Uncommitted Delegates Won't Endorse Kamala Harris for Declining to Follow International Law

On Thursday, the Uncommitted National Movement—a group of Democratic Party delegates and organizers who demand a ceasefire in Gaza and arms embargo on Israel—announced that they won’t be able to endorse Kamala Harris for president. Speaking to reporters, Uncommitted leaders cited Harris’ unwavering position on continuing to send weapons and money to Israel as it commits war crimes and genocide in Gaza. This, the Uncommitted delegates and organizations like Amnesty International point out, violates both U.S. and international law.

“As we continue advocating for lifesaving policy change which ends the bombing of Gaza and ends U.S. support for the Israeli military's war crimes, Vice President Harris’ unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” Uncommitted leaders said in a statement.

Israeli forces have killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October, and the actual death toll is likely much higher. These horrific numbers will continue to rise so long as the U.S. supplies Israel with weapons.

Uncommitted leaders stressed their opposition to Donald Trump and added that they’re “not recommending a third-party vote in the presidential election, especially as third party votes in key swing states could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken electoral college system.” Their anti-war demands were and are intended to help the Democratic Party: “Our movement’s best hope for change lies in growing our anti-war organizing power… 77% of Democrats and 61% of Americans oppose weapons aid for Israel's assault on Gaza, which is preventing a ceasefire and blocking the reunification of Palestinian and Israeli captives with their families.” The statement cites a YouGov poll published at the end of August. Around the same time that poll came out, Harris gave her first interview as Democratic nominee and reaffirmed her support for sending weapons to Israel—again, in violation with U.S. and international law.

In July, Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to D.C. After their meeting, Harris said she’d pushed Netanyahu to work toward an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” she said. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering.” In response, Uncommitted organizers said they were thankful for her tonal shift, but “ceasefire” can’t just be “a political talking point.”

Uncommitted delegates—who represent about 750,000 Democratic primary voters—sent 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. During the DNC, the Democratic National Committee and Harris’ campaign rejected Uncommitted delegates’ demand for a Palestinian voice at the convention. Uncommitted leaders then demanded that Harris personally meet them by September 15. On Wednesday, the leaders said that Harris failed to meet this demand. 

During the convention, Uncommitted delegates hosted a press conference with American doctors back from serving in Gaza. The doctors shared gut-wrenching stories of their Palestinian patients’ suffering, and pleaded for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. As Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan put it, they “cannot unsee what we witnessed, it gives us nightmares.”

“If President Biden were here, I would look him in the eye and say, ‘President Biden, you’re lying to us when you say you’re working for a ceasefire, but you are sending more and more bombs that are blowing up babies into a million little pieces. You’re lying to us,'” Abbas Alawieh, a delegate and leader of the Uncommitted movement, said during the conference. “Is it unreasonable for us to ask, on behalf of children, to stop sending bombs? That’s not unreasonable. We’re being very reasonable, we’re being good Democrats.”