The Non-Aligned Movement for Palestinian Democrats is refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after she rejected its latest request, the group said Thursday, making clear its opposition to former President Donald Trump and third-party candidates who might accidentally help. choose him.
“Vice President Harris’ reluctance to move on an absolute gun policy or even make a clear campaign statement in support of current US and international human rights law has made it impossible to support him,” the group said in a press release distributed to NBC News ahead of its release.
The group said Harris had given it the cold shoulder and “hacked” by refusing even the “small gesture” of allowing a Palestinian-American to speak at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
“Now the vice president’s campaign is courting Dick Cheney while ignoring disillusioned anti-war voices, forcing them to consider third-party options or sit out this important election,” the group said.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group said the top priority for pro-Palestinian voters is stopping Trump, “whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing of Gaza while stepping up the crackdown on anti-war organizing.”
“We must stop Donald Trump, which is why we urge unaffiliated voters to vote against him and avoid third-party candidates who could inadvertently increase his chances, as Trump openly boasts that third parties are helping his candidacy,” the group said.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein and leftist third-party candidate Cornel West have both focused heavily on recruiting voters sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Each has chosen a Muslim-American running mate and spoke last week at a gathering of disaffected Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan. .
Their work appears to be paying off, according to interest group polls that show Stein and West doing far better among Muslims and Arab Americans than among Americans in general.
The Non-Aligned Movement was born as a result of Democratic voters expressing their dissatisfaction with this year’s Democratic presidential election. President Joe Biden ran essentially unopposed, so voters who wanted to express their displeasure with his support for Israel’s bombing of Gaza after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks chose “not committed” on their ballots instead.
More than 700,000 voters ended up choosing “non-aligned” and sent 30 non-aligned delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The unaligned bloc, drowned among the convention’s nearly 4,000 delegates, was too small to push for changes to the party’s platform or rules, but it was large enough to force organizers to take their presence seriously — as well as its potential to disrupt party operations. procedures.
Still, delegates strongly favored Harris over Biden, believing he was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and more persuasive, so they did not disrupt the convention, even though organizers told them there was no room on the schedule for a Palestinian-American speaker.
Instead, the non-aligned delegates staged a sit-in outside the chamber 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.
According to the group, that request was denied, resulting in Harris not accepting it.
All along, the representatives have claimed to be loyal Democrats who despise Trump. They said they needed something to take home to their community to show they had Harris’ ear. But that loyalty also meant the Harris campaign likely understood it had the upper hand in any negotiations with delegates unwilling to do anything that might help Trump.
And now, while not endorsing Harris, the movement also appears to be steering its supporters to him, saying Trump and third-party candidates are off the table, encouraging them to get out and “register their anti-Trump votes.”
“Pro-war forces like AIPAC may want to drive us out of the Democratic Party,” the group said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group. “But we’re here to stay.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
