The national meeting of the Democratic Party starts today. They will thank President Joe Biden, who is no longer a candidate in the presidential election in November, and cheer for Vice President Kamala Harris, who will try to secure four new years in the White House for the Democrats. – I would like to vote for her, but I’m not there yet, says Tatiana. – I want to tell them that votes are at stake if they do not change their policy towards Israel, says Omar. The two Americans with Palestinian roots are aware that the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris have a job to do if she is to win the election. Three presidents – the same conflict A long line of the party’s heavyweights will speak to 5,000 party delegates and millions of TV viewers in the next few days, including Biden’s predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Obama and Clinton both had the Israel-Palestine conflict on their table, both had ambitions to resolve it, but had to leave the White House with unfinished business. Biden, who is one of America’s most experienced foreign politicians, is trying to find a way out of the current impasse. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 last year and Israel’s brutal retaliatory war threaten the stability of the entire region. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken is trying hard together with Arab allies to get the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire, based on the plan that President Biden put forward on 31 May. Blinken says this may be the last chance to get the over 100 Israeli hostages out alive. Several of them are American citizens. The more than 40,000 Palestinians who have lost their lives in the war and the terrible living conditions of the survivors in the Gaza Strip upset many, including in the United States. A party in conflict The USA has been Israel’s closest political and military ally ever since its creation in 1949. This regardless of who has had power in the White House. For the Democrats, the situation is difficult. The party needs to show itself as a united party, galvanize its party members, lure back disappointed Israel-critical voters on the left and at the same time not alienate voters with a more traditional view of Israel in the middle. Many Arab-American voters are threatening to vote blank or not to vote if Kamala Harris does not correct course. It could cost her and the party victory in important swing states, where the presidential election is in reality decided. – I want to see her take a stand and do something different from what we have seen with Biden, says Tatiana to news. She lives in Naperville, Illinois and comes from a Christian Palestinian family that had to flee in 1948, in what the Palestinians simply call “the catastrophe”. Tatiana desperately hopes that the party’s new presidential candidate will say something that can reassure her as a voter with Palestinian ancestry. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news Together with around 15,000 other protesters, Tatiana is there to put pressure on the new presidential candidate. The activists demand a shift in Israel policy; a halt to the war, a halt to the US arms and financial support that they claim is financing genocide, a halt to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. – I would like to vote for her. I loathe Trump and everything that comes with him. But I need to see Kamala Harris do something to support the Palestinians, and I haven’t seen it yet. – That’s why I’m here, desperate for her to do it, because I don’t know what else to do, says Tatiana and laughs a little to herself. The organizers state that around 15,000 are expected to take part in Monday’s protest march against the country’s Israel policy. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news Fear of noise Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned every day during the national assembly. The organizers promise that the protests will take place peacefully. Nevertheless, major security measures have been put in place. The fear is that the protests will degenerate into pure street fights, as was seen in 1968. Also then, the Democrats held their national convention in Chicago, in the middle of the Vietnam War. But one difference from then to now is that neither the party nor the country as a whole is as divided. Omar, who normally lives in Texas, has traveled to Chicago to participate in the protests. He believes that Harris, although she is considered to belong to the left wing of the party, shares the views of the established political elite. Omar says he thinks it will take a lot before the Democrats and Kamala Harris change their position, but has not given up hope. Photo: Anders Tvegård / news – She has said that the war should be stopped, that a ceasefire should be concluded, but it is not clear whether she will stop sending bombs to Israel. It is not clear whether she will stop defending Israel or give Israel back cover in the UN so that they can continue to violate human rights. – So what she says is marginally better than the Republicans, but the actions are the same as the Republicans. – I will not vote for her unless she changes her policy. The goal is not for Trump to win. The aim is for the Democrats to realize that they cannot vote for granted, says Omar. Published 19.08.2024, at 22.35 Updated 19.08.2024, at 11 p.m
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Protest march against the Gaza war characterizes the Democrats’ national meeting – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
