About 40 or so uncommitted delegates and their supporters slept on the sidewalk outside the United Center in Chicago on Wednesday night in hopes that the DNC will permit a pro-Palestinian speaker to take the main stage before the convention concludes Thursday night.
“We didn’t come here to do a sit-in,” claimed Abbas Alawieh, a delegate from Michigan and a leader of the Uncommitted National Movement, which supports a ceasefire in Gaza. “We’re just sitting here waiting for a call.”
The group noted that the parents of American hostage Hersh Goldberg were allowed to address the DNC main crowd on Wednesday night and hoped that a Palestinian speaker would be afforded the same opportunity.
“We heard Hersh’s story,” Alawieh continued. “We were moved by … the humanity in that story. And we are Democrats who have a party platform that says our party values every … life and every Palestinian life equally. And so we think we should also be featuring a Palestinian-American speaker from this stage.”
‘I am sad to report that 32,908 Democratic Kentuckians’ voices were not upheld at last night’s roll call.’
Layla Elabed, another leader of the Uncommitted National Movement and the sister of far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), went further, claiming that a pro-Palestinian speaker was the “bare minimum” that her group expected from Democrats.
“This has been an embarrassment for those of us who had faith in the Democratic Party that we still had voices here,” Elabed said.
“Our values, our votes and our rightful place in the Democratic Party cannot be taken for granted,” she stated on Monday night.
Uncommitted Rhode Island delegate June Rose likewise called a pro-Palestinian speaker “the least [the DNC] could do.”
“We need meaningful policy change,” Rose continued. “We as Democrats cannot oppose Donald Trump’s fascism at home while supporting Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide abroad.”
Thus far, the sit-in has drawn some high-profile elected Democrats, including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, to stop by. UAW members of like mind have also offered their support.
“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic party,” the union said.
Convention officials have allowed pro-Palestinian speakers to address smaller DNC meetings and events but not the main stage. As a result, members of the group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz have officially disbanded and withdrawn their support for the Democratic ticket, as Blaze News previously reported.
The sit-in began just one day after 44 delegates voted “present” during the DNC roll call on Tuesday, the Daily Caller reported. Those 44 delegates represent 13 states — Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Washington — and likely included most of the 36 delegates who are also members of the Uncommitted movement.
The in-person roll-call vote was largely symbolic, however, since the DNC already hosted a virtual roll call earlier this month, and Harris received more than double the 1,966 delegate votes needed to secure the nomination.
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