CHICAGO (CN) — A collection of Palestinian-American delegates, politicians and allies staged an hourslong sit-in outside Chicago’s United Center on Wednesday night in protest of a lack of Palestinian voices on the DNC stage. The sit-in began before the DNC programming ended for the night, and continued through to Thursday morning.
The sit-in attendees said it was unfair that a Palestinian-American was denied a place in the DNC lineup, which included former Donald Trump staffers, Uber’s chief legal officer — and Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law —Tony West, and the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
“In our discussions with Vice President Harris’ team, we made very clear our ask was for a Palestinian-American speaker to speak from this stage. We made that ask very respectfully,” Michigan uncommitted delegate Abbas Alawieh told assembled press early in the night. “When I got the call saying they were denying that request… what the person I spoke with was authorized to say was, ‘the answer is no.'”
Alawieh reported asking for more clarification, only to be told again that the answer was no and that the DNC would offer no further engagement on the issue. Unsatisfied, Alawieh and others decided to take the exclusion of Palestinian-American voices to the public.
“Let it be laid bare for the American public to know, that the Democratic Party… as of this moment, is choosing to suppress the voices of Palestinian-Americans,” Alawieh said.
The sit-in attracted national attention over the course of the night. Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar showed up in person to express her solidarity with the sit-in, as did Pennsylvania congresswoman Summer Lee. Progressive Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley and Cori Bush also called in to express their support, while the country’s only Palestinian-American member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, did so on social media. The Kamala Harris booster group Muslim Women for Harris and Walz threatened to disband over the issue, and multiple Democratic lawmakers took to social media to criticize their party for refusing to allow a Palestinian-American to speak.
“Have you heard the DNC announce no Irish-Americans will be allowed to speak at the DNC? No Italian-American can speak at the DNC?” a Jewish sit-in attendee asked rhetorically around 11:30 p.m.
“It’s racist. It’s just racist,” Alawieh responded.
As midnight, then 1 a.m., then 2 a.m. came and went with no concession from the DNC, the protesters settled in for the long hall. They shared snacks, water, small talk and music, occasionally regrouping when Alawieh had updates to share.
Other delegates in attendance also took time to vent their frustrations with Democratic leadership, whom they saw as making space in the party’s big tent for everyone except Palestinians.
“They’re not letting a Palestinian speak, and they killed someone here because they were Palestinian?” Minnesota uncommitted delegate Asma Mohammed said shortly before 2 a.m., referencing the killing of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Chicago-area Palestinian-American boy, last October. “How is this allowed in our party? The hypocrisy is astounding.”
The testimonies often turned emotional, with multiple attendees expressing frustration that the party seemed unwilling to budge on Palestinian concerns. Not only over the exclusion of Palestinian voices from the DNC, but over the end of military and diplomatic aid for Israel, whose strikes have killed upward of 40,000 people in Gaza since last October — dozens since the DNC began earlier this week.
“I don’t know how to move forward from here… what do I take back to my community when they ask me and they say, ‘hey, you told us that if we work within the party and apply pressure, they’ll hear us?'” Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman said. “What am I supposed to tell them?”
When the sun broke on Thursday morning, the answer from the party was still, apparently, “no.”
“We set the lowest bar for you, Jaime Harrison. We set the lowest bar for you, Governor Walz. We set the lowest bar for you, Vice President Harris,” Mohammed said. “Build a bigger tent, build a tent that includes Palestinian-Americans. You can do better. So do better.”
