SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
layla elabed
'Uncommitted' Backs Israeli-American Speakers at DNC, Says Palestinians Must Have Voice Too
"Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party's commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally."
Aug 21, 2024
While welcoming a scheduled Democratic National Convention speech by the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement on Wednesday implored the DNC to ensure that Palestinian voices are also heard on the event's main stage.
Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersh was abducted from the Nova rave near the Gaza border, are set to speak Wednesday night in what Forward, a progressive Jewish news site, described as "a counterpoint to the powerful appearance at last month's Republican convention by Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of hostage Omar Neutra, who led the crowd in Milwaukee in chants of 'Bring them home!'"
In a Wednesday statement, Uncommitted National Movement co-founders Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed said the 30 Uncommitted delegates attending the DNC "urge the Democratic Party to reject a hierarchy of human value by ensuring Palestinian voices are heard on the main stage."
"We are learning that Israeli hostages' families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who've endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948," the pair continued, referring to the year in which the modern state of Israel was established amid the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine, an event known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or "catastrophe."
"Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party's commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally," Alawieh and Elabed asserted, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, "must unite this party with a vision that fights for everyone, including Palestinians."
The Democratic National Committee's 2024 platform states that "Democrats recognize the worth of every Israeli and every Palestinian."
However, the platform also opposes human rights-based protests against Israel including the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, as well as efforts to hold Israel accountable at the United Nations. Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. organ, amid an ongoing assault on Gaza that has left at least 143,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and most of the coastal enclave flattened.
The U.S. has provided Israel with tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid—including the bombs used in some of Israel's deadliest massacres in Gaza—and diplomatic cover like United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes.
With the exception of a vocal minority of pro-Palestine voices led by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress and Elabed's sister, most elected Democrats—from Harris and President Joe Biden to a majority of U.S. lawmakers—support Israel, making it difficult for Palestine defenders to secure DNC stage time.
Following sustained activist pressure, the DNC provided space for the
first-ever panel on Palestinian rights on Monday. On Tuesday, the Uncommitted National Movement—which won nearly 20% of the Democratic primary vote in Minnesota and over 13% in the key swing state of Wisconsin—hosted another panel featuring doctors who volunteered in Gaza hospitals.
"The difficulty in approving even a single Palestinian American speaker among the dozens of speakers on the convention stage sends a troubling message to our anti-war voters, suggesting they aren't truly included in this party," Alawieh and Elabed said Wednesday. "The pain and loss of an Israeli or a Palestinian are no different, b ut there is an added sting in our communities when we know that it is our tax dollars funding the killing of our loved ones."
"We have provided the Democratic Party with a list of names and stand ready to provide more if needed," the pair added. "There is no reason not to get this done."
Backing Uncommitted's demand for Palestinian inclusion at the DNC, Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)
said on social media Wednesday that "as Democrats, we must commit to uplifting the shared humanity of all people and recognize that the loss of human life is always tragic, regardless of nationality, religion, or race."
"I'm calling on the DNC to live up to these values and invite Palestinian speakers to the convention," he added.
There have been large and small pro-Palestine protests in Chicago and throughout the nation leading up to and during the DNC.
According to a May Zeteo-Data for Progress poll, a majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Keep ReadingShow Less
While Mulling Israel Claims, Biden Urged to 'Stop Weapons Sales Now'
"After over half a million uncommitted votes and counting, it's time Biden administration officials finally listen," said one campaigner. "We need concrete action to stop weapons aid immediately."
Mar 20, 2024
As the Biden administration wrestles with whether to certify that Israel is complying with a presidential directive requiring human rights assurances from governments receiving American weapons, Palestine defenders on Wednesday renewed calls for a suspension of U.S. arms sales to Israel's genocidal government and military.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has until March 25 to certify to Congress that Israel is adhering to President Joe Biden's February 2023 memo stating that "no arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit... genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949... or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law."
If Israel fails to provide written assurance that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international law, arms sales would automatically be suspended. According toHuffPost, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew on Tuesday privately claimed to the State Department that Israel is in compliance with domestic and international law.
However, the Israeli daily Haartezreported Wednesday that officials from three State Department bureaus—Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Population, Refugees, and Migration; and the Office of Global Criminal Justice—as well as the United States Agency for International Development are deeply skepitcal of Lew's claim.
"America should follow in Canada's steps and stop weapons sales now."
The Uncommitted National Movement—a coalition of pro-Palestine, peace, and progressive groups urging people to vote "uncommitted" in U.S. Democratic primaries in a bid to pressure Biden to push Israel for a Gaza cease-fire—led demands for a suspension of arms transfers to Israel.
"After over half a million uncommitted votes and counting, it's time Biden administration officials finally listen," Uncommitted National Movement co-chair Layla Elabedsaid in a statement Wednesday. "We need concrete action to stop weapons aid immediately. America should follow in Canada's steps and stop weapons sales now."
The Canadian Parliament on Monday approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut off arms exports to Israel. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly subsequently said that the government would cease future weapons sales to the country.
Other countries including Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium have suspended or restricted weapons sales to Israel, whose military forces have killed or wounded more than 113,000 Palestinians since the October 7 attacks while forcibly displacing around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people and fueling famine and disease by besieging the embattled strip. Most of those killed have been women and children.
On January 26, the
International Criminal Court ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts. Both the ICJ and a U.S. federal judge have found that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza. Palestinians, human rights groups, and legal experts have accused Israel of ignoring the World Court's directive.
Common Dreamsreported Tuesday that Human Rights Watch and Oxfam called Israeli assurances that U.S.-supplied weapons are not being used in violation of international law "not credible." The groups also dismissed false Israeli claims that the country is not blocking humanitarian aid from reaching starving Gazans.
The U.S. gives Israel approximately $4 billion in annual military aid. Since October 7, the Biden administration has requested an additional $14.3 billion in armed assistance for Israel, while repeatedly circumventing Congress to fast-track emergency weapons transfers.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Uncommitted': Michigan Group Urges Primary Protest Vote Against Biden Over Gaza
"President Biden has been a successful candidate in the past by representing a broad coalition, but right now he's not representing the vast majority of Democrats who want a cease-fire," said Listen to Michigan.
Feb 06, 2024
As voters in the key swing state of Michigan prepare to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary at the end of February, a grassroots group is urging residents to send a clear warning to U.S. President Joe Biden by letting him know they are "uncommitted" to supporting him in the 2024 election, due to his support for Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
Officially launching on Tuesday, Listen to Michigan is calling on voters in the state—which has a sizable Arab American community—to fill in the bubble marked "uncommitted" on their primary ballots on February 27. Biden, who won the first Democratic primary last week in South Carolina with 96% of the vote, will be on the ballot along with Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and author Marianne Williamson.
Layla Elabed, an activist and the sister of progressive Palestinian American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), is leading the group, which is planning to contact at least 80% of the 128,000 voters on its mailing list before the primary.
Elabed told The New York Times Tuesday that voters in Michigan must use their power as a voting bloc in the key state, where Biden only narrowly defeated former Republican President Donald Trump in 2020.
"We have the political power to really shift Biden's election," Elabed toldthe Times. "We did it in 2020."
The group's plan is hardly the first sign that Biden's continued funding and defense of Israel's relentless attacks on civilians in Gaza has alarmed many Democratic voters, including those in Michigan.
Eighty percent of Democrats told Data for Progress in one poll in October that the U.S. should push for a cease-fire in Gaza, and a survey by The Economistlast month showed that 50% of people who voted for Biden in 2020 believe the military operation the president has helped fund—in which Israel has now killed at least 27,585 people—amounts to a genocide.
NBC News released a new poll Sunday that found just 29% of American voters approve of Biden's policy related to Israel, which his administration has supplied with weapons without the approval of Congress at least twice since the war began in October. Forty-five percent of Democrats said they disapproved, compared to 44% who supported Biden's policy.
Despite the mounting evidence that a crucial voting bloc is deeply dissatisfied with Biden in the critical battleground state, when asked what the president's "message" to Arab American voters in Michigan was, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said only the "Israel has a right to defend itself" and that Biden is "heartbroken" over civilian casualties.
"These people are living in a fantasy world," said writer Dan Walden in response to the White House press secretary. "There is no world in which a Democrat wins Michigan without Arab American votes. The numbers simply do not exist."
At a press conference launching Listen to Michigan's effort on Tuesday, one organizer noted that former President Ronald Reagan made "one phone call" to Israeli officials in 1982 to pressure them to withdraw soldiers from Beirut.
"A complete cease-fire was declared," he said. "On the contrary, today President Joe Biden remains uncommitted to a cease-fire... As Democrats we will remember how Joe Biden is turning his back on humanity. He is ignoring our voice, the voice of the people."
Listen to Michigan's push for voters to select "uncommitted" on their ballots "is not an endorsement of Trump or a desire to see him return to power," emphasized the group. "The Democratic primary election is as an opportunity to question whether the incumbent genuinely holds the support of his own party's base. Michigan, a critical state in the general election and a key component of the Democratic coalition, is becoming a battleground where voters are expressing their disappointment and demanding a change in policy."
"We are sending the warning sign to President Biden and the Democratic Party now in February, before it's too late in November," the group said.
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan—where just over 54% of residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent, according to the 2020 census—was among local Arab American leaders who declined to meet Biden when he visited the state last week, saying his community's "immediate demand is crystal clear: The Biden administration must call for a permanent cease-fire to a genocide it is defending and funding with our tax dollars."
Listen to Michigan said on its website that "Biden must earn" the votes of Michigan residents, hundreds of whom marched in support of Palestinian rights in the Detroit area when Biden made an appearance there last week.
"President Biden has been a successful candidate in the past by representing a broad coalition, but right now he's not representing the vast majority of Democrats who want a cease-fire and an end to our government's unconditional weapons funding of Israel," said the group. "He's not representing the young people who put him in office and turned out in the midterms—and are now out protesting his policies in the streets."
With nine months until the general election, said Listen to Michigan, Biden must immediately begin to work to "earn back our trust after financing war and genocide in Gaza"—a task that will "be difficult."
"There is a long time between now and November for Biden to change his policies and earn support from Democratic voters," said the group. "He must stop funding the Israeli government's atrocities against the Palestinian people."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular