The speech that Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American and Democrat, had hoped to give America at the DNC 2024

 My name is Ruwa Romman, and I’m honored to be the first Palestinian elected to public office in the great state of Georgia and the first Palestinian to ever speak at the Democratic National Convention. My story begins in a small village near Jerusalem, called Suba, where my dad’s family is from. My mom’s roots trace back to Al Khalil, or Hebron. My parents, born in Jordan, brought us to Georgia when I was eight, where I now live with my wonderful husband and our sweet pets.

Growing up, my grandfather and I shared a special bond. He was my partner in mischief—whether it was sneaking me sweets from the bodega or slipping a $20 into my pocket with that familiar wink and smile. He was my rock, but he passed away a few years ago, never seeing Suba or any part of Palestine again. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.

This past year has been especially hard. As we’ve been moral witnesses to the massacres in Gaza, I’ve thought of him, wondering if this was the pain he knew too well. When we watched Palestinians displaced from one end of the Gaza Strip to the other I wanted to ask him how he found the strength to walk all those miles decades ago and leave everything behind. 

But in this pain, I’ve also witnessed something profound—a beautiful, multifaith, multiracial, and multigenerational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For 320 days, we’ve stood together, demanding to enforce our laws on friend and foe alike to reach a ceasefire, end the killing of Palestinians, free all the Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of building a path to collective peace and safety. That’s why we are here—members of this Democratic Party committed to equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here echoes around the world.

They’ll say this is how it’s always been, that nothing can change. But remember Fannie Lou Hamer—shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on, and it’s her example we follow.

But we can’t do it alone. This historic moment is full of promise, but only if we stand together. Our party’s greatest strength has always been our ability to unite. Some see that as a weakness, but it’s time we flex that strength. 

Let’s commit to each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur. Let’s fight for the policies long overdue—from restoring access to abortions to ensuring a living wage, to demanding an end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza. To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, yes we can—yes we can be a Democratic Party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars. That fights for an America that belongs to all of us—Black, brown, and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my grandfather taught me, together.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/dnc-speech-uncommitted-movement-harris-walz-ruwan-romman/

Mother Jones illustration; Photos courtesy of Noah Lanard and Nate Gowdy

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A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent? By Ta-Nehisi Coates in Vanity Fair

"Last summer I spent ten days traveling the lands under Israeli rule. What I saw was hauntingly familiar. For as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel is a state where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person. In Israel itself, I met with Palestinians who were nominally empowered, with the right to vote. But whereas their Jewish countrymen could pass on their citizenship to their non-Israeli spouses, these Palestinians could not pass on citizenship to their spouses born a few miles away, in the West Bank or Gaza. Moreover, discrimination against them was perfectly legal. Frequently they were the subject of outright racism, as when Netanyahu warned his country during the 2016 election that “the right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.”

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are packed onto an archipelago of land. There they have enjoyed local elections through the Palestinian Authority. But that authority is still subordinate to Israeli rule, which Palestinians can neither vote for or against. Meanwhile, their neighbors, Israeli settlers, enjoy the full benefits of Israeli citizenship. And then there is Gaza, which had alarmed human rights advocates and public-health officials well before last October. For 17 years, the people of Gaza have been trapped by a blockade that extends across air, sea, and land. Gaza is commonly referred to as the largest open-air prison in the world, and it is here that so many American bombs have been dropped.

Israel and its defenders often claim that it is the “only democracy in the Middle East.” But what I saw was an ethnocracy, where half the people are first-class citizens, and the other half are something less. And this is a system sponsored and endorsed by the United States of America. The endorsement is not contradictory. For most of its history, America too was an ethnocracy in democratic clothing. The ostensible triumph over that old system, which we call Jim Crow, is one of the most uplifting stories America tells itself, one that has been repeatedly invoked at the DNC. How odd I find it that a people, presently brutalized by a similar system, whose relatives are being erased by that system’s wanton violence, are also being erased from the stage." 

A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent?

Though the Uncommitted movement is lobbying to get a Palestinian American on the main stage, the Harris campaign has not yet approved one. Will there be a change before Thursday—and does the Democratic Party want that?

 

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

August 21, 2024

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/dnc-2024-palestine-israel

 

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"The way they talk about the Palestinians “finally realizing their dream” of dignity and self-determination like they haven’t spent years and billions of dollars obstructing that dream, like all we need is a TED talk on goal-setting and time management" Susan Muaddi Darraj

On social media, Rashida Tlaib, described the description of "joy" at the convention as "a false narrative".

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj

@SusanDarraj

The way they talk about the Palestinians “finally realizing their dream” of dignity and self-determination like they haven’t spent years and billions of dollars obstructing that dream, like all we need is a TED talk on goal-setting and time management