The “Uncommitted” movement, which seeks to change the Democratic Party’s approach to the war in Gaza, announced Thursday that it will not endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, while urging voters not to support Republican nominee Donald Trump or third-party candidates who could help Trump win the November election.
During this spring’s Democratic primaries, the Uncommitted campaign mobilized hundreds of thousands of voters to withdraw their support for President Joe Biden unless he ended his near-total support for Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian region. After Biden passed the torch to Harris in July, Uncommitted leaders publicly and privately urged her team to embrace a different U.S. strategy in the conflict, including halting the flow of U.S. arms to Israel.
Nearly two months later, “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to change an uncompromising gun policy or even make a clear campaign statement supporting the enforcement of existing U.S. and international human rights law made it impossible for us to support her,” Uncommitted leaders said in a carefully worded statement.
Many national security experts, including current and former U.S. officials and independent human rights groups, say Israel is using U.S. military assistance in violation of US And global regulations intended to protect civilians and humanitarian work during wars. The Israeli military denies the charge. In a May report, the Biden administration said recognized it is “reasonable to believe” that Israel has violated international law and US standards in its use of US weapons, but has not materially altered the continued flow of US military supplies to the country.
The group “Uncommitted” “opposes a Donald Trump presidency whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the repression of anti-war organizations,” the statement continues. Furthermore, “the group does not recommend a third-party vote in the presidential election, particularly because third-party votes in key swing states could inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken Electoral College system.”
“Our presidential organizing has never been about supporting a specific candidate; it has always been about building a movement that saves lives,” the statement said.
The statement came after a Sept. 15 deadline that the organizers of “Uncommitted” had set for Harris to meet with Americans whose loved ones have been killed in Gaza and hold talks about halting the flow of arms to Israel. An end to the flow of American weapons, they say, is both legally necessary and essential to pressuring the Israelis to reach a ceasefire. Harris describes such a deal as her priority in the Middle East, saying it would end the suffering of Palestinians, bring home more than 100 hostages held by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas (which includes Americans) and make lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace possible.
Hamas began the current round of fighting with a horrific attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel, killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli data. In bombing Gaza since then, the Israeli military has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. It has also destroyed most of the region’s housing and other infrastructure and displaced nearly all of its 2.2 million residents. With Gazans facing shortages of food and essentials such as medicine, most of the aid sent to them is not reaching those in need, largely due to Israeli restrictions, humanitarian groups consultation.
The US is widely seen as the most influential outsider in the conflict as Israel’s main military and diplomatic ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly thwarted US-led diplomacy seeking a ceasefire, though Biden administration officials say Hamas also deserves much of the blame.
Just weeks before the first anniversary of the war, the “Uncommitted” statement signaled both deep frustration with Harris and Biden and a commitment to continue demanding change from Washington.
The post mentioned last month’s Democratic National Convention rejected a request for a Palestinian-American speaker to address the delegates. “The Vice President’s campaign is courting Dick Cheney while sidelining disillusioned anti-war voices, pushing them to consider third-party options or sit out this important election,” the statement continued.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has spent months seeking support from student protesters, Muslim Americans and other communities who have been particularly vocal about Biden’s Gaza policies. Meanwhile, a coalition of war skeptics has formed the “Abandon Harris” movement Push voters are considering supporting Stein and other candidates like Cornel West, arguing that it would be a stronger rejection than endorsements from within the Democratic Party itself.
Third-party voices are particularly attacking Democrats who directly appeal to opponents of the war, including members of the “Uncommitted” movement and progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
In its statement, “Uncommitted” stressed that Trump said third-party candidacies could take away Democratic votes in key swing states and that his wish “to intensify the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism in the US”
“We urge uncommitted voters to register their anti-Trump votes and cast their ballots,” the message reads.
Democratic opponents of the current US Gaza policy have faced stiff opposition from hardline pro-Israel forces such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which became a factor in the recent primary losses of Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). The statement goes on to note that influence:Our focus remains on building a broad anti-war coalition, both inside and outside the Democratic Party. Pro-war forces like AIPAC may want to push us out of the Democratic Party, but we are here to stay.”
Harris’ campaign appears to be courting opponents of the Gaza war in at least one key state: Michigan, home to the nation’s largest Arab-American community, University of Pennsylvania researcher Andrew Arenge said Wednesday night. spotted a digital ad targeting select Michigan districts featuring the vice president speaking about Palestinian pain. Advocates for a policy change Tell Harris to translate her rhetoric into clear plans for change.
