There's Still Time To Fix This Mistake

Refusing to allow a single Palestinian-American to speak at the DNC while allowing Border Patrolmen and the parents of Israeli hostages to do so is a massively unforced error.

It had been going too well, I suppose.

The protests over the Gaza Genocide have been somewhat muted this week, as representatives of the Uncommitted movement and other Palestinian-American groups worked with the Democratic National Committee to reach an agreement that would allow a speaker on the stage to tell America about the plight of their families, their friends, their homeland. It now seems that it had been a deliberate tactic to prevent any repeats of 1968 in the same city of Chicago, as word leaked out that no Palestinian-American would be allowed on the DNC stage, just an hour after the parents of an Israeli-American hostage spoke and right before Governor Josh Shapiro took the stage.

I hope that isn’t the case. I hope that a convention that has been near-flawless, a constant expression of joy and hope from people enjoying themselves without insulting others, will not face a dark cloud of infuriated protestors attempting to storm the United Center.

This is such an easy hurdle to overcome. Michigan hangs in the balance, our Arab-American population that is so personally affected by what’s happening in Gaza are the margin of victory for Democrats, and yet they’re willing to risk that. Chicago is home to the largest percentage of the Palestinian diaspora in America, who could be mobilized to make tomorrow night look like a rerun of 1968. Why? Why do that? Why is there such opposition to this? Are they worried that something embarrassing might be said? Are they worried America might be reminded that the Netanyahu claque is demolishing every last structure in Gaza so that there will be nothing and nobody left?

The people of America deserve the truth. They deserve to hear from both sides of this ongoing tragedy, not just the families of the hostages, but those who no longer have families because the IDF has obliterated them. Even if, and this is being generous, they were limited to simply naming off the statistics about the dead and the dying, the starving and the homeless, and to urge America to not look away, that would still go a long way for many. It’s so damn easy. Why does the DNC not understand this? It’s not only the right thing, but it is the strategic and politically intelligent thing to do as well.

If we can get the kid that Tim Walz pushed out of a snowbank and the football players he coached, for God’s sake, we can give five minutes to those whose families are the victims of an ethnic cleansing perpetrated by an ally of this country. We owe them that.