Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and former President Donald Trump (R). (Photos by Getty Images)
A pro-Palestinian protest movement within the Democratic Party has declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a statement issued Thursday, Uncommitted National Movement leaders say that with the failure of Harris to meet Palestinian American families in Michigan who “lost loved ones to U.S.-supplied bombs in Gaza and to discuss their demands for halting arms to Israel and securing a permanent ceasefire,” the group could not offer an endorsement.
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, is running against GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump.
However, the group said they still oppose a Trump presidency, “whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing,” and were not recommending a third-party vote, which they acknowledged could “help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken electoral college system.”
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The Uncommitted National Movement conducted a sit-in protest last month outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, advocating for a Palestinian American speaker, a request that went unfulfilled. The group had about 30 delegates out of more than 4,500 that helped Harris secure the nomination.
“In our assessment, our movement’s best hope for change lies in growing our anti-war organizing power, and that power would be severely undermined by a Trump administration,” said the group. “We urge Uncommitted voters to register anti-Trump votes and vote up and down the ballot. Our focus remains on building a broad anti-war coalition both inside and outside the Democratic Party.”
In response, the Abandon Biden movement, which was stridently opposed to Biden’s reelection in response to Israeli military actions in Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise Hamas attack on Israel, said the Uncommitted group’s stance was a half-measure.
“Translation: We can’t endorse Kamala, even though we’d like to, because the community we claim to represent would tear us apart. So instead, we’re going to publicly state that we don’t support her while also not endorsing any alternative, effectively helping her win,” said the group, which rebranded itself as “Abandon Harris,” saying it seeks to “rally Muslim-Americans and their allies against the Harris-Walz ticket. This action is a direct response to Kamala Harris’s support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
One of the “uncommitted” delegates was Abbas Alawieh, who told the Michigan Advance in July that their ultimate goal is to to see more unity in the Democratic Party, although he stressed that it has to benefit all Democrats, including Palestinian Americans and Arab Americans.
That was echoed in the group’s statement Thursday.
“Building on the work of ‘Uncommitted,’ we invite stakeholders in the Democratic Party coalition — progressives, civil rights, labor, racial justice, reproductive rights, climate, immigrant rights, disability justice, people of faith, young people and more-to join us in our campaign to push our Democratic Party leadership to align with the majority of Democratic voters who support the urgent call for a stop to illegal and morally reprehensible weapons transfers through our campaign, “Not Another Bomb,” both now and in the next administration,” stated the group.
This story was originally published by Michigan Advance. Like Maine Morning Star, Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.
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