Democrats Want the Uncommitted Delegates to Go Away. They Won’t.

Representatives from the Uncommitted National Movement sat one by one on the concrete in front of Chicago’s United Center, with a giant electric display behind them advertising the Democratic National Convention being held in the arena.

On the third night of the convention, Democrats were in a frenzy at the United Center. Stevie Wonder Executed. Mindy Kaling They were telling jokes. Bill Clinton was holding court.

The undecided delegates were just a few steps away from the celebration, but they felt like they were on another planet. And that seemed to be the party’s hope: They had just told the delegates that their surprisingly modest request to invite a Palestinian-American speaker to the main stage had been rejected by the Democratic National Convention. Given a slotThe message was clear: Israeli lives are important enough to be respected and acknowledged. Palestinian lives are not.

With reporters surrounding them, the neutral representatives declared they would stage a sit-in until their demands were met.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that as Palestinians, our voices are heard,” Sabrine Odeh, an independent representative from Washington state, said in explaining why she was taking her seat. “We are Palestinian-Americans, and we have the same right to a seat at the table as anyone else.”

A growing number of politicians joined the sit-ins or called in remotely, both at the federal level (Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Pramila Jayapal, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Summer Lee) and at the state and local levels (including Luwa Roman, the first Palestinian elected to the Georgia State Legislature).

Minnesota Representative Dan Engelhardt exclaimed, “It’s weird to say ‘cease fire’ and then keep firing. That’s weird, Waltz!”

June Rose, an independent representative from Rhode Island, sat down and declared, “We don’t want another bomb!”

The refusal comes amid an intense effort by the Uncommitted Movement to rally Democratic National Convention attendees and delegates to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. So far, they say they have persuaded nearly 300 delegates to spread their message through panels, events and rallies. At these rallies, the emotional tone has been running high. This is not surprising, given the context: Israel has killed at least 40,000 people in Gaza, more than 16,000 of them children, and countless others killed by U.S. weapons. The total number of people killed directly and indirectly is almost certainly 100,000. Much higherexperts and scholars Have said Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal.

Delegates and organizers at all events this week were openly in tears, a stark contrast to the celebratory mood on the main stage at the Democratic National Convention. But these events were not aired in prime time. And now it seems that not a single Palestinian has the opportunity to bring their story, their life, to the center of the convention. At the DNC, independent delegates mobilized, thousands marched outside, and the March on the Democratic National Convention coalition demanded an end to the genocide and a total halt to US aid to Israel. Various organizations took to the streets this week, facing a “repressive police response.” According to The National Lawyers Guild said a total of at least 74 people had been arrested since Sunday.

While Uncommit is trying to blow the whistle, Michigan Representative Abbas Alawiyeh said at Sunday’s event that he has “a lot of respect” for the protesters’ actions.

“What we’re doing inside is a protest, and what the protesters are doing outside is a separate, respectable protest,” said Asma Mohammed, a Minnesota representative for No Detention. The No Detention movement is the brainchild of Fannie Lou Hamer. speech At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, she asked, “Is This America?”, which sparked their own action.