DNC Kicks Off as Progressives and Uncommitted Delegates Demand Harris Take Action on Gaza Genocide
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024
Thousands of delegates and elected officials have descended on Chicago as the Democratic National Convention kicks off today. The four-day convention comes one month after President Biden ended his bid for reelection. Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic presidential nomination in a virtual roll call earlier this month and is expected to again formally accept the party’s nomination when she addresses the convention on Thursday.
Dozens of delegates with the “uncommitted” movement are also in Chicago as they continue to pressure Harris to halt U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza. The delegates represent states where some 700,000 people cast uncommitted votes during primaries to protest Democrats’ pro-Israel policies. For the first time ever, the DNC is hosting a panel on Palestinian human rights. The uncommitted delegation welcomed the move and is continuing to request that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention from the stage.
On Sunday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago saying they will disrupt the DNC until Democrats listen to their demands. This is Kshama Sawant, co-founder of Workers Strike Back and former socialist Seattle city councilmember.
Kshama Sawant: “The possibility of Trump 2.0 is only a reality because of the many betrayals by the Biden-Harris administration. Biden and Harris, both as president and as vice president, and the Democratic Party as a whole, they broke their promise for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. They blocked the railroad workers’ strike, which is possibly one of the most anti-worker, anti-union actions that can be taken by politicians. And so, in other words, both the Democratic and Republican parties are anti-worker, and they are both pro-war.”
Meanwhile, Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson in a recent interview called Israel’s war a genocide, saying, “What’s happening right now is not only egregious, it is genocidal. We have to acknowledge and name it for what it is and have the moral courage to exercise our authority.” We’ll have more from the DNC after headlines.
Gazans Hold Out Little Hope as Blinken Pushes for Ceasefire in Tel Aviv
Aug 19, 2024
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel, where he warned ongoing ceasefire talks may be the “last chance” to free Hamas hostages as he spoke from Tel Aviv earlier today. Blinken added, “It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process.” Inside Gaza, displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis responded to Blinken’s latest visit.
Mahmoud Abu Daoud: “Today in the Gaza Strip, we are suffering from the Americans and international community ganging up on us, without mercy on us. As I said, this visit is, as usual, to check on Israel and provide it with arms and logistic matters, to continue the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip. There will be no changes. We are very pessimistic about this visit.”
Israeli Soldiers Attack Deir al-Balah, Wiping Out Families, Children, Another U.N. Worker
Aug 19, 2024
Israel’s slaughter continues throughout the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military is pushing further into central Deir al-Balah, as Gazans are now being crowded into just 10% of the besieged territory. On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah killed at least 18 members of the same family, including 11 siblings aged between 2 and 22. On Sunday, another attack in the same region killed more Palestinian children. Mohammed Awad Khattab said six of his grandchildren were killed as they slept, along with their mother — his daughter — who worked for the United Nations.
Mohammed Awad Khattab: “My daughter had been struggling to have children for years. She had them through IVF. Four of the children were quadruplets. The eldest son and the youngest daughter, who was only a year-and-a-half old, were also killed. What wrong did these innocent children do? Were they posing any danger to Israel? Were they carrying arms?”
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is marking World Humanitarian Day today by honoring its 207 staff members who have been killed by Israel since October 7.
First Case of Polio Identified in Gaza in 10-Month-Old Baby
Aug 19, 2024
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for a “polio pause” to conduct an urgent vaccination campaign inside Gaza after health authorities confirmed a 10-month-old infant had contracted the highly contagious disease.
Secretary-General António Guterres: “Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. But in any case, a polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.”
The 10-month-old baby is Gaza’s first known case of polio in a quarter of a century. Overwhelmed parents expressed fear over yet another threat to their families’ lives.
Elham Nassar: “We’re tired of this life we are living — no food, no drink, no medicines. What are we supposed to do in this life? At the least, we need medicines for our children, to protect them from being infected with the polio virus that’s now spreading across Gaza. You must find a solution to our situation. We need vaccines. We need medicine. We need proper sanitation. We want you to save us before it’s too late. Or how long are we supposed to wait? Should we wait until we watch our children die and become paralyzed, and then become helpless to do anything for them?”
Israeli Relatives of Hamas Hostages Rally in Tel Aviv Ahead of Blinken Visit
Aug 19, 2024
In Israel, relatives of hostages held in Gaza rallied in Tel Aviv this weekend ahead of Blinken’s visit. This is Lee Siegel, whose brother is one of the remaining hostages.
Lee Siegel: “We are broken. We are sad. We are tired. We wake up in the morning thinking about the hostages. Maybe this will be the day when they come home. We go to sleep every night thinking tomorrow morning we will wake up to a better day. This morning was not a better day. True, negotiations are ongoing. Until the hostages are home, negotiations mean nothing.”
Meanwhile, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad say they are responsible for an explosion on a truck in Tel Aviv Sunday evening. The blast killed one person, believed to be the detonator of the explosive.
Israel Attacks Southern Lebanon, Killing 10 Civilians from Syria
Aug 19, 2024
Regional tensions remain high amid ongoing attacks around the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike in the south of the country killed at least 10 Syrian nationals Saturday, including two children. This is a witness of that attack.
Yaser Jaber: “Honestly, a number of workers were martyred on the site, including the janitor, along with his wife and two children. With them were a number of workers who also lived in the same building. They are all Syrians. This is a civil establishment that works in metal trades for hangars, false ceilings and homes, and has nothing to do with military things at all.”
Meanwhile, Israeli forces earlier today raided the town of Houla in southern Lebanon, according to local reports.
Protesters Demand “Not Another Bomb” on Gaza in Marches Across the Globe
Aug 19, 2024
On Sunday, protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities across the United States on the eve of the DNC to demand “Not Another Bomb” on Gaza. Demonstrations also took place in cities across the globe, including in Amsterdam, where massive crowds rallied to condemn the Dutch government over its failure to hold Israel accountable.
Marleen: “Since October, I’ve been going to all the demonstrations with my kids, because that’s all we can do. I can’t believe what I’m seeing with my eyes. And I hope this, inshallah, will end soon, because this is not normal. Almost a year, we’ve been watching blown-up children, blown-up mothers, fathers. I don’t have words. It breaks me. It breaks us all. This just has to stop now.”
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Voices from the Streets of Chicago: DNC Protesters Call for Gaza Ceasefire & Economic Justice
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024
Democracy Now! is in Chicago for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters have actions planned throughout the week. The demonstrations kicked off on Sunday, on the eve of the convention, with the March for Bodies Outside Unjust Laws, which was organized by a coalition of several different activist groups to demand action on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and an end to the war on Gaza. We hear from protesters on the ground who say they will withhold their votes in the presidential election until the Democratic Party commits to reversing the Biden administration’s policy of “warmongering.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Democratic National Convention opens today here in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris will be accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday. While the delegates gather in the United Center for the convention, thousands of protesters are converging on Chicago to make their voices heard. Over the course of the week, there are at least six major protests planned.
The demonstrations kicked off on Sunday, on the people of the convention, with the March for Bodies Outside Unjust Laws, which was organized by a coalition of several different activist groups to demand action on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and on an end to the war on Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! was on the streets to cover the demonstration. These are some of the voices of the protesters.
PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!
JEX BLACKMORE: My name is Jex Blackmore, and I am the organizing director of Shout Your Abortion. You cannot talk about reproductive justice without talking about Palestinian liberation. We are talking about body autonomy. We are talking about the freedom to control what happens to our bodies, our families, our futures, our ability to move between places. This is not something that’s exclusively granted just to the American voter. This is something that we protect and stand in solidarity with people around the world and around the globe. And so, we stand just as much about bodily autonomy and reproductive justice as we do for people here as we do in Palestine.
EMAN ABDELHADI: My name is Eman Abdelhadi. I’m an organizer here in Chicago. I’m also a professor at the University of Chicago.
MARÍA TARACENA: What specifically about queer and trans movements and reproductive rights connects to Israel’s war on Gaza and the horrors that people are experiencing in Gaza today?
EMAN ABDELHADI: The genocide has had massive amounts of sexual violence and has had a disproportionate impact on women and their access to healthcare. But more broadly, genocide always starts with the decision that some bodies need to be controlled, contained or exterminated. And that’s exactly what reproductive justice is about, and that’s exactly what freeing Palestine is about, is about ending the state’s right to do that to any population.
KSHAMA SAWANT: I’m Kshama Sawant. I was a socialist on the Seattle City Council for a decade. We can see that we have two parties for the warmongering billionaire class. Harris and Trump are both warmongering candidates. And despite some of the differences between them, at the end of the day, it is the Biden-Harris administration that has presided over the support for this war. After Harris became the anointed, you know, crowned candidate for the Democratic Party, after that happened, you saw the Biden-Harris administration approving more than $20 billion more for military aid to Israel.
JANE STEINFELS HUSSAIN: I’m Jane Steinfels Hussain. I’m here with CodePink, and I’m here from the Nashville Peace and Justice Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
MARÍA TARACENA: And you were here in Chicago in 1968 for the DNC that took place that year.
JANE STEINFELS HUSSAIN: It was accurately described as a police riot, and I was a witness to it. I was a street medic. I was newly graduated from the University of Chicago and hugely pregnant. And I was stuck at one point right out in front of the Hilton Hotel, where the police were beating people and dragging them and putting them in paddy wagons. And the young man who was staying with us, I spent several days afterwards looking for him at hospitals and police stations. And he was left in an alley behind the Hilton by the police after both of his legs were broken. So, it was really, really violent.
And I think it is a pivotal moment, but there have been so many pivotal moments for the Democratic Party to take the right action, and so I don’t have an awful lot of hope for the Democratic Party. But I do have a hope for the people of America, because I think young people, in much greater numbers, are really clued into American imperialism and the whole war economy.
RABBI BRANT ROSEN: Brant Rosen. I’m the rabbi of the congregation Tzedek Chicago.
MESSIAH RHODES: And what do you say to people who are calling for, you know, arms embargo, calling for these simple demands, a ceasefire, who are pro-Palestinian, as being antisemitic?
RABBI BRANT ROSEN: It’s just astonishing to hear people say stop war is somehow antisemitic. I mean, on a very basic level, as a rabbi, my spiritual tradition is — demands that we pursue peace and we pursue justice. You know, the claim that it’s somehow antisemitic is just — it’s absurd on its face, and it shows the desperation of those who stand with Israel unconditionally. It shows the patent immorality of that position.
JUSTINE MEDINA: Justine Medina. I’m on the organizing committee at JFK8 with ALU-IBT.
MESSIAH RHODES: What brings you here today at the DNC?
JUSTINE MEDINA: The Palestinian trade unions, since this genocidal war started, have been asking for support from their labor and brother sisters around the world. So, as internationalists, as fighters for labor power, we cannot, you know, ignore that call. And we are going to come here, and we’re going to tell everyone — Republican, Democrat, independent, it doesn’t matter — we need a ceasefire now. We need an arms embargo now. We need a liberated Palestine, you know? We need to end the occupation, because the working class is global.
KSHAMA SAWANT: The possibility of Trump 2.0 is only a reality because of the many betrayals by the Biden-Harris administration. Biden and Harris, both as president and as vice president, and the Democratic Party as a whole, they broke their promise for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. They blocked the railroad workers’ strike, which is possibly one of the most anti-worker, anti-union actions that can be taken by politicians. And so, in other words, both the Democratic and Republican parties are anti-worker, and they are both pro-war.
RABBI BRANT ROSEN: I want people to know that there is a strong movement within the Democratic Party, certainly with the “uncommitted” movement but not only, inside the halls of the convention and out here in the streets, that there is a strong, strong constituency that is demanding a fair and humane and a just foreign policy, and, in particular, an end to this genocide. And, you know, people often say that, “Well, this is just focusing on one issue.” In a time of genocide, genocide is the only issue.
JUSTINE MEDINA: If the Democrats want us to get out the vote for them, they need to actually earn our votes by giving us a meaningful change on Gaza. They have not done that. We are not going to do the work for them of getting Kamala Harris elected if they cannot stop the most basic thing, which is the slaughter of our people abroad with our money. So, for Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue. And we have spent 10 months watching our people die every day. To ask us to simply come out and just wait and hope that some change will happen before the election, it’s just offensive, and it’s completely insensitive to where we are as a community.
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices from the first protest leading up to the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago, beginning today, that protest yesterday. Special thanks to Democracy Now! producers Sam Alcoff, Messiah Rhodes and María Taracena.
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Kamala Harris Is Reaching Out to Arab American Leaders, But Will There Be Any Change in Gaza Policy?
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
Aug 19, 2024
Arab American voters could significantly impact the 2024 presidential election, particularly in Michigan, home to the largest Arab community in the United States. Many of these voters, incensed at U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza, have mobilized over the past year to pressure the Biden administration to change policy, including by casting hundreds of thousands of ballots for “uncommitted” in Democratic primary elections to signal their demand for policy changes. We speak with Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, who has had several meetings with senior figures from the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign. Despite all those meetings, “nothing has happened” except “more killing,” Siblani says. “Something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, in addition to the protests on the streets, dozens of delegates with the “uncommitted” movement are also in Chicago as they continue to pressure Kamala Harris to halt U.S. military support for Israel’s war on Gaza. The delegates represent states where some 700,000 people cast uncommitted votes during primary elections to protest the Democrats’ pro-Israel policies.
For the first time ever, the DNC is hosting a panel on Palestinian human rights. The uncommitted delegates welcomed the move and are continuing to request that Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has volunteered in Gaza, be permitted to address the convention from the stage.
AMY GOODMAN: Top Democrats have spent weeks meeting with uncommitted voters and their allies, including a sit-down between Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud, in an effort to respond to criticism in key swing states like Michigan, which has a significant Arab American population. Harris’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez Thursday held several one-on-one meetings with leaders of the Arab American community, uncommitted movement in metro Detroit, among them, Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, the largest and most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States. He’s based in Dearborn, Michigan, where he joins us from today.
Osama Siblani, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about that meeting you had with Julie Chávez Rodríguez, one of the campaign managers for Harris, had been for Biden, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, what you had to say to her and how you feel the Harris-Walz campaign is responding to your concerns?
OSAMA SIBLANI: Well, first of all, good morning, Amy, and thank you for having me on your program again.
Yeah, this is not the first time I met with Julie. Actually, I did meet with her in January of this year when she was managing the campaign of President Biden. And we met in my office for two-and-a-half hours. And we’ve had a good discussion, and it was frank. And I met her again Thursday, last Thursday, and now she’s managing the Harris campaign. And we met, and we talked for about an hour, and it was a frank and straightforward discussion. It was the same discussion. And I told her that it’s true that the Democratic Party changed horses, but we’re still seeing the same jockey — that is, Benjamin Netanyahu riding these horses all the way, you know, in the same direction, doing the same thing.
You know, I’ve been listening to the program, and I’ve listened to the demonstrators. And all of them, they are right on the point. They have made a very good case. I would say that they have represented everything that we believe in, everything that we have said.
Between January and between Thursday, we have met several times senior leaders from the White House, emissaries from the president’s office, from the White House and from the secretary of state, and nothing has happened. Nothing. Nothing. More killing. Actually, when I met with Julie in January, it was like, the killing today, three times as much. So, nothing has happened. There’s more killing, more destruction, and the genocide is going on without any — without any reprisal, without any kind of steps to take care from here, from the United States, the most powerful country on the face of this Earth, the one that can really stop the killing, not doing anything.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Osama Siblani, what are the, first, Biden and, now, Harris people telling you behind closed doors versus what they’re saying to the public?
OSAMA SIBLANI: They are not really saying any much. I mean, they listen to us, they shake their head, and we think that something can happen. And the times go, you know, time passes, and all what we see is more killing. There are no promises.
They say that Harris is different, they’re from different generations. But we have not seen anything from her. We’ve been listening. We are good listeners. But so far, we have not listened to anything that changes policy. She said that she is not going to consider an arms embargo. What if they kill more people? What are you going to do? You’re going to continue to give them more bombs to kill more people?
There are no leadership in this country. I am sorry. If they think that they can give us lip service, and then, on November 5, go and vote for them because the choices are very bad, the other choice, they are wrong, because there is another choice: that we can sit home. And this is what most of the people are going to be doing, sitting home and not going out to vote. Is that the right thing to do? Of course not. But what choices do we have? You tell me.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Osama Siblani, I wanted to ask you about this unprecedented moment where for the first time the Democratic National Convention, today, before the actual convention opens, in one of the side meetings, will be hosting a discussion that includes Layla Elabed, who is one of the founders of the uncommitted movement, the sister of the only Palestinian American congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, and others at the McCormick Center around the issue of Palestinian human rights. Do you think that this is an accomplishment?
OSAMA SIBLANI: Well, every time that we stand and speak about the Palestinian issue and the massacre that’s happening in Gaza, it is important. And I think that this is an important step. However, what changes this is going to make? We have been talking to this administration since October, right after October. And we have been meeting. And every meeting, we listen, they listen, we talk, they listen, they talk, we listen, they leave. Nothing happens. More killing is happening. That is what is happening. Now, we have to stop talk. We have to stop the talk and do something to stop the killing, because this is what’s happening right now, you know, like you see these people are suffering every day more and more, and we keep talking, and nothing is happening. And I don’t understand why we are not able to stop it. This country is able to stop the killing tomorrow. If there is a will, there is a way. But the will is not there anymore.
So, I welcome the discussion, but those discussions are leading us nowhere, Amy. Nowhere. Nowhere. Our people are dying every day, in a way that is unprecedented. We see them on television with body parts, their children, carrying children dead, 16, 17 years old, carrying those babies dripping with blood. That is not a very good scene. That is not how peace is going to be generated in the Middle East. That’s more war and more hate, not peace, not harmony anymore. So, something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m wondering if you’re heartened at least in terms of the change in attitude among many Americans. We’ve seen the votes, the uncommitted votes, in the primary. And even here in Illinois, by my calculations, 50,000 people voted in the presidential primary just in Chicago but did not vote for president, because they didn’t have an alternative or uncommitted slate here, but their votes were not counted. So, there’s at least 50,000 people right here in Chicago who opposed President Biden, and about 100,000 in Illinois. I’m wondering your sense of the change in public opinion in the United States in terms of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land.
OSAMA SIBLANI: I’m very appreciative, in fact, to the change in opinion, especially among the young people. And that is due to, you know, being informed — through social media, unfortunately, not mainstream media — of what has been happening in Gaza and around the world. And I believe that the change is coming in America. I really do. I mean, I look at the demonstrations and the encampments in the universities, all the universities, especially the Ivy League, and we see those are the potential leaders in America. And I believe that in the next maybe decade or two decades, things will change in America. But we have to be patient. We have to be persistent. We have to continue to tell the truth. Once the American people know what is happening, they will make the right decision. That’s what happened in 1968, actually — you know, the history repeats itself — when they were demonstrating against the Vietnam War, and people prevailed, and they changed, you know, policy.
And today, the same thing is happening. America is waking up. The American people are waking up to the fact that there is a crime being committed against civilians in Palestine, and there is a situation there that has been brewing for 76 years, and it is time to end. And therefore, they are going to be aware of it, and they will change it. It’s going to take time. Change in America is coming. I believe in the new generation. I believe in what you guys are doing at Democracy Now! and others. And I think that this is changing opinion. And in fact, I see the change coming, maybe in the next decade or two decades at most.
AMY GOODMAN: Osama Siblani, we want to thank you for being with us, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, the largest, most widely circulated Arab American publication in the United States, speaking to us from Dearborn, Michigan. Harris’s campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez met with him for the second time last week.
Coming up, we’ll speak with two Chicago men who spent decades in prison before being exonerated. Stay with us.