As the Uncommitted delegates pushed for a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last month, Georgia state representative Ruwa Romman emerged as the top contender. As someone willing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris while also uplifting the Palestinian cause and telling her personal story, she seemed a diplomatic choice — someone who could please most of the messy coalition that makes up her party, given her track record as a loyal Democrat willing to work within the system.
In the speech that she would have given — a draft of which was leaked to and published by Mother Jones that week — Romman would have told the delegates about her Palestine-born grandfather and the pain of seeing Palestinians massacred and displaced. She also would have described the hope contained in this awful moment, witnessing “something profound: a beautiful, multiracial, multifaith and multigenerational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party.” She would not have called for an arms embargo to Israel.
Many at the convention supported Romman and the Uncommitted movement. Delegates wore keffiyehs and waved Palestinian flags in support of an arms embargo and for the inclusion of Romman as a speaker. But that “many” didn’t include the cautious centrists — most importantly Harris herself — or the big donors who make the decisions for the party who have been fine to continue greenlighting Israel’s bloodletting. After extensive organizing, on the last day of the convention, the word on Romman’s speech came back from the party: no.
“We lost our minds. Because we were ‘doing everything right,’” Romman says” — the movement was doing the opposite of declaring war on the Democratic Party. “We were there to push for the agreement for stopping weapons to Israel. That was the main goal. [The speaker’s spot] was supposed to be a symbolic gesture to show [pro-Palestine forces] still had a…
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Auteur: Liza Featherstone
