Pro-Palestine activists who heckled Kamala Harris in Detroit call for nationwide disruptions
A group of young pro-Palestine activists who heckled US presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this week, due to concerns she wouldn't pursue meaningful policy changes towards Israel if she won the race for the White House, have started a campaign to disrupt her election rallies across the country.
In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye, representatives of the small contingent of activists from Michigan who protested Harris during her address in Detroit, said they were convinced the Democratic Party had no intention of changing its policies towards Israel, let alone prioritising a ceasefire or an arms embargo as demanded by anti-war protesters.
On Friday evening, the activists disrupted her during a rally in the swing-state of Arizona, and the representatives told MEE that the interruptions would take place throughout her battleground state tour and until the Democratic National Convention later in August.
"I would encourage everyone in wherever city they come from, to make sure that where Kamala shows up, she must recognise and address the genocide that she's complicit in, and that she will not go without this being recognised and disrupted," Eaman Ali, an activist who took part in the initial disruption, told MEE.
"She does not get to go to a rally and speak about all these issues that she claims she will champion, without talking about the estimated 180,000 Palestinians in Gaza that she directly funded the killing of and we need to remind her of that," she said.
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"We need to hold her accountable for that as voters, as young people in this country, and as people who see the humanity of Palestinians and who recognise that it is our shared humanity with them as well," Ali added.
The 21-year-old told MEE that she was among the group of seven women and two men who disrupted Harris' speech at the Romulus hangar in Detroit due to the ongoing war on Gaza.
'Until a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel are achieved, it is a moral obligation for all people of conscience to disrupt the war machine that is fueling this genocide'
- Munir, Palestine Youth Movement
The activists reportedly spent hours standing in sun and making small talk with supporters in the hopes they wouldn't arouse suspicion and could enter the venue and disrupt proceedings. Inside, they cheered for speeches by Michigan-based Democrats as they waited for Harris to deliver the keynote.
But about half-way through Harris' address, the activists began chanting: "Kamala, Kamala you can't hide! We won't vote for genocide."
Upon hearing their chant, Harris glanced at them, and said: "I'm here because we believe in democracy, everyone's voice matters. But I'm speaking now."
When they continued chanting, Harris stopped again before remarking: "You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking."
The activists told MEE they had no idea what Harris had said due to the noise in the arena, and only recognised what they described as "a sinister look" on Harris' face.
Nervous, but somehow undeterred as the crowd chanted "Kamala, Kamala", the activists said they continued their disruption even as campaign aides forced them out of the venue.
Zainab Hakim, another activist who took part in the disruption, said it was only when they hopped on to social media later that evening that they realised what Harris had said. By then the video of Harris' comments had gone viral.
Hakim said it came as no surprise that the vice-president had leaned on the bogey of a second Trump term to deter them from protesting for a change of US policy against the war on Gaza.
"That's all they said. "Trump is like this. Trump is like that; that's their whole platform. I wasn't surprised at all when her only answer [to us] was: "Oh, you want Trump to win"," Hakim said, ridiculing the notion that any of them wanted Trump to become president.
"If they're constantly putting forth this rhetoric that, "We are not Trump", then they need to understand that we don't expect them to be Trump.
"You cannot just say you are not Trump. You have to actually be better, and you have to actually address the issue that we are putting forward. And it's especially crucial if they're doing that in Michigan."
Ali said it was ludicrous that anyone who cared about democracy, or justice, or ending the war on Palestinians would endorse her when the campaign yet to even articulate their policy platform.
"Kamala doesn't have an actual platform. You go to her website, it's simply a donation link," Ali said.
MEE can confirm that as of 10 August, the Harris campaign website had a call for donations, a biography for the vice president and her running mate Governor Walz, as well as list of upcoming events. However, it had yet to include any policy programs.
'Abandon Kamala'
Another participant in Wednesday's disruption, Salma Hamamy, said the failure to articulate policy demonstrated how little the Harris ticket cared about the electorate, or their demands for ending the carnage in Gaza.
A poll in May by from Data for Progress found that seven in 10 likely voters support the US calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The same poll found that 68 percent of Democrats support "suspending all US arms sales to Israel for as long as Israel blocks US humanitarian aid to Gaza."
"Harris' campaign didn't seem to understand that the vice-president has done little to nothing to distinguish herself from current President Joe Biden and yet somehow believed that she would insulated from people's rage over Biden's handling of the war," Hamamy said.
"So when we say abandon Biden. That also means abandon Kamala."
Since Wednesday, activists from across the country have said Harris' treatment of the protesters was a signal that the Democratic Party had yet to comprehend how the needle had shifted - not just among Arab and Muslim voters in the country - but also among many others opposed to the US-sponsored Israeli war effort in Gaza.
Munir, an organiser with the Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), described the call for continued protest at Harris' rallies as representative of the popular consensus that Israel is committing atrocities which had to be stopped.
"Until a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel are achieved, it is a moral obligation for all people of conscience to disrupt the war machine that is fuelling this genocide," Munir said.
On Saturday, at least 100 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were killed when Israeli missiles targeted displaced Palestinians as they performed early morning prayers at school serving as a shelter.
It was the fourth attack on a school this week. Videos obtained by MEE showed the dismembered body parts of innocent civilians scattered across the school.
A day earlier, at a rally in Arizona on Friday, Harris faced off with protesters once more. This time she told them she supported a ceasefire.
But just as she uttered those words on Friday evening, news broke that the Biden-Harris administration had approved a further $3.5bn worth of military aid to Israel.
Haider said the sequence of events showed that even the call for a ceasefire by a presidential candidate had become devoid of any meaning.
"I think Kamala’s call for a ceasefire is an empty campaign promise but if activists and voters continue to pressure her, then there might be some hope. No one should be impressed by a presidential candidate calling for a ceasefire this late into the genocide," Zaineb Haider, an organiser in New Jersey, told MEE.
"We need a roadmap of how she plans on actually achieving that. Will she sanction Israel or stop all aid or funding to Israel? She needs to be specific instead of preaching the obvious. Otherwise, this is all just a talking point for her to get votes," Haider said.
Activists remain undeterred
Back in Detroit, the activists who led the protest against Harris, said they are undeterred by Harris' accusation they were helping Donald Trump return to power.
Hamamy said she was not concerned about "a hypothetical genocide that the Republicans might invoke later on" when there was one taking place right now.
She reiterated that she would only reconsider voting for Harris should the Democrats exercise a radical shift in policy.
"It sends a very strong message that if you ever want our votes in the future, you must reconsider your policies on Gaza and Palestine. And making the Democrats lose because of their support for Zionism, in fact, will be a historic victory, because now, for the first time ever, being pro Israel will be a liability for them, not an asset," Hamamy said.
She added that whilst it had been suggested that Trump would remove civil liberties if he returned to power, when it was under the Biden-Harris administration that thousands of students and activists were arrested and beaten by police during campus protests.
Hakim said the disruptions served a function and were aimed at reminding people to expect more from their leaders and to not stop holding them to account.
"I hope that people see that literally nine people made a huge potential shift in how people are viewing Kamala Harris' opinion on Palestine. I hope that people keep disrupting her at every single rally she does," Hakimi said.
For Ali, however, the question over who to vote was not even a secondary concern. She wasn't even sure it mattered.
"I don't have so much faith that it does. I think that in this disruption and in this demonstration, the biggest impact is on the minds of the people, and what has been restored is the loss of faith in these electoral politics that are meaningless," Ali said, adding that those who fall for the Democratic Party's propaganda that they were the safer option were only grasping at straws.
"I think it's to avoid the harsh reality that in order for Palestine to be free, we all have to make personal sacrifices, and we all have to confront what those in power in the American presidency are capable of and what they will always commit against people in the third world and in Palestine and in our own country," Ali added.
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