DNC Shuts Out Palestinian Voices as Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Continues | Palestine Policy Roundup 08.26.2024
Welcome to a special DNC edition of the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “Hearing the cries of my sister [Layla Elabed] broke me a little today. As folks try to dismiss the cries of Palestinians + anti-genocide Dems, just remember that we aren't going anywhere. The movement to end the egregious and horrific genocide in Gaza will just grow.”
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “In the metropolitan region with the greatest number of Palestinians living in the diaspora at a time when 40,000 Palestinians are dead in Gaza, to deny Palestinian leaders a place on our stage is to miss an opportunity to prove we see and value them.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to demonstrate our party’s courage and commitment to ending the genocide not just in condemning it with words, but in action by conditioning aid. A better world is possible, but we must have the courage to fight for it.
Rep. Ro Khanna: “The Palestinian right to self determination was erased by the British with the Balfour declaration which mentioned civil & religious but not political rights. The Dem party is making a tragic mistake in 2024 perpetuating this erasure of the Palestinian story & voice.”
IMEU POLICY PROJECT AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
🎙️ IMEU POLICY PROJECT HOSTS EVENTS ON THE SIDELINES OF THE DNC FEATURING PALESTINIAN VOICES
This week, the IMEU Policy Project hosted events featuring Palestinian, Palestinian-American, and allied voices on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. On Tuesday, we co-sponsored the Arab American Institute’s panel featuring Palestinian voices outlining why the US must continue its funding of UNRWA.
The IMEU Policy Project also independently hosted a meet-and-greet and panel for press and a screening of the Al Jazeera film The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza, which included a panel by the film’s producers Sharif Kouddous and Kavitha Chekuru and remarks by Reps. Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez. These events provided critical analysis of US complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and heart-wrenching testimonies from Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinian-Americans affected by Israel’s genocide.
📺 WATCH: The Arab American Institute panels co-sponsored by the IMEU Policy Project.
📺 WATCH: The IMEU Policy Project’s live stream of our press event featuring Palestinian American analysts, strategists, and elected officials.
📺 WATCH: The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza, a documentary published by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines and screened by the IMEU Policy Project during the DNC.
DNC DEVELOPMENTS
❌ DNC SHUTS OUT PALESTINIAN AMERICAN VOICES FROM CONVENTION FLOOR AS VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS FAILS TO COMMIT TO CHANGE IN POLICY
The Democratic National Convention and the Harris campaign denied speaking time for a Palestinian-American on the floor of the convention, prompting a sit-in by Uncommitted National Movement delegates overnight on Wednesday and into Thursday. Proposed speakers included Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, Illinois state Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, and Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric care physician who has treated patients in Gaza. This refusal came as most speeches on the convention floor made little to no mention of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza despite deep US complicity in it.
While there was little mention of Palestinian human rights on the convention floor, the DNC did host a historic, but untelevised, panel on Palestinian rights. The panel was the first-ever DNC-sanctioned panel on Palestinian human rights, but several panelists noted that it was not enough to substitute for speaking time for a Palestinian-American on the convention floor or for a change in policy to end US support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Ta-Nehisi Coates, in Vanity Fair: “Maybe more than in any other year, this DNC has urged its various constituencies to highlight their identities and the collective pain that animates them. Racism, forced birth, land theft. It has been an exhibition of what the Palestinian scholar Edward Said called ‘the permission to narrate,’ and it is that permission that Palestinian Americans have been denied. They have heard their names mentioned fleetingly by a handful of speakers but have not been granted the right to speak their names themselves.”
On Sunday, the Democratic Party released its party platform without a pledge to end all weapons to Israel, rejecting a key demand from a majority of Democratic voters. This refusal to substantially address the issue continued in Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president. While VP Harris’s call for a ceasefire and for Palestinian “dignity, security, freedom and self determination” was met with thunderous applause, she failed to commit to ending weapons to Israel and changing course from the Biden administration’s outright culpability in numerous Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
This was a missed opportunity by VP Harris to align herself with public opinion and boost her chances at winning key swing states in November. While the Vice President continued her call for a ceasefire, she must meet words with action and end all weapons transfers to Israel.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🏫 AS DNC CELEBRATED, DOZENS OF PALESTINIANS KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKES ON SCHOOLS, MARKET, AND MORE
Israeli forces continued their disturbing trend of attacks on schools sheltering displaced people this week, as Israeli airstrikes killed 12 Palestinians at the Mustafa Hafez school and at least 4 Palestinians at the Salah al-Din school, both in Gaza City.
As reported in last week’s newsletter, these attacks are part of a growing trend of Israeli forces targeting schools sheltering displaced Palestinians. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 85% of schools in Gaza have been directly hit or have been damaged by Israeli strikes, and UNICEF reported that more than half of all schools being used as shelters have been directly hit. Nearly 50 Palestinians were killed in July when Israel attacked four schools within a week, and, before these strikes, Israel had killed approximately 180 Palestinians in attacks on eight schools.
Israeli forces also killed 18 members of the same family when they bombed a home and adjacent warehouse in the town of Zawaida. Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, his two wives, and 11 of their children were killed in the strike, as well as a grandmother and other relatives. 8 Palestinians were also killed in Israeli strikes on a reportedly crowded market in Deir al-Balah.
🧬 PALESTINIANS FORCED INTO SHRINKING HUMANITARIAN ZONE AS FIRST CASE OF POLIO CONFIRMED IN GAZA
Israeli forces displaced thousands of Palestinians after issuing orders to evacuate parts of Khan Younis, al-Maghazi refugee camp and Deir al-Balah this week. These orders come as the designated humanitarian safe zone has shrunk to just 11% of Gaza and as 90% of Palestinians in Gaza have been ordered to evacuate.
This comes as the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza identified the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. The highly infectious disease threatens to be devastating for vulnerable populations in Gaza as overcrowding in the humanitarian safe zone exacerbates issues of sanitation and a lack of clean water. According to a report published by Oxfam, Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and all wastewater treatment plants in Gaza, severely limiting access to clean water in Gaza.