“You don’t automatically get our vote” • Source New Mexico

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. The protest on Wednesday evening followed another rally the day before, in which 72 people were finally arrestedlegal observers say.

“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.

This incident led to a devastating response from the Israeli government over the past ten months, with daily air strikes and a ground invasion that resulted in more than 40,000 Palestinian dead and more than 500 schools destroyed, like the one in which Abol-Alroose took part.

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

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.

In April, Israel was Hold According to estimates by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are approximately 9,500 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in captivity.