Abbas Alawieh, a DNC delegate from Michigan who lived through U.S.-backed Israeli bombardment in Lebanon when he was young, said outside the convention that “Vice President Harris, unfortunately, has made the decision that the child in me, the American child in me, who was certain my own government was going to kill me, is not going to get to be heard at this convention.”
Alawieh announced Wednesday evening that he was launching a sit-in outside the convention unless there is a shift in policy from the DNC, despite risking arrest.
The “uncommitted” campaign had sought speaking time on the DNC’s main stage for a representative of their group, which had won support from hundreds of thousands of voters. They initially requested two slots ― the other for a doctor who had served in Gaza, to address the humanitarian crisis there ― but later in the week said they sought only one: a Palestinian American speaker.