Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at US support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza, are seeking changes in the Democratic platform and plan to press for an arms embargo this week, putting the party on guard for disruptions to high-profile speeches at its national convention in Chicago.
Calling itself Delegates Against Genocide, the pro-Palestinian group says it will exercise its freedom of speech rights during main events at the four-day Democratic National Convention convening on Monday to formally nominate vice-president Kamala Harris for president in the November 5th election against Republican former president Donald Trump.
Group organisers declined to give details, but said they would offer amendments to the party platform and use their rights as delegates to speak on the convention floor.
President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Ms Harris on Thursday.
Pro-Palestinian delegates say they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform. The convention takes place in Chicago, which has the largest Palestinian-American population of any US city.
The group wants to include language backing enforcement of laws that ban giving military aid to individuals or security forces that commit gross violations of human rights.
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
The party’s draft platform released in mid-July calls for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the war and the release of the remaining hostages taken to Gaza during an October 7th attack by Islamist militant Hamas fighters in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.
The platform does not mention the more than 40,000 people that Palestinian health authorities in Gaza say have been killed in Israel’s subsequent offensive. Nor does it mention any plans to curtail US arms shipments to Israel.
The United States approved $20 billion (€18 billion) in additional arms sales to Israel on Tuesday.
Mediators including the US have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Mr Biden put forward in May but so far have not succeeded.
The Israel-Hamas war, now in its 11th month, reduced support for Democrats among Muslim and Arab-American voters, who represent crucial votes in election battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
While the activists make up a tiny fraction of convention delegates, disruptions inside the hall and large protests outside could mar the party’s plan to unify Democrats around Ms Harris after Mr Biden dropped out of the race on July 21st under pressure from fellow Democrats.
Pro-Palestinian activists say Ms Harris has been more sympathetic to Gazans than Mr Biden has been. Her national security adviser said on X this month that she did not support an arms embargo on Israel.
But after meeting prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu last month, Ms Harris told reporters not only had Israel a right to defend itself but also in reference to Gaza: “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
About 40,000 protesters are expected to gather outside the convention on Monday to demonstrate against the Biden administration’s position on Israel. Organisers say the number could swell to more than 100,000. – Reuters