Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement said on Thursday that Democratic convention organizers denied their request for a Palestinian American to address the convention in part because they did not want to risk distracting from Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech later in the evening.
The group is now in the second day of a sit-in outside the convention after being told on Wednesday night that its allies would not be allowed to address the United Center from the stage.
Co-founder Abbas Alawieh, whose group emerged during the Democratic presidential primary to marshal protest votes against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 attacks, told reporters he received a call from a convention official Wednesday night, saying, “Abbas, the answer is no.”
The message overnight from convention officials, Uncommitted spokesman Waleed Shahid said, has been, “This is the vice president’s biggest night, and we can’t have it be about this.”
Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, first took a seat on the concrete outside the United Center on Wednesday night, with images of Harris shining out over him, and said he would not leave the spot until the vice president and convention organizers reversed their decision. He was quickly joined by other uncommitted delegates and, toward the end of the program, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar briefly joined the group.
Omar returned on Thursday, along with others, including Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, who compared the delegates’ demonstration to those she led in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen, in 2014. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also expressed support for the group on social media and urged the DNC to reverse its decision.
The DNC has not responded to requests for comment, but senior Harris adviser Ian Sams on Thursday told CNN the Uncommitted group “have a right to have their voice heard and we’ve been proud in this convention to engage them through dedicated conversations and meetings and everything.”
“But I think the really important thing to think about, too, is, ‘What is the vice president doing about it?’” Sams added. He then pointed to Harris’ efforts with President Joe Biden to secure a ceasefire.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes told CNN on Thursday that she supported calls for providing the microphone to a Palestinian-American speaker.
“The thing I’ve been saying and I will always say is that these uncommitted voters are our voters, they’re our family,” Barnes said. “They are good Democrats who have an issue that they want to voice, and they have every right to voice it.”
Later in the day, the Michigan Democrats doubled down, saying in a statement that Barnes “believes that a Palestinian American should have a speaking role at the DNC tonight so that their voices can be heard.”
A range of Democratic-aligned organizations and officials have also now called on the convention to change course and allow a Palestinian-American speaker to take the stage. Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, endorsed a proposal for Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman to deliver an address that Uncommitted posted online earlier in the day.
“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,” she would say, according to prepared marks. “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 ceasefire in Gaza.”
In a statement, Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, called the situation a “challenge” but said the party had erred.
“Hosting a Palestinian American speaker at the DNC would have been a powerful way to further underscore the shared goal of an immediate ceasefire and hostage deal and the compassion the party feels for all civilians suffering from this terrible conflict,” Ben-Ami said.
The United Auto Workers union, whose president — Shawn Fain — spoke at the convention earlier this week, also issued a statement in support of the Uncommitted group, accused the party of putting “our heads in the sand” and ignoring Palestinian American voices.
“If we want peace, if we want real democracy, and if we want to win this election, the Democratic Party must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight,” the UAW said in a social media post.
There has also been increased pushback against the idea from some Harris allies, including former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who questioned why Harris would offer airtime to the group.
“They haven’t pledged their support to Vice President Harris, so to demand a seat or a speaking slot is a little bit rich,” Rice told CNN’s Jake Tapper, adding that Harris and Biden are “deeply committed” to ending the conflict.
Uncommitted leaders have said over the course of the week and before that they are supporting Harris, are delegates now for the vice president and have attempted to rebrand themselves as “ceasefire delegates.”
Democratic Majority for Israel, a political action group that has opposed progressive critics of Israel in Democratic primaries, said in a statement to CNN they too backed the DNC’s decision.
“The president, the vice president and the party through its platform have a clear position on this issue,” spokesperson Rachel Rosen said. “There is nothing to be gained by giving a speaking slot to a tiny minority intent on attacking the president, our nominee for president and our party.”
Beside five minutes on stage in Chicago, movement leaders also had other asks, including for a US government arms embargo against Israel, that were rejected out of hand by Democratic leaders.
Before addressing reporters, Alawieh on Wednesday called for a moment of silence. He then described being a child, at 15, in Southern Lebanon during an Israeli bombing.
“Our government’s policy is to kill people like me,” he said, growing increasingly emotional.
Alawieh recalled that he decided not to protest in the streets but to work with the Democratic Party hierarchy and to lobby convention organizers and the Harris campaign, reasoning that his group could persuade Democrats to allow it a voice in Chicago.
“I’m an insider. I work the system,” said Alawieh, who previously worked for former Michigan Rep. Andy Levin and was a staffer on Capitol Hill during the January 6, 2021, insurrection. (Alawieh repeatedly said that his group had no desire to lift up Donald Trump or help the former president’s campaign in any way.)
He called the decision to deny the uncommitted movement a speaking slot infuriating and heartbreaking, especially after so many phone calls and talks with organizers and the Harris camp.
The Democratic National Committee on Monday sanctioned a panel, inside the formal convention perimeter, about Palestinian and Arab issues. The group called it a small win but continued to push for a more prominent stage.
The combination of new enthusiasm for Harris’ campaign, which Democrats have been celebrating all week, and frustration among activist groups over President Joe Biden’s refusal to stop arms shipments to Israel has created an occasionally disorienting split-screen in Chicago, where protesters have marched outside the convention every day. Though little has changed on the ground in Gaza in recent months, some leading progressive groups, anti-war organizers and Palestinian American and other Arab American activists initially expressed openness to Harris, who has spoken with greater empathy about the bloodshed. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the enclave.
Earlier Wednesday, less than an hour before the parents of Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin addressed the convention, Alawieh praised the DNC’s decision to give the family a platform.
“We strongly support” the family being given a speaking slot, he said before the speech. “We are glad to see that the DNC is taking this step. And, as Democrats, we know that our own party’s platform includes specific language that says that our party recognizes that Israeli lives and Palestinian lives, that they are valued the same.”
Speaking to reporters later, Alawieh said that while he was seated as a delegate inside the United Center and hearing about the 109 hostages still in Gaza, he also thought about the thousands of Gazan children who have been killed.
“I could have been one of those children,” he said repeatedly. “President Biden, Vice President Harris, what are we talking about? We’re talking about children.”
This story and headline have been updated with new reporting.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi and Alison Main contributed to this report.
