“Meant to represent a Palestinian voice:” Palestinian-American legislator shares speech denied by DNC

Chicago (Quds News Network)- Ruwa Romman, the first Palestinian-American elected to public office in Georgia, has read out the speech she would have delivered at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This came after the Democratic National Committee rejected a request to have a Palestinian speaker on the main stage.

Romman said her speech was “frankly very sanitized” and reflected how she has “had to walk a fine line between the grief that I have felt over my people being mass murdered and the fact that I understand the threats that exist in our society that are now looming larger than ever come November”.

In the speech Romman would have delivered on the convention’s stage, the Georgia state legislator said she believed the Democratic Party should be a party that prioritizes funding for “schools and hospitals, not for endless wars”.

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On Wednesday evening, the Democratic National Committee rejected a call to have a Palestinian speaker on the main stage of their convention, after providing time to the relative of an Israeli war prisoner to speak.

The call to feature a Palestinian speaker had been made by the Uncommitted Movement, a group of activists and Democratic operatives who initially withheld from voting for Joe Biden in the primary elections over his support for the war on Gaza.

As Biden dropped out, the Uncommitted Movement has called on Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and impose an arms embargo on Israel, but the group continues to support Harris for the upcoming US presidential election in November.

“This Palestinian speaker situation is a mistake on the party’s end, and I think that’s why we’re seeing an outpouring of support for the idea,” he told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

He added that the demand for a speaker was just about including “Palestinian Americans as part of this party, just like any other community”.

“The platform of the party says that our Democratic Party believes that Israelis and Palestinians are equal,” Shahid said. “What happened last night is not in line with the value of the party.”

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who spoke virtually at the news conference, said the Democratic leadership does not want to hear the voices of Palestinians calling for an end to atrocities in Gaza.

“They want to erase us,” she said. “They want to pretend that Palestinians and the voices that we have and the harm and the hurt [don’t] exist.”

Several speakers noted that the Chicago area is home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in the country, but Palestinians were still excluded from the main stage at the convention.

Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who represents parts of Chicago, said many of the 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza were relatives of his constituents.

“As Chicago hosts the National Democratic Convention, we cannot ignore the Chicagoland Palestinian community as one of the largest in the country — and they, too, deserve to be reflected on the national stage,” Garcia said in a statement.

“It is crucial to recognize the humanity of the Palestinian community tonight with the Palestinian speaker.”