Criticisms of the Biden administration’s policy toward Israel are not only coming from uncommitted delegates. They’re also coming from people trying to get Vice President Kamala Harris elected.
On Monday, during President Joe Biden’s address to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a Harris delegate was one of several members of the Florida delegation who unfurled a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel.” Other members of the Florida delegation stood up to block the banner, while some in the section and another section behind the protesters started hitting the banner and the people holding it with their own signs.
“They hit us on the head with ‘We Love Joe’ signs.”
“They hit us on the head with ‘We Love Joe’ signs,” said Nadia Ahmad, a Florida delegate who snuck the sign into the convention under her clothing. Illinois Gov. “JB Pritzker was close by and they did nothing. Even the ushers did nothing. They just let other people hit us and grab the sign away from us.”
Ahmad said the box behind her, where people were seen leaning over to hit her and the banner, was designated for the Laborers’ International Union of North America. (Spokespersons for the labor union, Pritzker, and the DNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)
Though mainstream Democrats have derided pro-Palestine demonstrators as outsiders who would hurt Democrats’ chances, Ahmad is a Muslim delegate from Florida who is committed to Harris. She is not part of the “Uncommitted” movement.
The Uncommitted movement says it has organized at least 200 total delegates to sign a pledge pushing the administration to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Only 30 of the pledge signatories, however, are uncommitted. Most of them, like Ahmad, are avowed Harris supporters.
“We’ve had very tough conversations, but for me it’s important that we continue to show up,” said DNC political director Brencia Berry. Prior to her current position, Berry was the DNC director of coalitions and community engagement, during which she worked closely with Ahmad and other community leaders.
Berry’s job has been to make sure she shares messages from delegates and voters with party leaders. And Harris, she said, has spoken directly to the crisis in Gaza and its effects.
“There have been times where might not agree on tactics,” she said of Democrats. “I think that we all agree on the humanitarian crisis that is happening in Gaza right now.”
“Solidarity From Delegates”
The fact that Democrats physically attacked another member of the party who is pushing to elect Harris shows just how far members of the party will go to shut down debate on Israel policy, said Minneapolis City Council member and uncommitted delegate Jeremiah Ellison.
“We cannot be a party that adopts these tactics of silencing dissent,” he said.
Building solidarity with Harris delegates is a specific goal of Uncommitted, Ellison said.
“A big part of Uncommitted is to build solidarity with Harris delegates,” he said. “I don’t think we can prevail without that solidarity. And even though there’s not always coordination between what we’re doing and what other people might be doing to get the message out there, nothing about what we’re doing is in competition with or invalidates other strategies.”
Ellison and Uncommitted delegates are discussing with other delegates what it would take to move them from uncommitted to committed for Harris, he said: “We’re finding a lot of solidarity from delegates.”
Some of the crackdown on dissent from within the party comes from donors and leadership, Ellison said, but many rank-and-file delegates supported the discussions. “The Party leadership doesn’t need to be so nervous about having this conversation because their base doesn’t seem to be nervous about having this conversation,” he said.
As far as the efforts to silence Ahmad and others who unfurled the protest banner last night, Ellison said he wants accountability from the Democratic Party.
“We can be a big tent, we can have tough conversations. And we can disagree without resorting to assaulting one another or being harshly toxic toward one another, ” he said. “I do expect the party to address it, and to not give permission to it.”
Asked about Ahmad’s treatment on Monday night, Berry, the DNC political director, said the party unequivocally condemns physical violence.
“It’s unacceptable,” she said. “We as a party, our values are of diversity of thought and opinion. We never condone any type of physical attacks on anybody for any reason.”
Who Gets Heard
During a press conference on Tuesday morning, American Near East Refugee Aid board member Rebecca Abou Chedid said that the Democratic Party has long worked to silence debate on Israel policy.
“For decades, there has been a coordinated effort to shut down any debate within the Democratic Party and within our country about those policies, and about the wisdom of those policies,” she said.
“We’ve seen it the last few weeks with the two most expensive primaries in our country’s history to take down Congressman Jamaal Bowman and Congresswoman Cori Bush because they dared to call for a ceasefire, because they dared to speak for the humanity of the Palestinian people,” Abou Chedid said, referring to Democratic primaries in New York and Missouri, respectively, where millions of dollars from pro-Israel groups helped take down progressive incumbents. “And we have seen very little pushback from within the Democratic Party that two young and vital members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been taken out for this reason.”
That silencing has been targeted against Arab and Muslim Americans, Abou Chedid said. Monday’s panel held by the Uncommitted movement marked the first time the DNC ever held a panel on Palestinian human rights.
“We’re not taking the Muslim or Arab vote for granted this cycle.”
“It was the first time that Palestinian voices were part of the actual convention speaker list. But they’re not on the main stage, they’re not on primetime,” she said. “That panel was important, but it doesn’t change the fact that the bombs are still falling in Gaza every single day.”
Berry, the DNC political director, said the party was actively pursuing Muslim and Arab votes: “We’re not taking the Muslim or Arab vote for granted this cycle.”
Israel is not the only topic the party has tried to quash debate on, said Michigan superdelegate Liano Sharon, a Jewish Democrat who helped Ahmad unfurl the protest banner. Democrats have also shut down the discussion on universal health care, which is connected to the destruction in Gaza, he said.
“They try to shut down dissent on things that affect real people’s lives,” he said, “when those things come into conflict with the desires of the donors.”