Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies, angry at U.S. 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 Nov. 5 election against Republican former President Donald Trump.
Group organizers declined to give details, but said they were encouraging supporters to wear Palestinian keffiyehs, or scarves, and to carry Palestinian flags, and would seek changes in the party platform, while urging delegates to speak on the convention floor.
On Sunday night, a crowd of roughly 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched through downtown Chicago, chanting “Shut down the DNC.”
President Joe Biden is due to speak on Monday and Harris on Thursday.
Pro-Palestinian delegates say they deserve a bigger role in the writing of the party platform.
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.
“We’re going to make our voices heard,” said Liano Sharon, a Jewish business consultant and delegate who signed an alternative platform along with 34 other delegates. “Freedom of expression necessarily includes the right to stand up a.”
The party’s draft platform released in mid-July calls for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the war and the release of remaining hostages taken to Gaza during an Oct. 7 attack by 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 U.S. arms shipments to Israel.
The United States approved $20 billion in additional arms sales to Israel on Tuesday.
Mediators including the U.S. have sought to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, based on a plan Biden put forward in May but so far have not succeeded.
