Uncommitted delegates are still waiting to hear if DNC organizers will allow a Palestinian-American to speak during the final day of the convention. Members of the delegation and allies staged a sit-in after being told yesterday that the DNC would not heed their request – but there’s still a little time for convention organizers to change their minds. The Uncommitted movement had put forward a number of speaker possibilities to the DNC, and on Thursday, Mother Jones magazine published the text that one proposed speaker, State Rep. Ruwa Romman of Georgia, wants to deliver.
In the speech, Romman speaks of her paternal grandfather, who passed away before he could see his native village, or Palestine itself, one last time. “As we’ve been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza, I’ve thought of him, wondering if this was the pain he knew too well,” Romman writes, adding, “When we watched Palestinians displaced from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other I wanted to ask him how he found the strength to walk all those miles decades ago and leave everything behind.” Romman also endorses Vice President Kamala Harris, writing, “Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur.”
It’s a mild speech – and indeed, the Uncommitted movement’s demands for the DNC have been relatively modest overall. Delegates have already heard from the family of an Israeli-American hostage; Palestinian-Americans and their allies are simply asking for equal treatment. Harris and DNC organizers may believe that this week’s muted protests mean they can safely ignore Uncommitted delegates, but that would be a mistake.
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