Inside the Fight to Get Palestinian-American Georgia Rep. Ruwa Romman on the DNC Stage

"We’d love nothing more than to be joining the crowds in this politics of joy they’re promoting, but under the conditions we’re in, it feels hollow," uncommitted delegate Jeremiah Ellison, who wants Romman to speak on Thursday, told Jezebel. 

By Kylie Cheung  |  August 22, 2024 | 3:48pm
Politics Democratic National Convention
Inside the Fight to Get Palestinian-American Georgia Rep. Ruwa Romman on the DNC Stage

As Uncommitted delegates continue their sit-in outside the United Center, after the DNC said they wouldn’t allow a Palestinian speaker to address the convention, delegates and a growing number of Democrats are now pushing for them to let Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman speak. Romman is a Palestinian American who’s vocally condemned the genocide in Gaza and the Biden-Harris administration’s role in it—while also stressing the importance of voting and pushing the Democratic Party to live its values, simultaneously.

On Wednesday night, Uncommitted leader Waleed Shahid wrote on Twitter that delegates submitted “several names” to the DNC for consideration and that “delegates are well aware that every speech would be vetted and edited by the [Harris] campaign and have agreed to that process.” He continued, “There are tens of thousands of Palestinian Americans. The DNC can find one person to speak.” One of the possible speakers submitted was Romman, who said on Wednesday that her “speech urged us to unite behind [Kamala] Harris, criticized Trump, and spoke about the promise of this moment. The only reason we’re doing this is to save the soul of our party and prevent bad actors from using our pain in an ongoing voter suppression campaign.” In immediate response to learning the DNC rejected their request, Romman said, “I do not understand how there’s room for an anti-choice Republican but not me in our party.” 

Speaking to Jezebel, Jeremiah Ellison—an uncommitted delegate and Minneapolis city council member—said Romman “would be doing Democrats a massive favor” in addressing the DNC, not the other way around. “She’s an incredible speaker from a swing state and would be delivering a message of unity,” he said. “She’s come out in support of this ticket already, she understands the reality on the ground and also the need for party unity.”

The idea that a Palestinian voice would innately threaten party unity strikes Jeremiah as “a bizarre extension of xenophobia”: “We have lots of Palestinian-American elected officials, most are Democrats, or already endorsed [Harris].” Layla Elababed, a leader of the Uncommitted movement, has a sister who’s a Democratic Congress member; Jeremiah, himself, says he cheered for his father, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, while he spoke on the main stage Wednesday night. “Do you think any of us don’t want to be cheering for what’s happening at this event? We’d love nothing more than to be joining the crowds in this politics of joy they’re promoting, but under the conditions we’re in, it feels hollow.”

Uncommitted delegates came to the convention “determined to leave the DNC as committed delegates,” Jeremiah said. But over 700,000 uncommitted voters “sent us to the DNC to make this request”—for a ceasefire and end to the genocide, for Palestinian voices to be heard—and “we can’t simply go back to them and say, ‘Hey, we didn’t get anything we wanted, but let’s just take a chance here.’”

While participating in Wednesday night’s sit-in, Romman pointed out that, if anything, Uncommitted delegates demanding a Palestinian speaker are trying to help the Democratic Party. “I have been mobilizing voters in Georgia for 10 years. We helped build the electorate that delivered Georgia, there’s 76,000 registered Muslim voters in this state. There are 55,000 Arabs that live in the state. Are you really going to tell me we can deliver a win come November without them?” she said. “That’s not even including all the people that love us, all the people who care enough that went out and said, ‘I am standing in solidarity with you.’” She continued, “Not a single one of us wants Trump. I can set aside my own interests. I can put other people above me, trust me, I’ve done it my whole life as a Palestinian.” But stopping the genocide in Gaza isn’t just in her interests—it’s in the party’s interests, Romman argued.

By early Thursday, a groundswell of Democratic Party surrogates and advocates—including the Working Families Party and the highly influential United Auto Workers—supported a Palestinian speaker at the DNC, which concludes Thursday night. “If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the UAW’s official Twitter account said. “The Democratic Party must allow a Palestinian American speaker to be heard from the DNC stage tonight.” Democratic leaders including Congress members like Reps. Greg Cesar (D-TX) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Run for Something director Amanda Litman, and many others have called for the DNC to let Romman, specifically, speak. 

Uncommitted delegates, who have been negotiating with the DNC for weeks now, say that if the DNC gave speaking time to family members of Israeli hostages, who used their time to call for a ceasefire and raise the tremendous suffering of Palestinians, they need to give the same weight to Palestinian voices. Jeremiah told Jezebel that uncommitted delegates are so supportive of the hostage’s family members that they ended their Wednesday press conference early to go to the convention, watch their speech, and support them. In a statement earlier that day, the Uncommitted movement said they “hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948.” Instead, uncommitted delegates say they were told by the DNC and Harris campaign late Wednesday “that they will not allow a Palestinian-American speaker on the main stage, even though they created space for plenty of others—like a border patrol officer and the family members of an Israeli hostage.”

In searing remarks at an Uncommitted movement press conference outside the DNC on Thursday morning, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)—the only Palestinian-American Congress member—accused Harris of “looking away by not allowing us to speak.” 

“What we’re seeing with the DNC is they don’t want to hear our voices. They want to erase us. They want to pretend Palestinians and the voices we have and the harm, the hurt, don’t exist,” Tlaib told reporters, expressing frustration that “we have to beg our own party” for fair treatment. She referenced Emmett Till’s mother, who ensured her son’s casket was open at his funeral “so that no one could look away,” and said Palestinian Americans are trying to do the same by telling their stories, “so you all can see what doing nothing looks like. We are trying to open the casket so you all cannot look away.”

In the face of this understandable outrage at the Democratic Party from the massive faction of voters who support a ceasefire, Romman says she’s still educating others about the importance of continued participation in democracy. “We had an abysmal primary turnout” this year “because for 10 months, people have leveraged the real pain of Palestinians to spread nihilism and hopelessness,” Romman said at Wednesday night’s sit-in. “This”—platforming Palestinians and meaningful policy change—”is an opportunity to make a dent in that.”

On Thursday, Romman said she wants to “remind everyone that those who attend conventions are the strongest supporters of our party. The majority of attendees have been wearing ceasefire pins, keffiyehs, and/or Palestinian flags. It’s been beautiful and I need folks to remember that.”

 
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