WASHINGTON, USA — Ahead of the Democratic National Convention, Yaz Kader, Rami Al-Kabra and other Washington delegates have formed a coalition they hope will grab the attention of Vice President Kamala Harris.
"We call ourselves ceasefire delegates," Al-Kabra said.
The two men, both Palestinians, said they're hesitantly hopeful the presumptive Democratic nominee will come out stronger against Israel's military assault in Gaza. President Joe Biden lost support from a broad coalition of voters for his backing of Israel.
"We need to have an immediate and permanent ceasefire. We need to release all the hostages, Israeli and Palestinians. We need to restore funding to the UN Relief Agency, which is a critical lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We need to hold Israel accountable because it has been using U.S.-supplied weapons to commit genocide against Palestinians," Al-Kabra said. "We shouldn't be sending weapons to Israel right now as they continue their onslaught and massacre of Palestinians."
The latest chapter of this decades-long conflict started on Oct. 7. Hamas killed around 1,200 Jewish people and kidnapped more than 200 people. Since then, the Gaza Health Ministry said the IDF has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians. A study published in early July estimated the death toll in Gaza could be more than 186,000, adding in the unaccounted and those who've died from lack of care or food.
"You have building after building that is destroyed. Entire families, 40 or 50 people, who are all dead just because they happened to be in a building where Israel dropped a 2,000-lbs bomb," Kader said.
Kader and Al-Kabra both said hundreds of thousands of uncommitted votes in primary elections show Vice President Harris must address this situation. They want Harris to make clear how her administration would handle the Israel-Hamas War.
"I would hope she would change policy. Not just talk of ceasefire but have action behind those words," Al-Kabra said.
"Going into this convention, she can start to set these pieces in place to make sure uncommitted people like me are heard," Kader said.