DNC silence on Palestine speaks volumes about Harris

  • Post last modified:August 23, 2024
  • Reading time:15 mins read


Earlier this week, the Uncommitted National Movement requested that the Democratic National Convention (DNC) allow a Palestinian American to speak after the parents of one of the Israeli hostages were allowed to do so:

One side of the story at the DNC

Yesterday at the DNC, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin addressed the crowd. He is an Israeli-American who is currently being held in hostage in Gaza. Notably, he was born in Berkley California, and he immigrated to Israel with his family in 2008.

During their speech, they stated:

‘it is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue’

Importantly, they also mentioned a ceasefire and talked about Biden and Harris both working tirelessly to ‘stop the despair in Gaza’. However, at this point it is worth mentioning that neither Biden or Harris have committed to stop arming Israel. Whilst Harris has publicly mentioned a ceasefire, we have seen little in the way of actual effort in making that happen:

Several times now, Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal negotiated by various foreign governments.

Each time, the Israeli government have shut it down and taken control of more Palestinian land. All along, Israel has wanted to ‘reserve the right to continue operations in Gaza’. It has been noted by analysts that a permanent ceasefire deal could lead to Netanyahu’s far-right coalition collapsing, meaning early elections.

Realistically, Netanyahu doesn’t give a shit about the lives of the hostages. He cares about staying in power.

Silencing minority voices

Over the last 24 hours, many individuals and campaign groups have spoken out since the DNC said they wouldn’t welcome a Palestinian-American to the stage. This included Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, who have now disbanded in protest:

As previously reported by the Canary, a recent poll showed that Kamala Harris would earn more votes by supporting an arms embargo on Israel, than on opposing it:

Over the last four days, the DNC saw speakers from all walks of life and all nationalities. However, they didn’t invite a single Palestinian-American to speak despite Harris’s recent calls for a ceasefire:

The DNC had the opportunity to show that it stands for what is right – and they squandered that opportunity. They may as well have made a public statement that Palestinian voices don’t matter:

AIPAC lining their pockets

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a lobbying group with close links to Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. AIPAC has been the biggest and most influential outside spender during the Democratic elections this year:

AIPAC are able to do this through their side hustle, the United Democracy Project (UDP).

The project:

is an organization comprised of American citizens—Democrats, Republicans and Independents—united in the belief that America’s partnership with our democratic ally Israel benefits both countries. United Democracy Project works to help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.

Previously the project has come under fire as AIPAC didn’t make it clear that it was their project. In 2022 they threw $2.3m into the Democratic primary race for the open congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Critically, they targeted the seat because the leading candidate was ‘overly sympathetic to the Palestinians’.

Clearly, AIPAC have already been very influential in this years presidential race, including at the DNC:

AIPAC is literally a lobby group for a terrorist, apartheid state. Yet, not only are they allowed to donate to presidential candidates they are allowed a say in who speaks at the DNC and more importantly, who doesn’t:

The tax records for both AIPAC and UDP organisations show hundreds of donations to various current and potential members of congress and the senate. AIPAC and UDP are literally buying Israel’s power through American politicians.

Harris’ history with Israel

As The Canary reported last week, Kamala Harris’ has a long history with the pro-Israel cause. In total she has taken over $5m from AIPAC

While she may have now publicly called for a ceasefire, she is still accepting money from a genocidal state. She also publicly stated she would ‘ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.’ Clearly she means, providing Israel with weapons. She has Palestinian blood on her hands. But why would anyone receiving such a huge amount of money speak out against the very people who were financing them? 

Do the Democrats really care about marginalised voices?

Do they only care about them when it doesn’t stand in the way of their colonialist agendas?

The DNC has denied Palestinian-Americans the chance to speak.

Meanwhile, Harris took up space with her own take on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Incidentally, the word genocide didn’t feature once. Nor did she place the blame to the war criminal occupying Palestine. She had strong, decisive words of condemnation for Hamas.

Meanwhile, for Israel’s slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians – it was silence. Her speech made it all the more clear how badly the DNC needed to platform a Palestinian voice on its stage. At the same time, it made it all the more obvious precisely why it was never going to do that.

Feature image via Democracy Now!/Youtube 





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