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DNC rejects protesters' requests for Palestinian speaker [1]

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Date: 2024-08 

Enough Democratic voters did so to send 30 delegates to the convention in Chicago, out of a total of more than 2,400 delegates.

Israel's war in Gaza has divided the Democratic Party, but has largely been avoided as a topic of discussion during the DNC this week.

The uncommitted protesters said they had given the Harris campaign a list of several potential Palestinians who could speak at the conference.

The activists said the Harris campaign sent aides and lawmakers to the sit-in protest outside the arena on Wednesday night to try to resolve the conflict, but they refused to offer a speaking slot.

Uncommitted activists said they were told that the focus of the convention was on the vice-president, as she prepared to give a speech that would be the "biggest of her life".

The delegates said they had been asking to have a Palestinian speaker address the crowd at the convention for two months.

"We're going to have to have a lot of difficult conversations with the vice-president and her team after this," said Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan. "We're going to have to take stock of what happened."

Despite the large protests outside the arena doors, the war in Gaza has been mentioned by only a handful of speakers throughout the four-day programme.

Mr Alawieh said the goal of having a Palestinian speaker at the convention was about "forcing" the Democratic Party to "create space for talking about Palestinian human rights".

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, an outspoken critic of US support of Israel, told the BBC she was not surprised the topic has not been featured much during the convention.

“Interestingly, foreign policy never really is a huge topic that’s talked about,” she said. “But I’ve always thought of foreign policy as domestic policy."

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[1] Url: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w65xg7vy4o

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