At DNC, Kamala Harris vows support for Israel as death toll in Gaza crosses 40,000

By Musa Iqbal

For four days, delegates, lobbyists, influencers, and Democratic Party members convened in the US city of Chicago for the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which is held every election year. 

Hosted by the United Center and the McCormick Place, as well as “after-parties” in undisclosed locations throughout the city, this year’s DNC was overshadowed by the Democratic Party’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, which was clearly demonstrated by Kamala Harris’ statements.

So much so that for five nights, beginning Sunday, pro-Palestine demonstrations were held to reject the Convention and the Democratic Party for their long laundry list of war crimes as well as supplying the Israeli regime with bombs, ammunition, and other logistics and equipment.

When the announcement for the convention was made in 2023, many drew parallels to the 1968 DNC which was also held in Chicago. The year 1968 saw the extremely unpopular invasion of Vietnam, repression of multiple social justice and civil rights movements, an extremely unpopular sitting president, and economic turmoil.

Many drew the parallels then to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the movement against police brutality, and the ongoing deteriorating health and education systems.

The 1968 convention was also historically known for the massive repression led by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) which brutalized anti-war protestors and went on to repress them legally the following year (the protest leaders were historically known and tried as the Chicago Eight, then the Chicago Seven after Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party was considered a mistrial).

For over a year after the announcement of the DNC location and date, sitting president Joe Biden insisted that he would be the nominee and would oversee the DNC and fight against Donald Trump in the next election.

However, the ailing president announced that he would not run on July 21 - a month before the DNC. 

Biden attributed his own health as his reason for dropping out, but this is more of a screen for his catastrophic policies. Biden administration was subject to historic unpopularity due to massive spending and support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the Ukraine-Russia war, expanding the police state, and other political failures that caused turmoil within the party.

In his announcement, Biden endorsed Harris for president. Typically, nominees within both major parties - Democratic or Republican - must win in the primary election leading up to the general election.

This time around, Biden stepped down and appointed his successor - raising eyebrows around the legitimacy of Harris and the so-called democratic process in the United States itself.

When Harris announced her bid for the presidency during the 2020 election campaign, she did not win a single delegate. In fact, she dropped out before most major state certifications citing a lack of money (which indicates a lack of popularity both amongst everyday voters and powerful lobbyists), and pledged support to Biden as he faced off against Bernie Sanders.

Harris’ presidential bid in 2024 is solely the result of Biden appointing her as Vice President - and not by any means the result of a fair democratic process. 

The convention itself was riddled with pro-war speakers of the past and present. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama spoke, as well as Hillary Clinton, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker - all of whom have backed the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians and proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

The content was run-of-the-mill American exceptionalism and imperialism. Most of the speeches contained lackluster and ambiguous plans about “Saving America” and “rejecting Trump.”

It is clear the strategy the Democrats want to bet on is that they are not as volatile as Trump, hoping to appeal to moderate-conservative voter bases in swing states. However, many know the ideas and promises the Democrats made during the conventions were not at all much different from Republicans. 

Harris, who accepted the Democratic Party nomination, raised eyebrows when she declared the United States should have “the most lethal” military in the world. She touted “winning against China” and confronting Iran. Indeed, the two parties are functionally the same when you really get down to policy.

Americans simply get to pick which face they want to represent their imperialist policy. 

In true uniparty fashion, Harris pledged allegiance to Israel, stating she would “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.” In the same week, Israel committed multiple massacres with US-made bombs, pushing the death toll in the besieged territory past 40,200. 

In fact, the convention itself was an attack against Palestinians not just in Gaza and the rest of occupied Palestine, but in the city of Chicago, which is considered one of the largest Palestinian communities in the United States.

The DNC invited family members of Israeli captives held by Hamas, while not inviting a single Palestinian whose family members have been languishing in Israeli jails for no crime. Even the so-called left-wing “progressive” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posed with an Israeli poster of an occupation soldier killed in combat.

The only politician at the convention who mentioned the word “genocide” was Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the man who famously cast a tie-breaking vote in a city council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Chicago is the biggest city in the nation to call for a ceasefire. 

But of course, why would a Democrat mention Palestine in any positive light? This is the party that has armed Israel to its teeth during the entirety of the Gaza genocide. This is the party that condemned the International Criminal Court when they announced they were seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. This is the party that has ignored Palestine from local officials to federal leaders.

There are tens of thousands of US-based Palestinians who have lost someone in Palestine. The Democrats not inviting a single one isn’t a mistake or a political lapse in judgment - the erasure of Palestine is their political line, no matter what buffering words of sympathy they may use.

Banking of the Democratic Party to end the sale of arms to Israel is a lost cause. This is precisely why across the street from the United Center - as well as areas throughout the city - pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protestors decried the DNC as the “Death and Nakba Convention.”

The March on the Democratic National Convention Coalition (MoDNC) brought 20,000 people to Chicago from across the country to protest the Democrats’ role in Palestinian genocide. 200+ groups - ranging from healthcare activists, climate activists, anti-war activists, labor unions and more - signed onto a central coalition demand to end all US aid to Israel. The coalition led three major marches during the convention, drawing thousands to the streets to demonstrate in support of Palestine.

Other groups also held separate demonstrations, often outside the hotel buildings of DNC delegates or outside DNC after-parties and breakfasts. The Democratic Party anticipated their widely perceived unpopularity and supplied the city of Chicago with $75 million in federal funding for security purposes. 

Police departments from across the Midwest were called in, ready to suppress the protests. As thousands outside the United Center chanted for Palestine, Democrats maintained that all four nights never - under any circumstances - brought up anything related to it.

Even disrupters planted within the DNC were quickly silenced and removed when they demanded an immediate ceasefire. It is reported that a total of 74 people were arrested in activity related to protesting the convention.

With its cast of celebrity media personalities and politicians, the DNC was simply a political ritual to rally support around Harris after 4 years of gaffes and policy failures from President Biden.

The DNC hoped to reinvent itself after its deteriorating image - but in the eyes of millions of pro-Palestine supporters and anti-war activists across America, it was an election-year reminder that pinning any hope on the Democratic Party to do the right thing is a lost cause.

Musa Iqbal is a Boston-based researcher and writer with a focus on US domestic and foreign policy.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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