“It feels like I’m in an alternate world,” Rima Mohammad, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, told me of her experience at the Democratic National Convention. She described entering the United Center in Chicago for the convention and encountering giddy attendees after she attended a forum where Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatric intensive care doctor, recounted harrowing details from her medical mission in Gaza. “I was literally bawling at the panel, and then going into the convention where people are excited and celebrating—it was the weirdest feeling,” Mohammad said.
Mohammad is wearing a black-and-white kaffiyeh imprinted with “Democrats for Palestinian Rights” every day that she attends the convention. While almost all other attendees are in full Harris gear, celebrating with “We heart Joe” signs, the uncommitted delegates—around 30 in total, representing some 700,000 voters—clearly stand out among other convention-goers, some of whom have seem wary or guarded around them. Mohammad described a brief encounter with Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as “mostly a photo op.” She said the governor was sympathetic but didn’t have much to say.
Mohammad is the grandchild of Palestinian Nakba survivors who remain refugees, she said; she is also an outspoken Democrat. She is on the public school board in Ann Arbor, and recently ran for Michigan state representative. She’s been stunned by the party’s response to the war in Gaza so far, and was feeling intense whiplash at the DNC. “It’s disappointing that it’s taking the uncommitted delegates to advocate for something so simple and humane,” she said. “The bar is really low. People just want to feel like they’re being taken seriously. This isn’t just about a Muslim or Arab vote; it’s about decency.”
“I was in the US dealing with US election stuff, but for some reason it didn’t entirely revolve around the situation in a single tiny foreign country.”
Who do these people think they are? This is America, not gaza, not Israel, its not a neighbouring country, it’s not even an ally.
When the US was killing a half million civilians in the middle east after 9/11 there wasn’t this constant protest to stop it.
Because anyone that vocally opposed war was quickly silenced.
That’s because people didn’t give a shit about them dying then and nothing has really changed since. Most Americans still won’t actually do anything to stop middle eastern people dying.
Even the current “Gaza support” from the US public is mostly just support for a theoretical ceasefire that the US government negotiates, not actually support to stop funding Israel unless they’re the ones that reject the ceasefire. Given that Israel has already accepted the US backed deal, but Hamas never will, they can say they tried and keep going. The polling questions are all over the place on this topic. One of the most recent polls I saw said 41% of respondents were in support of sending US military troops to defend Israel if it gets attacked by a neighbor.
These people are relatives of those the US is actively giving military aid to murder.
It was the US doing the murdering themselves last time, and a lot more of them.
How does this situation deserve more attention than that situation?
The US is actively trading with China despite it genociding the Uighurs (proper genocide, like actually trying to wipe them from the planet by putting them in concentration camps and preventing them from having children)
The US isn’t sanctioning allies for trading with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. cough India cough
This gaza thing is bad, but it’s not even in the top 5 bad things going on right now around the world. It doesn’t deserve the level of attention it’s receiving in North America. It seems like it’s just caught on like a fad, like adopting African orphans was for a while.
Did you miss the massive protests going on for years when the US was doing the murdering? A bunch of people got arrested back then for daring to stand up to the US government.
We can always do more. One issue with the Uighur situation is China is doing a good job of preventing any info to get out on what they’re doing. If it was more blatant and obvious on the abuses they were doing, there would be more attention on it (like there was back when we did get some info on their activities originally).
We should push the US government to do more on all those subjects.
So you think it’s a fad for people whose relatives are being actively murdered right now? Do you know how dumb that sounds?
They were not massive. There were some, but they were fairly small in comparison to things like Occupy Wallstreet or even George Floyd. They were tiny in comparison to the number we’re seeing for Gaza (especially at universities) because by and large most people supported what happened after 9/11 because they felt like America had been attacked and even excessive retaliation was fair game.
As for the fad, these protests are not made up solely of Palestinians. Palestinians make up something like 0.05% of the US population. They’re involved of course, but they do not make up more than a token amount of the protestors. Calling adoption of kids from Africa sounds dumb too, but it absolutely was a fad. Americans are quite good at following stupid fads. This is absolutely a fad issue, and it too will fade into the background noise in less than a year when something else happens to draw the attention of the populace. The US will go on sending aid, Palestinians will never get a country, and both Israel and Hamas will continue fighting and civilians will die.
You’re right about one thing though, se should push the government to do more on ALL those subjects. My question is if this isn’t the biggest issue, why are we pushing to get it more coverage than other issues? Why does this particular issue deserve so much attention and support compared to other issues?