Notably absent from Walz’s speech was any real substance on foreign policy — including discussion of the genocide happening against Palestinians in Gaza, which uncommitted delegates and their allies have been trying to discuss for days at DNC. Indeed, most of the night, if not the week, has ignored the issue, and where it has been mentioned, Israel’s role in the genocide has been glossed over.
Uncommitted delegates in support of Palestinian liberation and an end to the genocide have requested that the DNC allow a Palestinian speaker take the podium in the United Center, to discuss a permanent ceasefire and an embargo for weapons from the U.S. to Israel, which the U.S. is legally obligated to do.
“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,” read a statement from the Uncommitted National Movement account on X. “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally. Vice President Harris must unite this party with a vision that fights for everyone, including Palestinians.”
A group of uncommitted delegates, joined by interfaith leaders and their allies, staged a sit-in just outside the convention hall on Wednesday night, saying they wouldn’t remove themselves from that spot until their demands for a Palestinian speaker were met.
Activists were calling for UN resolutions at the same they wanted Biden to call for a ceasefire. If Israel has “no reason to listen”, then activists were wasting everyone’s time and Biden should ignore them.
And calling for a ceasefire is not the same as threatening an embargo. If activists now want Biden to threaten an embargo then he should ignore that too. Embargos have never stopped a war. They have been used in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Iraq without solving the underlying problem.
Kamala didn’t mention Palestinians at all, except the part where she mentioned Palestinians. She also didn’t mention climate change at all, except the part where she mentioned climate change. I hate to break it to you, but their campaign is not going to focus on Gaza or climate change. It’s going to focus on women’s rights and housing, because right now those things interest voters far more than Gaza or climate change.
Finally, the published speech by the Georgia rep was fine. But the DNC was concerned she would go off script, which would not be fine.
They’re using our bombs and weapons, that’s the big problem people have. The only reason Israel is that powerful is they are supported by Western empire, they are an extension of our imperialism. If we hold back our arm sales to them, then they can’t use them. It’s that simple. There’s a big difference between using sanctions as a part of imperialism, which is most of the reason for the example countries you used, and to help stop it. It’s also a big reason the South African apartheid regime fell. It probably won’t cause regime change, which is the main goal the US had with those other countries, but it will stop Israel from using our weapons and money and it will act as a chip during negotiations. After all, it has made life worse in all those countries, so they still wouldn’t want one. Even if they continue their genocide, then at least the US wouldn’t be culpable and so hypocritical.
Israel only doesn’t have a reason to listen because they’re getting everything they want anyway thanks to unconditional US support. We just sent them another couple billion dollars a week or two ago and continue to veto UN resolutions against them. There’s nothing they want from Palestine except for its land and the extermination of its people. I’m curious how you think their negotiations are going?
Mentioning Palestine is not enough. Trump mentions black people all the time in his speeches, and you think that means most black people should be happy to vote for him? Or Jewish people? Context matters.
She still mentioned the hostages a lot more, which means the matter is important to people, but only for one side of it, the pro-genocide side. This is mostly a matter of lobbyists power in our government, biased media, and Israel’s importance to US empire in the Middle East.
I agree that Gaza isn’t as popular as it should be probably, hence the calculus to not mention it and my cope is that she does care more than Biden but didn’t make it a priority there because of all the old people at the DNC and Republicans they invited. But neither were black people during civil rights or LGBTQ people during the AIDS epidemic, or hell, the holocaust while it was happening was ignored by Americans too. Hopefully activists can continue to shine a light on the issue and push it more into the spotlight before the genocide has completely turned into another nakba. It’s already a lot more popular than it was before, and the polls continue to show increasing opinions against Israel’s occupation as people are educated about what’s going on over there, so crossing my fingers.
Israel already has enough weapons to completely destroy Gaza, and it is perfectly capable of buying non-US weapons.
An arms embargo might make some Americans feel better about themselves but it won’t do anything for Palestinians.