“You don’t automatically get our vote” • Iowa Capital Dispatch

CHICAGO – Baraa Abol-Alroose sat in a wheelchair with one arm in a sling due to injuries he sustained in a bomb attack on his school in Rafah a few weeks ago.

Abol-Alroose, 7, smiled and waved a Palestinian flag with his other arm as dozens gathered in Union Park calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, just blocks from where the third night of the Democratic National Convention began.

“I'm so happy that there are so many supporters here,” Abol-Alroose said through an elderly relative who translated his interview. “Thank God for everything. Thank God for everything.”

The young boy recently came to the United States after the bombing to live with relatives who said they had previously fled Gaza.

He said he was looking forward to going to school and wanted to learn English.

“I want to be an architect. I want to build a house,” said Abol-Alroose.

As he spoke, others in the crowd expressed solidarity with the vision of a future without Israeli military attacks on Palestinians like Abol-Alroose. Wednesday night's protest followed another rally the day before, which ultimately resulted in 72 arrests, according to rights observers.

“We will make sure that the American empire, in all its bestiality, in denying genocide and enabling genocide and pretending that it can just carry on as before, cannot strike,” academic and independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West told the crowd.

As he finished his remarks, the stream of people asking to take a photo with Abol-Alroose grew larger.

Later that evening, Democrats at the United Center heard Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg speak about how their American-Israeli son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

“There are currently 109 valuable people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists,” Goldberg said.

That incident prompted a scorched-earth response from the Israeli government over the past ten months, with daily airstrikes and a ground offensive that left more than 40,000 Palestinian dead and destroyed more than 500 schools, including the one Abol-Alroose attended.

Yesterday, Israel announced that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.

Goldberg-Polin was not affected. His parents told those present at the DNC that they have daily briefings with President Joe Biden and other families who are holding on to hope that the hostages will be released.

“We in the Middle East know that the quickest way to relieve pressure and calm the entire region is to reach an agreement that brings the 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip,” Polin said.

According to estimates by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Israel held about 9,500 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in April.

Outside the protest in Union Park, members of the NDN Collective solidarity movement handed out red flags that read “Land Back.” Founder Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota Nation) said the indigenous-led group was involved in the protest because they shared a shared experience of the US genocide against Palestinians.

“The parallels in our struggle are real,” he said at the rally in Union Park. “The same system that committed genocide against Native Americans is the same system that is fueling genocide in Gaza.”

Tilsen said the group is calling for peace for the Palestinians and will ensure Democrats are held accountable if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election.

“The DNC cannot continue to ignore the people. They cannot continue to ignore the fact that there is an insurrection in this country,” he said. “They don't just get our vote. They have to earn it. So we want them to take a stand on these issues. We want them to take a stand on the issues that reflect the real struggles that are going on in our country.”

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted delegate from Michigan, said he had been informed that his group's request to have a Palestinian-American speaker on the DNC stage had been denied. The Uncommitted movement began as a protest vote within the Democratic Party against current U.S. policy toward Gaza.

The group petitioned the DNC to give a speaker the right to speak on the issue from a Palestinian perspective.

Alawieh told reporters during a sit-in outside the United Center that he had spoken to the Harris campaign and was told they would not be given permission for a speaker. The group said they planned to remain outside the venue until the DNC granted their request.

This story was originally published by Source New Mexico, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization. Source New Mexico maintains its editorial independence. If you have any questions, contact Editor Shaun Griswold: [email protected]. Follow Source New Mexico on Facebook and X.