Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement aimed at pushing the U.S. government to end its support for Israel's assault on Gaza called on Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to commit to a policy change and to follow through with her statement—made to them in a brief meeting Wednesday evening just before her campaign rally in Detroit—that she was open to discussing an arms embargo.
Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, two Michigan voters who co-founded the Uncommitted National Movement earlier this year, spoke with Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, about the deep personal connection many people in the crucial swing state feel to the 2.3 million Palestinians who have been under siege in Gaza since last October.
Elabed broke down in tears as she told Harris that she meets "with community members every day in Michigan who are losing tens and hundreds of family members in Gaza."
"Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy that will save lives in Gaza right now," Elabed told the Democratic presidential nominee. "Right now, we need an arms embargo. Will you meet with us to talk about an arms embargo?"
According to a statement released by Uncommitted after the rally, Harris "shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo."
On Thursday morning, however, Harris' national security adviser, Phil Gordon, said on social media that the vice president "does not support an arms embargo on Israel" and "will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups."
Elabed and Alawieh responded to Gordon's remarks by saying they would "continue engaging because people we love are being killed with American bombs."
"When we told Vice President Harris that members of our community in Michigan are losing dozens and hundreds of their family members to Israel's assault in Gaza, she said back: 'It's horrific,'" said the leaders of the movement, which includes 700,000 supporters across the country. "It's clear to us that Vice President Harris can lead our country's Gaza policy to a more humane place. We hope she will meet with us so we can move forward to discuss an arms embargo."
Elabed and Alawieh urged Harris to unite the Democratic Party "by correcting course because our democracy cannot afford to pay the bill for disregarding Palestinian lives should it come due in November."
The leaders engaged with Harris and Walz amid outrage from human rights groups over a leaked video that apparently showed Israel Defense Forces members gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman military base. World Health Organization officials on Wednesday warned that without a cease-fire, polio virus that has been found in wastewater in Gaza could spread widely and cause an epidemic among a population that has suffered mass displacement since October, and United Nations experts said last month that famine has taken hold in the enclave due to Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid—which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested Monday was "justified and moral."
As several House Democrats told the Biden administration in March, advocates for an arms embargo on Israel are only demanding that the federal government follow U.S. laws, including the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act—Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which states that the U.S. cannot provide military aid to any country that is prohibiting or restricting the delivery of U.S. assistance into an area.
"We want to support you, Vice President Harris, and our voters need to see you turn a new page on Gaza policy that includes embracing an arms embargo to save lives," Alawieh, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, told Harris on Wednesday evening.
Although the leaders' meeting with the Democratic ticket reportedly left them feeling relatively hopeful about Harris' "openness to engaging with the demands of Uncommitted voters," the vice president's reaction to a group of protesters who chanted, "We won't vote for genocide!" during her rally speech left some advocates calling on Harris to bring the same empathy regarding Gaza that Elabed and Alawieh saw to her public appearances.
Harris first responded to the protesters by saying, "I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters. But I am speaking now." After the chanting continued, she said, "If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking."
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid said Harris had missed "a golden opportunity to show empathy to people in deep pain because their family is suffering torture, famine, displacement, and genocide."
"They don't want Trump to win," said Rashid. "They want the suffering to stop. Don't push them away. Invite them in. She should remedy this ASAP."
Hours before the rally and Harris' meeting with Elabed and Alawieh, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on social media a video taken at an event he held in Portland, Maine on July 27, in which an attendee told the senator that there are many uncommitted voters across the country "who are absolutely wanting to see Donald Trump defeated, but the big issue is Gaza."
"What can we do to convince Harris that she must take a different position now?" asked the voter.
Sanders approached the issue with support for voters who are unsure they can back a candidate who won't terminate the billions of dollars in military aid the U.S. has provided to Israel since last October, noting that opposition to the current U.S. policy is hardly radical; numerous polls have shown a majority of Americans don't support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's U.S.-backed actions in Gaza and that conditioning military aid could improve support for the Democratic candidate.
"What we have got to do in a grassroots way is, say to the Democratic Party, is that the policies that you have right now regarding Netanyahu are wrong," said Sanders. "And if you really want to get young people involved in this campaign, the time is now to change those policies.
The Sunrise Movement, a member of the Green New Deal Network, which endorsed Harris days after Biden announced he was stepping aside in the presidential race, called on the vice president to "accept the meeting invitation from the Uncommitted National Movement and turn the page on Biden's unconditional support for Netanyahu."
"Millions of young people are watching what you do next," said the Sunrise Movement. "Don't miss this moment."
