Are DNC protests in Chicago nudging Kamala Harris toward a ceasefire in Gaza?

Victoria Hinckley was expelled from the University of South Florida last spring for her role in a pro-Palestinian encampment that resulted in the tear-gassing of students.

The 22-year-old who is still fighting for her degree in Tampa made her way to Chicago this week to touch off a bigger skirmish.

This fight is with Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party — and it may turn out to be more protracted than the struggle with her school.

“We’ve seen her be complicit throughout Biden’s presidency and we can only expect the same for her to continue to support Israel, to continue to fund this genocide with our tax dollars if she’s elected,” Hinckley said, referring to Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to independent analysts.

Hinckley linked up with the March on the Democratic National Convention, an umbrella group for those calling on the U.S. government to end aid to Israel after 10 months of bloodshed. The promise of 30,000 to 40,000 participants for the rally and ensuing march to the United Center fell far short of expectations.

Still, while Middle East policy is not central to Democrats’ week-long messaging program, there’s evidence that demonstrators’ calls are being heard at the highest levels of the party. With the president himself acknowledging on the convention stage that “the protesters … have a point,” there are growing expectations that Harris will have to do more to outline her efforts to secure a ceasefire and mitigate human suffering in her nominating speech on Thursday night.

“There is no question the totality of efforts this year has had an effect. There was a DNC official panel on Palestinian rights — that rights of Palestinians will no longer be ignored … Huge applause in the hall for that when [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] spoke to it,” said Larry Cohen, a DNC member who also chairs the progressive group Our Revolution. “It is also clear that Harris and the Biden White House are far more focused on the rights of Palestinians than Trump. Some of the protestors may not agree and that is their right. But the move for cease fire has created real momentum in the U.S.”

The conflict is not on Americans’ priority list. Even a “Voters of Tomorrow” survey of GenZ voters in battleground states released this week found the war between Israel and Gaza placed tenth on a list of issues important to them in the 2024 elections, far behind jobs, abortion and healthcare.

But the scope of the death toll and the persistence of pro-Palestinian activists in keeping their cause visible has made the movement impossible to ignore.

Seizing on the horde of national media that has descended upon Chicago, demonstrators briefly broke through a security fence at the site of the DNC on Monday. They stormed a stage at a reception, crashed a delegate caucus event, interrupted a speech by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and snuck a protest banner into the arena.

Their goal is to keep the issue in the conversation.

“I elevated the issue,” said Nadia Ahmad, the Florida delegate who displayed a “Stop Arming Israel” sign during Biden’s convention speech. “They can’t not talk about it.”

The Conflict

Their progress, however incremental, hasn’t been lost on pro-Israel forces.

Mark Penn, the former strategist to Bill and Hillary Clinton, complained that Biden’s omission of the word Israel from his convention speech was a sign he “had caved to the anti-Israel lobby.”

The Democratic Majority for Israel, began running digital ads this week promoting Harris as a “pro-Israel Democrat committed to the state of Israel.” In addition, the group is distributing a 15-page booklet on Harris’ pro-Israel record, including a catalog of her statements through her 20-year political career.

Sam Lauter, a DMFI board member and San Francisco native, has described Harris as “an old school liberal Zionist.”

It’s these types of statements — and a long history of Democratic Party leaders reflexively aligning with Israel — that has left the most fervent Palestinian activists hardened.

At the rally ahead of the march on the DNC, speakers casually labeled Harris “Killer Kamala” and dismissed Biden’s most recent efforts to land a ceasefire that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would agree to.

“Netanyahu does not want to agree to a permanent ceasefire,”said Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the Coalition and U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “He wants to agree to the kind of ceasefire that Killer Kamala is asking about, one that’s temporary, one that offers a few weeks of respite before Israeli bombs, U.S. bombs start dropping on people’s heads again in Gaza. The Palestinian resistance is not close to a ceasefire, so it doesn’t matter what U.S. press and what European press is reporting.”

A coalition of 170 Democratic campaign staffers is taking a more traditional and pragmatic approach, signing onto a letter requesting that Harris condemn civilian casualties, call for a halt to the use of U.S. weaponry against civilians and promise to rebuild Gaza. A complete ceasefire goes unmentioned.

No matter what Harris says on Thursday night, there are some who have completely given up on the words of politicians. Conversely, their demands may be impossible for any single leader to deliver on.

Count Hinckley among this group.

She said there’s no chance she will vote for Harris in November. Instead, she’ll be devoting her fall to rejuvenating student protests for Palestine.

“Whether she says it or not, we know her intentions, we know what the Democratic Party stands for. It’s historically funded the genocide … and funded the occupation,” she said.

‘Stop Arming Israel’: How a Florida woman disrupted Biden’s DNC speech