Notably absent from Walz’s speech was any real substance on foreign policy — including discussion of the genocide happening against Palestinians in Gaza, which uncommitted delegates and their allies have been trying to discuss for days at DNC. Indeed, most of the night, if not the week, has ignored the issue, and where it has been mentioned, Israel’s role in the genocide has been glossed over.

Uncommitted delegates in support of Palestinian liberation and an end to the genocide have requested that the DNC allow a Palestinian speaker take the podium in the United Center, to discuss a permanent ceasefire and an embargo for weapons from the U.S. to Israel, which the U.S. is legally obligated to do.

“We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” read a statement from the Uncommitted National Movement account on X. “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally. Vice President Harris must unite this party with a vision that fights for everyone, including Palestinians.”

A group of uncommitted delegates, joined by interfaith leaders and their allies, staged a sit-in just outside the convention hall on Wednesday night, saying they wouldn’t remove themselves from that spot until their demands for a Palestinian speaker were met.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    The movement for Palestinians predates Stonewall, so what’s that tell you? We’ve been “starting with minor things” for decades and the US still vetoes any UN resolutions that give Palestinians rights. Biden’s major positive while campaigning was that he is a deeply empathetic person because of the losses of his family members and how he can connect with grieving people, yet he never met a Palestinian family despite meeting and hugging Israeli families for the last 10 months and posting them all over his instagram and giving speeches about them. The empathetic president does. Not. Care. About. Palestinians. He only started talking about Palestinian suffering once his advisors showed him losing Michigan; prior to that Politico reported he removed any pro-Palestinian language from his speeches last October and he supported the attacks on Gaza hospitals. The only person who even bothered to talk to Palestinian-American victims was Harris and she did so quietly and even then the Biden campaign tried to downplay it.