Sandra Whitehead, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Aug 27, 2024

About 150 Wisconsin Ceasefire-in-Gaza advocates joined tens of thousands from around the nation to protest outside the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago. Protestors also marched in Milwaukee and Madison days before the convention and at the DNC’s rally Tuesday at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

Ceasefire-in-Gaza protesters demand “action, not lip service” from the Democratic Party, organizers say. They asked the Biden administration and presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to call for an arms embargo against shipments of U.S. bombs to Israel that are being dropped on Palestinian civilians.

Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaigns in Gaza have killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, a number widely understood to be incomplete, and forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes since Oct. 7. The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the real death toll will reach more than 186,000 people, according to a July 5 article in The Lancet, a leading medical journal.

Israel declared war after Hamas militants implemented a surprise attack in Israel. The militants broke out of Gaza, an area human rights organizations have called “an open-air prison” because Israel restricts the movement of people in the small enclave. Militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 into captivity, according to the Israeli government.

Photo by Alec Ozawa

Around 20,000 protesters marched on the Democratic National Convention Monday, says U.S. Palestinian Community Network national chair Hatem Abudayyeh of Chicago. USPCN estimates 40,000 people protested outside the DNC last week. 

Despite silence on Gaza from Vice President Kamala Harris, the DNC presidential nominee, and others in the DNC leadership, Listen to Wisconsin spokesperson and organizer Halah Ahmad declared the protests successful. Listen to Wisconsin is the grassroots group behind the Wisconsin Uninstructed campaign, which garnered more than 47,000 votes in Wisconsin’s primary to send a message to the Biden administration: “Support of the Israeli military’s genocide in Gaza is unacceptable.” 

“We made obvious the pronounced anti-Palestinian racism that exists in ignoring the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” Ahmad explained in an interview today with Wisconsin Muslim Journal. “They couldn’t even have a Palestinian American speaker of any kind on the stage—whether an elected official, a physician who served in Gaza or even a child, while supplying bombs to be dropped on Palestinians in Gaza. Meanwhile, they highlighted an Israeli captive’s family.”

Comedian Jon Stewart lampooned the Democrat’s hypocrisy in his convention coverage.

“The success of our action was in being able to highlight the dissonance between the Democrats’ stated and practiced values,” Ahmad said. “We are concerned about a Trump presidency but it is not normal to drop bombs day after day on civilians. People of conscience cannot vote for someone who endorses genocide, no matter who the opposition is. 

“We are trying not to give up on the Democratic party but so far none of our demands have been met,” Ahmad continued. “Our votes are Harris’ to lose.” The Wisconsin Uninstructed Campaign has enough support to impact the outcome in Wisconsin, as do the uncommitted votes in other swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. What we want is an immediate ceasefire. 

“As long as there is still some hope we can leverage our power to stop the bombs on Gaza, we are going to use it.”

Photo by Alec Ozawa

Rallies in Milwaukee and Madison

Hundreds of protestors gathered in Milwaukee and Madison before the DNC began Monday, Aug. 19.

At the DNC rally in Milwaukee at Fiserv Forum Tuesday, Aug. 20, about 150 people turned out for a quickly called protest, said Rachel Ida Buff, Ph.D., of Milwaukee, co-chair of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and a co-founder of the Milwaukee Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. About 10 of those protestors entered the forum and displayed two banners saying: “Fund housing, not genocide” and “No funding of war crimes.”

“Although this was not a coalition event, a couple of us were from the coalition,” Buff said. They chanted, spoke about Gaza to people around them, distributed leaflets and were “promptly evicted,” said Buff and another protestor who asked not to be named. 

“The biggest agenda item for the coalition right now is to get Gaza back on the radar,” Buff said. “The media is obsessed with the election and is not covering Gaza. I think most people who aren’t really tracking this issue and grieving about it would be surprised it is still happening. It is important to bump this up in people’s consciousness.”

Photo by Alan Chavoya

Milo Miller (left) and Rachel Buff (right) hold up Jewish Voice For Peace banner Aug. 20 outside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum while the DNC rallied inside. JVP is a member of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine.

Like Ahmad, Buff is not satisfied with the DNC’s response to their demands. “On the one hand, she said ‘Palestine’ and ‘self-determination’ in her speech, so now we are back at Oslo. We know since Oslo that the two-state solution is not a viable solution. You can’t have a two-state solution with the West Bank hacked up the way it is and Gaza in ruins,” said the history professor.

“If I hadn’t known they denied the request to have a Palestinian speaker, I would have been moved by Kamala’s comment. Since I know they refused, it had a little less punch.

“The Democrats have to step away from their entanglement with arms and the military-industrial complex. They have to end the War on Terror. The demonization of Palestinians is part of it. There is no way for our country to move forward without doing so.

“Strategically, I’m going to give our movement credit with steering Vice President Harris away from the dreadful Josh Shapiro towards her running mate Tim Walz, who is at least not as flagrantly Zionist as Shapiro.

“Our movement’s biggest achievement is to push Palestine into the public consciousness and the consciousness of the Democrats. Still, I know our work is not done.

“If you’re somebody like me who’s really interested in Palestine liberation, who’s really committed to immigrant rights, Kamala is a better partner than Trump,” Buff said. “I saw a post that said people aren’t perfect and our electeds are definitely not perfect. But we want people we can work with. As a coalition, our work is to make the ongoing inexcusable suffering in Gaza visible and to put it on the agendas of our electeds.”

On the weekend before the DNC, Wisconsinites gathered in Milwaukee and Madison under the banner of “Not Another Bomb” to protest Israel’s assault and occupation in Gaza. In Madison, protestors mourned over 15,000 children killed in Gaza with a display of children’s shoes and remarks from local leaders. In Milwaukee, a rally was held in front of the Milwaukee Public Market, followed by a march down Water Street to Dontre Hamilton Park, where leaders spoke.

These actions were supported by dozens of Wisconsin-based grassroots, progressive organizations through the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and Listen to Wisconsin “Uninstructed” Campaign, as well as local chapters of Democratic Socialists of America, Peace Action, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace – Action, and Freedom Action Now, among others.

“We want to send a clear message that the only way for a ceasefire to happen is through an arms embargo,” said Heba Mohammad, a founder of Milwaukee for Palestine and an organizer with Listen to Wisconsin. “Our message is ‘Ceasefire first, votes next.’”

Photo courtesy of Listen to Wisconsin

A consistent level of engagement by organizers from the “Uninstructed” movement, including multiple organizations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza since October, “made it especially easy when we needed to rally folks for the Not Another Bomb march and rallies,” Mohammad said. “It was easy for these groups to mobilize their bases and networks because they have not stopped doing this advocacy work. It has been really heartening to see.

“We have continued to put pressure on the Biden administration and the nominees to end the genocide and end the conditions that allowed it to happen to begin with.”

Marching on the DNC

On Day One of the DNC (Monday, Aug. 19), two buses and multiple vans and cars carried Wisconsinites to Chicago to participate in the March on the DNC for Palestine. “After its 20,000-strong march … Monday, the Coalition to March on the DNC brought together 11,000 more people on Thursday to protest the Democrats,” said the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) in a statement released Friday.

“Tens of thousands of people joined in the Chicago protests,” said Haitham Salawdeh of Wauwatosa, the USPCN national treasurer and co-chair of USPCN’s Milwaukee chapter. Salawdeh went to the protest in Chicago on the first day of the DNC. “It was a coalition of 270 organizations marching together. We had people from every state.”

Several organizations held events in Milwaukee under the banner “No More Bombs” leading up to the convention, Salawdeh added. “Demonstrations were going on in about 80 cities, 30 states leading up to the DNC.

Photos by Alec Ozawa

Photo by Alec Ozawa

“It was quite a crowd (in Chicago), tens of thousands,” Salawdeh said. “We were very energized. We were excited to be able to get within sight and sound of the conference. We had to fight the City of Chicago in federal court to get there and have a route that was meaningful.” 

Still, “we really feel the DNC is tone deaf. They are not listening to us in any way,” he said. “They feel like they can give us a word or two, say ‘ceasefire’ and move on. This doesn’t work anymore. We are asking for concrete action. We are asking for an arms embargo. We are asking for an immediate ceasefire.

“No one should be negotiating for aid, if it will be allowed or not. It should be a matter of fact. The DNC is like the RNC in sheep’s clothing. We refuse to be given the choice between the lesser of two evils,” he added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sandra Whitehead

Sandra Whitehead is an educator, nationally award-winning journalist and author of Lebanese Americans, published by Marshall Cavendish. She is blessed with a loving family–her husband Abdulaziz Aleiou and three children, Ali, Aisha and Adam.