āIt feels like Iām in an alternate world,ā Rima Mohammad, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, told me of her experience at the Democratic National Convention. She described entering the United Center in Chicago for the convention and encountering giddy attendees after she attended a forum where Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatric intensive care doctor, recounted harrowing details from her medical mission in Gaza. āI was literally bawling at the panel, and then going into the convention where people are excited and celebratingāit was the weirdest feeling,ā Mohammad said.
Mohammad is wearing a black-and-white kaffiyeh imprinted with āDemocrats for Palestinian Rightsā every day that she attends the convention. While almost all other attendees are in full Harris gear, celebrating with āWe heart Joeā signs, the uncommitted delegatesāaround 30 in total, representing some 700,000 votersāclearly stand out among other convention-goers, some of whom have seem wary or guarded around them. Mohammad described a brief encounter with Michiganās Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as āmostly a photo op.ā She said the governor was sympathetic but didnāt have much to say.
Mohammad is the grandchild of Palestinian Nakba survivors who remain refugees, she said; she is also an outspoken Democrat. She is on the public school board in Ann Arbor, and recently ran for Michigan state representative. Sheās been stunned by the partyās response to the war in Gaza so far, and was feeling intense whiplash at the DNC. āItās disappointing that itās taking the uncommitted delegates to advocate for something so simple and humane,ā she said. āThe bar is really low. People just want to feel like theyāre being taken seriously. This isnāt just about a Muslim or Arab vote; itās about decency.ā
Because anyone that vocally opposed war was quickly silenced.
Thatās because people didnāt give a shit about them dying then and nothing has really changed since. Most Americans still wonāt actually do anything to stop middle eastern people dying.
Even the current āGaza supportā from the US public is mostly just support for a theoretical ceasefire that the US government negotiates, not actually support to stop funding Israel unless theyāre the ones that reject the ceasefire. Given that Israel has already accepted the US backed deal, but Hamas never will, they can say they tried and keep going. The polling questions are all over the place on this topic. One of the most recent polls I saw said 41% of respondents were in support of sending US military troops to defend Israel if it gets attacked by a neighbor.