Palestinian allies make last-ditch push for speaker on the DNC stage
(RNS) — Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and their interfaith allies spent much of Thursday (Aug. 22) pushing Democratic officials to allow a Palestinian American to speak from the party convention’s main stage, to convey a message of solidarity despite the party’s so-far consistent support for Israel in its prosecution of the war in Gaza. The push was accompanied by an all-night sit-in outside Chicago’s United Center at which members of the “uncommitted” movement also made speeches pressing the Democratic National Convention to feature a Palestinian speaker. The uncommitted — so-called because members of the movement wrote in “uncommitted” on their ballots rather than vote for President Joe Biden in this year’s Democratic primaries — want the DNC to recognize the suffering of Palestinians, 40,000 of whom have been killed by Israel’s massive Gaza assault of the past 10 months, an assault backed by U.S. bombs and munitions that has flattened the Gaza Strip and left tens of thousands homeless. In an emotional speech from the stage of the convention on Wednesday, Israeli Americans Rachel Goldberg-Polin …
