Palestinian supporters get ‘taste of Gaza’ at Chicago DNC

Alameen Templeton

Palestinian supporters are getting “a taste of Gaza” as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago has shut out the voice of the street, making it clear to them they have no “safe zone” in America.
It seems the “red pill-blue pill” option for Americans opposing Israel’s horrifying genocide in Gaza is a non-starter; the Republican and Democrat conventions leading up to the general election have made it clear – there’s no place in the US’s political arena for anyone who doesn’t have an appetite for mass murder.
The protesters that gathered outside the hall were hoping they’d find a soft spot in Democrats’ hearts after the Republicans behind Donald Trump had made it clear they were firmly behind their leaders’ call to Israel to “get job finished and get it finished soon”.
But the DNC delegates inside the hall were only worried the demonstrations might disrupt proceedings as happened in 1968 when the Vietnam war pitched protesters against police in brutal street fighting that left scores dead and injured.
Once it became clear the protests weren’t going to breach any police barriers or to try invade the hall, the delegates inside brushed aside all concerns about genocide and concentrated instead on building up their “leader fever” and coalescing around points of common prejudice.
The Palestinian voice was instead given a pat on the head, a “panel discussion on Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and a moments silence for Palestinians killed in Gaza.
When a Jewish man wearing a yarmulka and a Muslim woman in a burqa held aloft a Palestinian banner during prodeedngs Wednesday night, the entire hall erupted in a bull roar and delegates started using their “I love Joe” posters to try knock down the protesting banner.
It was the clearest sign of the event that Gazans and the rest of the world should not hold their breaths for America to come to its senses or to cut the flow of weapons and support to Israel’s “open and in-plain-sight” atrocities.
Let alone investigating Israel, the Americans have made it clear they’re not even concerned with a little self examination as another $20 billion in military hardware starts making its way across the Atlantic to keep up the murder rate in Gaza.
The Washington Post tried to talk up the DNC’s “concessions” to Gazans. The most notable of these had been presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s public comments that had “emphasised Palestinian suffering notably more than President Joe Biden”, it said.
Talk about choosing the big, slow-moving target.
His biggest nod to his contribution to Gaza suffering came with a mere four-word admission in his speech about the protesters outside: “They have a point,” he mumbled, almost to himself.
As though that minimal admission of culpability would somehow end a genocide or clear his blackened record.
“The “uncommitted” organizers are pushing for Harris to endorse an arms embargo on Israel, a policy her national security adviser has said she does not support. During the process of drafting the Democratic platform in July, party leaders declined the request of Minnesota activist Elianne Farhat to ‘include language that unequivocally supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians’,” The Washington Post writes.
Rather than supporting an arms embargo against Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire, as the “uncommitted” movement calling on Palestinian supporters to spoil their votes in the upcoming election had urged, the convention decided instead to endorse its platform declaration: “The United States strongly supports Israel in the fight against Hamas.”
“Biden has faced protesters at nearly every public appearance holding signs accusing him of supporting “genocide” in Gaza. While some activists say Harris is equally responsible for US policy in the Mideast, she has faced fewer protesters, and some progressive activists are reluctant to hurt her chances of becoming the first female president,” The Washington Post says.
Like Gazans trying to find space in an Israeli safe zone, the Palestinian supporters find themselves locked out on the fringes with all options delivering unacceptable outcomes and a clear sign America is determined to accelerate down “genocide road”.