Despite support from Mayor Brandon Johnson and several Illinois legislators, an effort by uncommitted delegates to secure a speaking slot for a Palestinian American on the Democratic National Convention stage failed to gain traction.
“Yes,” Johnson responded when asked at an unrelated event whether the DNC should add a speaking slot for a Palestinian American. “We’re talking about thousands of babies, elderly being brutalized by an act of war. You have to have a voice that can call for peace as well as the releasing of hostages. We can do both.”
Thursday evening, as speeches had started inside the United Center, several uncommitted delegates addressed a small group outside the arena and conceded that they would not be granted a platform on the stage of the Chicago convention. While they expressed disappointment with the Harris-Walz campaign, speakers said they hoped Harris will meet with them.
“All I have to say is that the VP’s team should not again miss the opportunity to learn from a critical voice in our democracy,” one delegate from Michigan said. “Do not miss this opportunity to all Palestinian Americans to share their experience of being direct victims of failed U.S. foreign policy.”
Earlier Thursday, about a dozen uncommitted delegates and supporters sat in clusters of folding chairs across from the Madison Street entrance to the United Center, where presidential nominee Kamala Harris was set to give the keynote address before the gavel came down on the convention late Thursday.
The delegates, who began the sit-in Wednesday night, were surrounded by the remnants of their night outside: cases of bottled water, personal bags and empty pizza boxes. Stretched out on the sidewalk in front of them, two large banners read “arms embargo now” and “not another bomb.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, said during a news conference at McCormick Place Thursday morning.
The Palestinian issue has been a sour note for Democrats during a convention where delegates have shown enthusiastic and overwhelming support for Harris’ candidacy. Protests over the war in Gaza have resulted in dozens of arrests.
Alawieh said a coalition of uncommitted delegates presented the DNC with a “whole long list of names” of potential Palestinian Americans to speak at the DNC. Alawieh said he has not received a response.
“If they decide to exclude, to silence, to suppress a Palestinian American voice, that would be a terrible decision. I would advise them not to do that,” Alawieh said. “Our movement is strong. Our movement is growing. Our movement is making a righteous demand.”
At a DNC news conference that overlapped with the uncommitted delegates event, Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris-Walz ticket, responded to a question about the Palestinian American speaker issue by highlighting other ways advocates have been included in DNC proceedings. Tyler also reaffirmed Harris’ support for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We’re proud of the fact that we’ve held panel conversations with members of the uncommitted movement. We’re proud that the vice president herself engaged with leadership of the uncommitted movement in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. That’s why the campaign has continued to engage with leadership of the uncommitted movement throughout this convention,” Tyler said.
Several Illinois lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, Chicago Democrat and convention delegate, joined Johnson in endorsing the demand by uncommitted delegates for a Palestinian American speaker.
In a statement, Garcia noted that the Chicago area has one of the country’s largest Palestinian communities and said “they too deserve to be reflected on the national stage.”
Two other Chicago Democrats, state Sen. Robert Peters and state Rep. Will Guzzardi, joined the uncommitted delegates making the demand at the McCormick Place news conference, both noting that they are Jewish.
“It is our fundamental responsibility as the Democratic Party that if we’re going to run on joy, that means joy for everybody,” Peters said. “We can’t have freedom if other people, even if they’re thousands of miles away, are having their freedom taken away from them.”
Illinois U.S. Rep Delia Ramirez stopped by the group outside the United Center Thursday to voice her support . She encouraged the group to “double down,” saying making people uncomfortable is a path to being seen and heard, and called the Chicago area “one of the greatest diasporas in the entire country,” a nod to the large Palestinian population in Cook County.
“We can’t talk about seeing and valuing people if we don’t see them, if we don’t hear them, if we don’t value them,” she said.
Alawieh called the decision not to have a Palestinian speaker an act of “silencing” and “exclusion.”
“It’s so basic that denying it feels just deeply offensive,” he said of the decision not to have a Palestinian speaker. “Like, almost shocking. We’re supposed to be the party of inclusion, of diversity, of valuing everybody’s voice. Not the party of exclusion and silencing.”
In addition to the demand for a convention speaker, the group was calling for an end to military aid to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a cease-fire.
Alawieh said the group had been told by DNC organizers that they could meet with campaign staff, but they declined.
“The question of whether or not we can discuss Palestinian human rights in the Democratic party should not be a question at all,” he said. The answer to that should be ‘yes, of course, this is the party where we discuss human rights.”
On Wednesday, health care workers, Chicago Teachers Union representatives and two congresswomen who are part of “The Squad,” the informal group of progressive House members, joined the uncommitted delegates at a rally.
Tribune reporter Sylvan Lebrun contributed.
