“Block them! Block them! Block the line of sight!”
This is what Sabrene Odeh, a Palestinian-American Washington state delegate for the antiwar “uncommitted” movement, recalls her state’s party leaders and Harris delegates yelling, as they moved quickly on the conventional floor to make sure no one saw her and her colleagues protesting President Joe Biden’s speech. Then it got physical: one particularly zealous state party representative, a young woman, was so close, Odeh recalls, that she was “on my arm,” as Odeh asked her to step away. Odeh’s story was corroborated by another delegate who witnessed the fracas, who described the woman as “practically standing on” her.
“I felt so dehumanized in that moment,” she says.
Odeh’s story is emblematic of the trials and tribulations of being a pro-Palestinian voice at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). Uncommitted delegates and antiwar organizers universally report getting a positive reception, even outright support, from Kamala Harris delegates and others over the past four days.
But they also report censorship and intimidation.
As in Odeh’s case, many of these incidents took place on the conventional floor, especially during the roll call on day two of the DNC, when each state’s delegates ceremonially nominate the Democratic candidate. Minnesota’s Uncommitted delegation opted to do something different: unpledged to an actual candidate, they would instead cast a vote for those Palestinians, mostly children, who had been killed in Gaza by US bombs and other arms, by holding up signs with their names.
“The DNC rules say that when you vote you can cast your vote for whoever,” says Asma Mohammed, a Minnesota Uncommitted delegate and a lead organizer for the movement. “So I cast my vote for this child, to send a message that if we want to win in November, we have to change policy.”
Instead, as described to Jacobin, various mid-tier party officials…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Branko Marcetic
