The Uncommitted Movement of pro-Palestinian Democrats is withdrawing its support for Vice President Kamala Harris after she rejected their latest request, the group announced Thursday, while making clear its opposition to former President Donald Trump and third-party candidates who could inadvertently help him get elected.
“Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to change an unconditional gun policy or even make a clear campaign statement supporting the enforcement of existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to support her,” the group said in a press release shared with NBC News ahead of publication.
The group said Harris had given them the cold shoulder and made a “mistake” by refusing even the “small gesture” of allowing a Palestinian-American speaker at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
“Now Vice President Dick Cheney’s campaign is trying to court disillusioned anti-war voices while pushing them to consider third-party options or skip this important election,” the group said.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group said the issue of utmost importance to pro-Palestinian voters is stopping Trump, “whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizations.”
“We must block Donald Trump, and that is why we urge disengaged voters to vote against him and avoid third-party candidates who could inadvertently boost his chances, as Trump openly boasts that third parties will help his candidacy,” the group said.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein and left-leaning third-party candidate Cornel West have both focused heavily on recruiting voters sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. They both chose Muslim-American running mates and spoke at a rally of disaffected Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, last week.
Their work appears to be paying off, with advocacy group polls showing Stein and West faring much better among Muslim and Arab Americans than among Americans overall.
The Uncommitted Movement emerged as a result of Democratic voters’ dissatisfaction with this year’s Democratic presidential primary. President Joe Biden faced virtually no opponents, so voters who wanted to express their displeasure with his support for Israel’s bombing of Gaza following the October 7 terrorist attacks instead chose the “uncommitted” option on their ballots.
More than 700,000 voters ultimately chose “uncommitted,” sending 30 uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The uncommitted bloc was outvoted by the nearly 4,000 delegates at the congress and was too small to effect changes to the party program or rules. However, it was large enough to force organizers to take their presence, and their potential to disrupt the meeting, seriously.
However, delegates clearly preferred Harris over Biden. They felt that Harris was more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and more persuasive. That is why they did not disrupt the conference, even after organizers told them that there was no room in the program for a Palestinian-American speaker.
Instead, uncommitted delegates staged a sit-in outside the convention hall and set a new deadline of September 15 for Harris to meet with Palestinian-American families in Michigan who had lost loved ones in Gaza.
That request was also denied, the group said, leading to a dispute over Harris’s non-support.
The delegates have maintained throughout that they are loyal Democrats who despise Trump. They said they needed something to take home to their communities to show they had Harris’ ear. But that loyalty also meant that Harris’ campaign likely understood that it had the upper hand in any negotiations with the delegates, who were reluctant to do anything that might help Trump.
And now the movement, while not endorsing Harris, appears to be directing its supporters toward her as well, saying Trump and third-party candidates are off the table, and encouraging them to show up and “register anti-Trump votes.”
“Pro-war forces like AIPAC may want to push us out of the Democratic Party,” the group said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby group. “But we are here to stay.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
