from restoring access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to reckless war and a cease-fire in Gaza. To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, yes we can—yes we can be a Democratic Party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars. That fights for an America that belongs to all of us—Black, brown, and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my grandfather taught me, together.

Uncommitted toldMother Jones that it is open to having the speech vetted and even edited, but that the DNC has not asked to see it.

"We don't know why the campaign said no. We literally have no feedback. We are in the dark," said Romman. "I want to be clear. We've been in negotiations for days. This did not just come up... We've been talking about this for at least a week."

Some observers speculated that the DNC is denying stage time to a Palestinian because party officials worry the speaker will go off-script and criticize the Biden administration's staunch support for Israel in the form of tens of billions of dollars in military assistance, diplomatic cover including United Nations Security Council vetoes, and outright genocide denial.

"We need the stages of the DNC to reflect the fullness of our party, inclusive of Palestinian Americans, who are grieving and mourning and demanding better of their leaders," said Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—whose sponsorship of a Gaza cease-fire resolution led to a torrent of cash from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee into her pro-Israel Democratic primary opponent's campaign coffers. Bush lost the race.

"The Democratic Party prides itself on being the party of human rights," Bush added. "So when it comes to defending Palestinian lives and ending the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Democratic Party needs to uphold those same values."