The United Auto Workers, a powerful labor union whose endorsement was coveted first by President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris, demanded the Democratic Party invite a Palestinian American to speak at the convention on its final night amid protests over the war in Gaza and an overnight sit-in outside Chicago's United Center.
“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the union wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “If we want peace, if we want real democracy, and if we want to win this election, the Democratic Party must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight.”
Led by president Shawn Fain, the auto workers’ union holds considerable sway in the Democratic Party, successfully coaxing Biden to become the first sitting U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line last fall. Democrats and some Republicans, including GOP vice presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance, flocked to picket lines across the country in solidarity as the union successfully negotiated new contracts with the country’s largest automakers.
Now, as pro-Palestinian activists and members of the “uncommitted” movement of Democratic National Convention delegates stage a sit-in outside the convention, the union is throwing their weight behind the demand to have a Palestinian American address the convention. On Wednesday night, uncommitted delegate Abbas Alawieh said at a press conference that they had received a “no” to their ask. As of Thursday morning, that had not changed.
Alawieh called the decision “deeply offensive” and “deeply inappropriate” as he called into a “Not Another Bomb” press conference on Thursday morning featuring uncommitted delegates, American doctors who worked in Gaza, and Arab American speakers calling for a Palestinian American speaker at the convention. The uncommitted movement, which secured 36 delegates to the convention and logged hundreds of thousands of votes during the Democratic primary, has called for an end of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. On Wednesday, Israeli tank and drone strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 17 people, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re the party of inclusion, but right now, the Democratic Party is making a decision to exclude a Palestinian American from that stage, and that is hopefully a temporary, discriminatory decision. Hopefully, if it's only an initial decision, that they will update,” Alawieh said. “We're waiting for their final decision. I have not received a call back. I'm waiting for a call from DNC leadership and from the vice president team, or from the President's team, whoever, whoever can give me an answer and give our movement an answer. Will a Palestinian American be speaking from the stage? Why is our party so scared?”
The Democratic National Committee did not return a request for comment.
Harris' campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and senior DNC staffers have met with leaders from the uncommitted movement in recent days, a Harris campaign official said. The official also noted the campaign's engagement with Arab and Palestinian Americans, including a short interaction Harris had with leaders of the uncommitted movement in Michigan last week. At the time, the campaign described Harris' interaction with the leaders, who asked to meet with her to discuss an arms embargo on Israel, as a "brief engagement" where the vice president “reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities.”
Alawieh said he spoke to Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday to urge them to pass along the pro-Palestinian movements demands. Jayapal, he said, “supports us getting a Palestinian American speaker” on the stage. And Ocasio-Cortez, who addressed the convention on Monday, called into the sit-in early on Thursday morning to express her support.
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said at a DNC press conference on Thursday morning that “we're absolutely not taking their votes for granted” and said the campaign has “engaged” with members of the uncommitted movement, but did not answer a reporter’s question about why they wouldn’t allow a Palestinian speaker throughout the four days of the convention.
“What folks who continue to demonstrate and protest will see, is a vice president — what has already been clear, and what they'll continue to see for the rest of this campaign — is a vice president who is committed to ending the violence, ending the conflict, making sure that we resolve this conflict with a permanent ceasefire that allows Israel to fully secure itself, that fully continues, and makes sure that we have full humanitarian aid,” Tyler said. “Also make sure that Gazans are able to peacefully live and prosper in Gaza, that's what she's going to relentlessly fight for as president of the United States.”
On Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., visited the sit-in, while Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., had called in. On Thursday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and the only Palestinian-American in Congress, called into the “Not Another Bomb” press conference.
“I come from the battleground of the state of Michigan, where we have the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States,” Tlaib said. “Every corner of my district, you will find a family that is directly impacted by the genocide that is happening in Gaza, by the fact that our country continues to fund and send bombs to kill their family members or loved ones.”