Kamala Harris needs to change her Gaza policy

The words "Palestine" and "Gaza" were missing a bit too much during the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which nominated the first female Black Democratic presidential nominee in history, in Chicago—the city with the largest population of Palestinian Americans in the United States. Widely popular former First Lady Michelle Obama said, "Hope is making a comeback," since Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris. The Democratic Party has undeniably witnessed a new refreshing momentum, nostalgic of Barack Obama's first election campaign. But that hope she spoke of was not shared by roughly 30,000 pro-Palestine protesters—led in part by Palestinians and Jewish activists—who filled up the streets of Chicago and demanded that Harris earn their votes by ending the genocide in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian delegates to the DNC, including Abbas Alawieh, an "uncommitted" delegate from Michigan, staged a sit-in protest outside the United Center. Prior to the DNC, the "Uncommitted Delegates" had been calling for campaign organisers to allow a Palestinian American to speak about Gaza, for a humble five minutes. Georgia state Rep Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat, had drafted an appeal for unity, stating, "Let's commit to electing Vice-President Harris and defeating Donald Trump who uses my identity as a slur." The draft was never vetted and all requests were denied.

On the other hand, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American who lost part of his left arm and was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, spoke on the stage. The DNC's brazen decision to provide space for only the Israeli side of the story, and not the Palestinian side, reflect the same-old prejudicial practices that have paved the way for Israel to commit a US-backed genocide with no end in sight.

Earlier in July, Kamala Harris had imparted hope regarding a shift from Joe Biden's disastrous policy on Gaza, when after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she said she would not be silent about Palestinian suffering. All that hope has been effectively squashed by her acceptance speech in the DNC, as she loudly carolled her commitment to "Israel's right to defend itself," which means the provision of weapons to continue carpet-bombing Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of a devastated population under a manufactured "existential and security crisis" that Israel is purportedly facing, when in reality everyone can see it is what Palestinians are facing. Harris highlighted the sexual violence committed by the "terrorist organisation Hamas," and chose to stay silent about the sexual violence committed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Palestinian detainees—both men and women—documented by CNN and the United Nations. She called the situation in Gaza "heartbreaking," hypocritically eschewing that it is only the case because of the US's supply of lethal weapons to Israel's warmongering cabinet for the past 10 months.

Pragmatically, it is understandable that Harris cannot win a US election by going hardline against Israel. But her chances of winning by alienating those who care about Palestine are looking slimmer by the day. As Uncommitted Democrats take note of their censorship in the DNC, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who has been a fierce critic of Israel's genocide, is reportedly choosing a Palestinian American as her running mate. Stein has made direct outreach to Palestinian Americans in Michigan, where Israel's genocidal war in Gaza has hit home with 390,000 Arab Americans. In this very key swing state, Harris made a blunder at a rally recently, when protesters chanted, "Kamala, Kamala, you can't hide! We won't vote for genocide!" What could've been a moment for her to express support and vow to take action, the vice-president snapped instead, saying, "If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking," with an entitled stare. It is her job to convince voters to elect her instead of Trump, not the other way around.

The contrast between Stein and Harris so far suggests that Harris will definitely lose some voters over the issue of Palestine, even if Stein's bid to the White House is a long shot. Some people simply don't care if Donald Trump will win, more than they care about the inhumanity they have seen in Gaza where the Biden-Harris administration is complicit. Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr recently ended his campaign, endorsing Trump, but Stein told the Newsweek that she intends on staying in the race, that she will never back Kamala Harris, even if it means facing a repeat of accusations from Democrats that she contributed to a Trump victory. Voters appealing to a third party like Stein for being more progressive and humanitarian delivers a huge blow for Harris and a gift for Trump.

The liberal US media—which has shown its duplicity regarding the lives of Palestinians in Gaza since October 7 and have their fair share of complicity for parroting Israeli propaganda—has taken a U-turn of sorts. The New York Magazine now calls what is happening to citizens in Gaza "an ongoing genocide," for which Harris should end US support. Even The New York Times—who published a major uncorroborated report of gender-based sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7—is now running op-eds like "Harris can change Biden's policy on Israel by upholding the law" by Peter Beinhart, where he argues that instead of an arms embargo, Harris, as a prosecutor, could uphold the law that prohibits the US from assisting any unit of a foreign security force that commits "gross violations" of human rights.

Now, one may ask: did a bulb of humanity for Palestinians finally light up in the offices of these media houses? Absolutely not. Most pro-Dem media outlets advance an agenda with their journalism, for many self-serving reasons, some of which are valid such as the fact that Donald Trump is a titanic threat to US democracy and press freedom. The media now understands that Biden's Gaza policy poses a significant problem for Harris, and she needs to distance herself from it to defeat Trump. Karen Attiah, a Black journalist in The Washington Post, wrote an article regarding the division between Black feminists on Harris regarding Gaza. Before the DNC, her words were clear: keeping silent on Gaza is too steep a price to pay for electing the first Black woman president.

As the DNC concluded, a letter to the editor was issued in response to Attiah's article, with the title, "Americans are choosing Harris or Trump, not Harris or Gaza." The writer argued, "Electing former President Donald Trump is a far greater existential threat to our country and the world, including Palestinians. Withholding votes from Ms Harris puts that outcome into play." The writer does not seem to realise that Harris herself has to say these words or devise a strategy out of it. The Harris campaign has steered clear from paying much attention to Donald Trump's insults—supposedly a learning lesson from Hilary Clinton's campaign—but she has to somehow assert that Trump would be even worse for Gaza, and that she will also be better than Biden, as it has been the current administration's biggest failure.

As of August 26, Harris maintains a tight lead of 2.5 percent in Michigan polls over Trump, and in Pennsylvania, the second largest home for Arab Americans, she maintains a 1.1 percent lead based on 29 polls. These polls don't include Jill Stein, who could take up the percentage of the leads that Harris has over Trump. Another fact to note: polls are polls. They can never be blindly trusted and should not be taken for granted—a lesson from Clinton's loss to Trump in 2016, where polls wrongly predicted an easy sweep across the country for the first female Democratic nominee.

After a festive but controversial DNC, it seems that the US media has ferociously come to Harris' defense, to tame the moral outrage over Gaza by flooding news feeds with positive headlines—as though to force readers to believe—that Kamala Harris' speech was "the best," that she absolutely "nailed it," and she even "got it right on Israel and Palestine." CNN praised Harris, calling her "tough and defensive" of Israel, but also "compassionate" of Palestinians. But we've seen starved skeletons, dead children under rubble, a headless child, charred bodies, and dismembered human beings in plastic bags in the besieged strip. The US has sent Israel more weapons than humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and that's a hard pill to swallow. So mere "compassion" will not work. If Kamala Harris wants to lose to Donald Trump in November, then she should continue speaking and silencing Palestinian voices. Otherwise, she should start speaking to her campaign managers regarding how to change her rhetoric and policy on Gaza before it's too late.

Ramisa Rob is in-charge of Geopolitical Insights at The Daily Star.

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