international knowledge bureau: us democratic party leaders show unity, but people shout "your hands are stained with blood"
2024-08-29
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
china news service, august 28 (zheng yuntian) from august 19 to 22, the democratic national convention was held in chicago. the democratic party wanted to show unity through this convention, but the existence of another voice did not match this atmosphere of unity.
during the convention, 4,700 democratic delegates from various states of the united states gathered at the chicago united center. current president biden and vice president and the party's presidential candidate harris appeared, former presidents obama and clinton also appeared with their wives, and senator sanders and congresswoman cortez also gave speeches on stage, igniting the atmosphere.
top democratic party officials praised presidential candidate harris highly. even former house speaker pelosi, who had a dispute with biden over the change of candidates, held up a banner that read "we love biden" and cheered.
on august 19, local time, the 2024 democratic national convention opened in chicago. the picture shows us president biden and us vice president and democratic presidential candidate harris waving to the participants on the same stage. photo by chen mengtong, a reporter from china news service
however, while leaders of various factions in the democratic party were staging a show of unity, the scene inside and outside the venue was quite different.
outside the venue, people were furious
on the 19th, the first day of the democratic convention, thousands of people held a "support for palestine" march in union park, a few streets away from the united center. some demonstrators broke through the cordon and clashed with the police, resulting in 13 arrests.
the demonstration was called the "march to the democratic convention" and called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in gaza. protesters held signs linking the democratic government to the humanitarian disaster in gaza. according to al jazeera, rich barnes, who participated in the protest, said, "for or against the mass killing of babies? for me, it's a very simple question."
demonstrators like barnes made it clear that they would not vote for harris unless she agreed to an arms embargo on israel and a ceasefire in gaza.
"both democrats and republicans have blood on their hands," one poster read. "will not vote for kamala unless there is an arms embargo on israel," read another.
the message these protesters want to convey to democrats is that they must listen to the millions of voters who want the united states to reduce support for israel and end the humanitarian disaster in gaza.
although harris recently acknowledged the suffering of palestinians in gaza, it was "still not enough" for the protesters.
amal jaber, who drove from wisconsin to attend the protest, believes that harris' sympathy for the palestinians is just "lip service" because the democratic government is still providing weapons and military aid to israel while harris expresses sympathy.
chicago is home to one of the largest palestinian communities in the united states, and in january 2024, the chicago city council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in gaza.
some demonstrators said that the democrats' support for israel while holding a convention in chicago was a "slap in the face."
due to the protests outside the venue, u.s. security agencies were on full alert. chicago local police and federal security departments such as the secret service and the fbi were all dispatched. the state national guard also mobilized 250 members. the police even seconded some police officers from milwaukee, wisconsin, where the republican national convention was held in july.
people who support palestine demonstrated outside the democratic party convention on the 21st, and the police confronted them. image source: associated press
representatives expressed dissenting opinions at the meeting
after a new round of israeli-palestinian conflict broke out, hundreds of thousands of democratic party supporters in the united states chose "not to commit to voting for the democratic presidential candidate" (abbreviated as "no commitment") in the primary election to protest the us government's unconditional support for israel. as a result, dozens of "no commitment" representatives were able to attend the democratic convention.
these representatives not only represent the public opinion among democratic supporters, but are also crucial to the final outcome of the us election because some of these representatives come from important swing states.
michigan is a state with a large muslim community in the united states, where the "no commitment" delegates won more than 13% of the votes. michigan is one of the important swing states in this us election. if harris wants to enter the white house, she cannot lose in michigan.
“i feel a great responsibility to members of the palestinian community who are counting on us to do our best to fight for the human rights of palestinians,” said michigan’s no commitment delegate, allawi. “i also feel a great responsibility to my family in southern lebanon who are wondering when the bombing around them will stop.”
another representative from michigan, muhammad, said, "if harris does not make a strong statement announcing an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo, she will lose michigan."
according to al jazeera, on the 20th local time, inside the democratic party convention venue, these "non-commitment" representatives held up nameplates of palestinians who died in the israeli-palestinian conflict that day, causing a strong reaction in the venue and many representatives expressed their support.
the democratic party wanted to show unity through the convention, but the protesters outside the venue and the dissenting representatives inside the venue showed that the democratic party was actually divided.
what is the root cause of this divisive situation?
ellison, a "non-commitment" delegate and a member of the minneapolis city council, said that some people criticized them for splitting the democratic party and benefiting the republican party, but this was nonsense. "if we really wanted to help trump win, we would not be delegates to the democratic convention."
at present, the humanitarian disaster in gaza has not been alleviated. the democratic government has called for a ceasefire on the one hand, but on the other hand, it has supplied weapons to israel. such behavior is not conducive to peace, but also hypocritical. in the eyes of many people, it is this hypocrisy that has caused the rift.
the demonstrators were well aware of the bipartisan support for israel in the u.s., as their signs indicated: “both democrats and republicans have blood on their hands.”
politicians who gave speeches at the venue called for "unity" and shouted "choose harris for the people", but dozens of representatives held up the names of the victims of the gaza disaster, and outside the venue were densely lined with police, alerting the angry protesters. isn't this another intriguing chaos of "american democracy" staged for the whole world? (end)
