After 50 days, Gaza European Hospital, one of the few trauma centers serving the Gaza strip, reopened, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The hospital has been a vital part of the crumbling medical infrastructure in the region. It reopened earlier this month.

In August, I told the story of two medical students who worked at Gaza European Hospital before it was shuttered and forcibly evacuated on July 1st. The medical center remained closed amid bombardment in the area for over a month. Each student told me harrowing stories of their time suddenly propelled to the job of full-time doctors amid the devastation of the medical system in Gaza.  

You can read the full piece, here:

Now, the students are back to work. Hasan Ali Abu Ghalyoon, a dental student I interviewed via WhatsApp in August, returned to European Hospital on September 9th. He said things are different there now. 

Before the July evacuation, he slept at the hospital. Now, he commutes back and forth from his family’s tent in Deir al-Balah, a trip that takes him three or four hours a day. It is only about a seven-mile journey. But in Gaza, it can be treacherous.

Normally, he takes a hospital-provided bus to work. Last Friday, though, “I was a little late for the bus and I was forced to go by car,” he said. On his journey, he passed a destroyed World Health Organization warehouse, a torched mosque, and innumerable teetering husks of buildings and dust-covered tents. “I took three cars on my way to get from my tent to the hospital and I walked through many destroyed streets on foot.” 

In some areas of eastern Gaza, there are no cars at all. The trip, he said, cost him 25 shekels, or about eight dollars, thanks to the lack of fuel entering Gaza. Before the war, transportation wouldn’t cost a thing. 

Nermeen Ziyad Abo Mostafa, another student volunteer, hears the zanana—Gazan slang for the incessant buzzing of drones overhead—on her way to the hospital. “It was not easy to reopen it, because all the hospital’s property was stolen,” she said. The hospital is still not fully equipped, she explained, but medical teams are doing their best to work with what they have. 

Once the students arrive, they see “mostly burns and fractures,” Abu Ghalyoon said. Every day, there are patients requiring skin grafts. 

Another change: there are now fewer international delegations than before. The flow of international medics into the Gaza strip has slowed to a trickle. The Israeli military has hit international aid workers like those from World Central Kitchen, after a vehicle from the group was bombed in April, and UN workers, like those from the World Food Program, whose vehicles were struck in August. Supply shortages are ongoing. As Abu Ghalyoon put it: “There is a very, very severe shortage of all medicines. The medical equipment is old and sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.”

On September 12th, the World Health Organization released a report estimating that over 22,500 people in Gaza have suffered “life-changing injuries” since Israel’s offensive in Gaza began. Most of these injuries—about 13,000 to 17,000—are what the WHO report calls “severe limb injuries,” and at least 3,000 are amputations.

“The huge surge in rehabilitation needs occurs in parallel with the ongoing decimation of the health system,” said Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory. “Patients can’t get the care they need. Acute rehabilitation services are severely disrupted and specialized care for complex injuries is not available, placing patients’ lives at risk. Immediate and long-term support is urgently needed to address the enormous rehabilitation needs.” 

The Uncommitted movement announced on Thursday that it will not be endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision comes in response to Harris declining to break with the Biden administration over its response to the war in Israel and Palestine and after a tumultuous Democratic National Convention in which Palestinian voices were largely shut out from speaking about the horrors happening in Gaza.

The group, which represents the hundreds of thousands of Democrats who voted “uncommitted” during the primaries in protest of Biden’s Gaza policy, said in a statement released Thursday that “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing US and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her.”

At the same time, the movement’s leaders stressed that they oppose Donald Trump and are not recommending that supporters vote for a third-party candidate because doing so could help elect Trump.

“I told VP Harris through the tears that Michigan voters want to vote for her, but we need a policy change that is going to save lives.”

“We must block Donald Trump, which is why we urge Uncommitted voters to vote against him and avoid third-party candidates that could inadvertently boost his chances, as Trump openly boasts that third parties will help his candidacy,” the group said in a statement released on Thursday. “We urge Uncommitted voters to register anti-Trump votes and vote up and down the ballot.”

Uncommitted leaders, throughout the past months, have been eager to endorse Harris and organize on her behalf if she were willing to move more aggressively towards ending the war. In early August, when organizer Layla Elabed briefly met the vice president, she told her as much. “I told VP Harris through the tears that Michigan voters want to vote for her,” Elabed said at the time, “but we need a policy change that is going to save lives.” Elabed stressed that “pro-war forces like AIPAC may want to drive us out of the Democratic Party, but we’re here to stay.”

Uncommitted had asked Vice President Harris to respond by September 15 to a request to meet with Palestinian Americans in Michigan whose family members have been killed during the war. That meeting has not happened and the Harris campaign has not committed to making it happen.

“The Vice President is committed to work to earn every vote, unite our country, and to be a President for all Americans,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “She will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

The latest announcement from Uncommitted comes one month after the group made news with a sit-in at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Uncommitted made two main policy asks at the convention: an immediate ceasefire and a US arms embargo on Israel to help bring one about. But Uncommitted delegates also made much smaller demands in the lead up to and during the convention.

Most notably, they asked that an American doctor who has volunteered in Gaza, or a Palestinian American, be given a brief speaking slot from the convention’s main stage. After convention organizers rejected Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor, the group eventually began pushing for a speaking slot for Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat.

Lexis Zeidan, an organizer with the Uncommitted national movement, said that in their refusal to allow even one Palestinian American speaker, “the DNC and the vice president’s campaign fumbled even a small gesture.”

“Now, the vice president’s team is courting people like Dick Cheney, while sidelining these incredibly important anti-war voices,” she said. Some leaders within Uncommitted are voting for Harris—and others will not be voting at the top of the ticket at all. Zeidan, who is Palestinian American, said that on a personal level, she “simply cannot go to the ballot box and cast a vote for a candidate that is not hearing the demands of her people.” Her fellow organizer, Abbas Alawieh, will be voting for Harris, a choice he describes as a “chess move” against Donald Trump.

“If you’re willing to get some satisfaction out of feeling like you punished Harris, and that’ll help you sleep at night, I can respect that,” Alawieh said. But, he added, “In order for me to try and start sleeping at night, I need to know that I’m blocking Donald Trump because his plans are very clearly to enable Netanyahu to do more murdering.”

Mother Jones reported during the convention that Romman, who was not an Uncommitted delegate, planned to explicitly endorse Harris from the main stage. Nevertheless, national Democrats denied her and any other Palestinian American Democrat a speaking slot without asking to see their remarks. Uncommitted had made clear that any speech would be vetted and pre-approved by convention planners. As we reported:

By denying someone of Palestinian descent the chance to speak, the Harris campaign missed an easy opportunity to create distance between itself and President Biden’s failing and highly unpopular response to the war. A June poll by CBS News and YouGov found that 77 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents believe that the United States should not send weapons and supplies to Israel, despite the Biden administration’s support for continuing to do so. Only 23 percent of Democrats, compared with 76 percent of Republicans, told Gallup in June that they support Israel’s military actions in Gaza. 

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 100,000 have been injured in Gaza, according to the local health ministry. Public health experts fear that the full death toll may be far higher. Nearly a year into the war, the chances for a ceasefire in the near future still appear low.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears committed to prolonging the war—even if it means the death of more hostages—to appease far-right cabinet members and remain in power. President Biden has largely refused to use the United States’ extensive leverage to push Netanyahu toward a ceasefire.

In last week’s debate, Harris reiterated her support for Israel and once again called for the US to have the “most lethal fighting force in the world.” 

“Our organizing around the presidential election was never about endorsing a specific candidate,” Alawieh, the Uncommitted cofounder, made clear on Thursday. “It has always been about building a movement that saves lives.”

Update, September 19: This post has been updated with a statement from the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Last school year’s historic protests over the war in Gaza roiled campuses and dominated headlines, with more than 3,100 students arrested nationwide. Over the summer, the protests cooled off and students returned home. But college administrators spent the summer crafting new free speech policies designed to discourage students from continuing what they started last spring. Between May and August, at least 20 colleges and university systems—representing more than 50 campuses—tightened the rules governing protest on their property.

The protest encampments that appeared on more than 130 campuses last spring served as a visual reminder of the 2 million displaced people in Gaza. Students held teach-ins, slept in tents, created art together, ate, and prayed in these makeshift societies—some for hours or days, others for entire weeks or months. The free speech organization FIRE estimated last week that 1 in 10 students has personally participated in a protest regarding Israel’s war in Gaza. The protesters demanded that their schools disclose any investments in (variously) the Israeli military, the state of Israel, or the military-industrial complex in general—and disentangle their endowments from war-makers. 

Some student groups won meetings with administrators, disclosure of the terms of their college’s endowment, or representation for Palestine studies in their school’s curriculum. A few schools agreed to work towards divestment or implement new investment screening procedures. Students elsewhere, though, saw no concessions on their goals from college administrators—and were left, instead, to spend months doing court-ordered community service or working through a lengthy school-ordered disciplinary process.  

Prior to last year’s protests, “time, space, and manner” restrictions on campus protest were considered standard practice, said Risa Lieberwitz, a Cornell University professor of labor and employment law who serves as general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. Many universities had pre-existing policies prohibiting, for example, obstructing a walkway or occupying an administrative office. Those policies were usually enforced via threats of suspension or expulsion. This year’s restrictions are different, said Lieberwitz, who previously described the new rules as “a resurgence of repression on campuses that we haven’t seen since the late 1960s.”

Lieberwitz is particularly concerned with policies requiring protest organizers to register their protest, under their own names, with the university they are protesting. “There’s a real contradiction between registering to protest and being able to actually go out and protest just operationally,” she said. “Then there’s also the issue of the chilling effect that comes from that, which comes from knowing that this is a mechanism that allows for surveillance.” Students who are required to register themselves as protest organizers may prefer to avoid expressing themselves at all. 

MIT has lots of rules about ethical funding, about the duty to do no harm with one’s research. And yet, they refuse to apply any of those rules to their own behavior.

“The point of having a rally is to be disruptive, anyway,” said MIT PhD student Richard Solomon, who participated in last year’s campus protests. For Solomon, divestment is personal. Last month, Mohammed Masbah, a Gazan student he refers to as his brother and who spent several months living with his family, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. As Solomon pointed out in a column for the student newspaper, Masbah was likely killed with the help of technology developed at American universities like MIT. 

“MIT has lots of rules about ethical funding, about the duty to do no harm with one’s research,” he told Mother Jones. “And yet they refuse to apply any of those rules to their own behavior, their own research, their own institutional collaborations.” It’s hard, he said, for students to respect protest rules when their school doesn’t respect its own rules, either. (When asked to comment, a MIT representative pointed me to a speech by the school’s president last spring, in which she stated that MIT “relies on rigorous processes to ensure all funded research complies with MIT policies and US law.”)

Beyond demanding that protests be registered, many schools have banned camping on their grounds. Some have required that anyone wearing a mask on campus—whether for health reasons or otherwise—be ready to present identification when asked. Others have banned all unregistered student “expressive activity” (a euphemistic phrase that generally covers a range of public demonstrations including protests, rallies, flyering, or picketing) gatherings over a certain size. Still others have banned all use of speakers or amplified sound during the school week (including, in one case, the use of some acoustic instruments). 

At Carnegie Mellon University, students and faculty were informed during the last week of August that any “expressive activity” involving more than 25 students must be registered—under the organizers’ names—at least three business days prior to the event, and be signed off on by a “Chief Risk Officer.” 

In response, a group of Carnegie Mellon students, faculty members, and alumni lined up on a grassy campus quadrangle holding up signs labeled “1” through “29.” This act, now prohibited on Carnegie Mellon’s campus, drove home the policy’s absurdity—on a campus of 13,000 students, half of whom live on campus, a gathering of 25+ people may be harder to avoid than to initiate.

David Widder, who earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon last year, called the new policy “authoritarian,” and unlike anything he’d seen during his six years at the institution. “We hoped to playfully but visibly violate the policy—and show that the sky does not fall when students and faculty speak out about issues that matter to them,” he told Mother Jones. “We can’t credibly claim to be a university with these gross restrictions on free expression.” 

According to a statement by the university’s provost, the new policy was intended to “ensure coordination with the university and support the conditions for civil and safe exchange.”

Linguistics Professor Uju Anya, who spoke at the rally, pointed out that at least $2.8 billion of Carnegie Mellon’s research funding has come from the Department of Defense since 2008. “We know that our universities have skin in the game now, in the weapons and in the money,” Anya said. “So, ultimately, Carnegie Mellon is in bed with baby bombers, and they don’t want us—the members of this community, who also have a stake in what the university does—to openly question them.” 

At some schools, the conflict over newly instituted protest policies has already made its way to the courts. The ACLU of Indiana announced August 29 that it would be suing Indiana University over an “expressive activity” policy which, like CMU’s, was implemented in late summer. The policy under debate defines “expressive activity” in part as  “Communicating by any lawful verbal, written, audio visual, or electronic means,” as well as “Protesting” and “Distributing literature” and “circulating petitions.” 

The policy limits “expressive activity” to the hours between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. “This is written so broadly, if any one of us was to wear a T-shirt supporting a cause at 11:15 p.m. while walking through IU, we would be violating the policy,” Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said. “The protections of the First Amendment do not end at 11:00 p.m., only to begin again at 6 a.m.” Since Indiana University is a public school, it is bound by the First Amendment and can’t limit speech as strictly as a private college. 

Lieberwitz, the AAUP lawyer, said she expects more legal challenges like the ACLU’s this coming year. According to the Crowd Counting Consortium at Harvard University, protests on college campuses are spiking again, though not at the levels seen last year. On at least two campuses, protesters have already been arrested. And between August 15 and September 3, there wasn’t a single day without some sort of Palestine solidarity action on a college campus somewhere in the United States.

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The following is an incomplete list of US university protest policies changed between May and August of 2024. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: As of August 30, unauthorized tent encampments are prohibited. Authorized demonstrations on campus may only be organized by “Departments, Labs, or Centers, recognized student organizations, and employee unions.”

University of Virginia: Updated “Rules on Demonstrations and Access to Shared Spaces” as of August 26. Non-permitted tents are now forbidden, no tent can stay up for over 18 hours, unless “in use for official University or school events,” and anyone wearing a mask on University property must present identification if asked. No outdoor events are permitted between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. 

University of Wisconsin, Madison: Updated its policy on “expressive activity” August 28. “Expressive activity,” defined as activities protected by the First Amendment including “speech, lawful assembly, protesting, distributing literature and chalking,” is now prohibited within 25 feet of university building entrances.

University of California (1o campuses): Camping or erecting tents is forbidden as of August 19. Masking “to conceal identity” is banned. 

California State University (23 campuses): “Camping, overnight demonstrations, or overnight loitering” is banned, as are “disguises or concealment of identity,” as of August 19. 

Virginia Commonwealth University: As of August 9, anyone on University property covering their face must show identification. Encampments are explicitly prohibited, “unless approved in advance by the University.” 

University of Pennsylvania: As of June 7, encampments are banned, as are any overnight demonstrations, and “non-news” livestreaming. “Unauthorized overnight activities” are to be considered trespassing. 

James Madison University: As of August, no “tents or other items” may be used to create a shelter on campus unless approved by the university. Chalking on walkways is prohibited. “Camping” is defined as “the use of any item to create a shelter.”

Indiana University (nine campuses): As of July 29, “expressive activity” is limited to the hours between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., and any “signs or temporary structures” are now required to be approved at least 10 days in advance of “expressive activity” by the university. 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: As of August 21, camping is prohibited except in designated areas. 

University of South Florida system (three campuses): As of August 26, “activities in public spaces” after 5 p.m. are prohibited unless students request a reservation. 

Harvard University: Plans to ban “outdoor chalking” and “unapproved signage” are in process as of July 30, according to a draft obtained by the Harvard Crimson. Indoor protests have already been banned as of January 2024. 

University of Connecticut (five campuses): As of August 21, students cannot make amplified sound through speakers or megaphones, or use certain acoustic instruments like “trumpets, trombones, or violins” in public spaces at any point during the day Monday through Friday, with official university events excepted. 

Carnegie Mellon University: As of August 23, an “event involving expressive activity” occurring on campus “must be registered with the University if more than 25 participants are expected to attend” at least three business days in advance.  

Pomona College: As of August 2024, encampments are prohibited, and noncompliance may result in “detention and arrest by law enforcement.” Additional police officers have been hired to patrol campus.

Emory University: As of August 27, camping is prohibited on campus, and protests are prohibited between midnight and 7 a.m. 

Emerson College: As of August 23, protests may only occur between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., and must be pre-registered with the college. 

Rutgers University: As of August 20, Demonstrations must be held between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and only in “designated public forum areas.” 

University of Minnesota (five campuses): On August 27, university administrators unveiled new  “guidelines for spontaneous expressive activity,” which state that all protests must end by 10 p.m., must use no more than one megaphone, and that groups of over 100 people must register their spontaneous expressive activity at least two weeks in advance.

Syracuse University: As of August, “unauthorized use or assembly of tents or other temporary shelter structures” is prohibited.

Did your school implement a new protest policy this year? Email shurwitz@motherjones.com.

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Correction, September 13: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s protest policy as prohibiting protests within 25 feet of university buildings, rather than prohibiting protest within 25 feet of university building entrances.

Salma Hamamy wasn’t even watching the presidential debate when former President Donald Trump attempted a familiar verbal jab against Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I’m talking now if you don’t mind,” said Trump, as Harris grinned. “Does that sound familiar?”

The line hearkens back to a moment in the 2020 vice presidential debate, when Harris responded to an interruption from Mike Pence with the curt retort “I’m speaking.” The catchphrase, since then, has become a calling card for Harris; an indication of her toughness as the first female vice president.

But it has not always been completely effective. Earlier this summer, when Harris had just become the de facto Democratic nominee, she gave one of her first addresses on the trail in Detroit. Moments into her speech, she was heckled by Hamamy—a recent graduate from the University of Michigan—and other protesters clamoring for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and end to weapon shipments to Israel.

The vice president responded to the demonstrators with a version of the same catchphrase she once used against Pence: “If you want Donald Trump to win, say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

The July exchange instantly became another viral moment. Many ardent Harris fans cheered on social media while others, more sympathetic to the protesters, objected to Harris’ dismissal of not only the demonstrators but the topic that they were there to address—US support of Israeli military operations in Gaza. 

Shortly after Trump landed his attack Tuesday night, curious what Hamamy thought, we texted her to ask whether she had seen the moment. She had not. “I’m watching a debate amongst our central student government right now regarding divestment,” Hamamy replied. She was referring to her alma matter’s student government debate over withholding more than half a million dollars for campus groups until the school would divest from all business with ties to Israel and weapons manufacturers. (Once Hamamy got a chance to watch the debate clip, she said it sounded familiar.)

Other than this tiny moment, in the 90-plus-minute debate, the topic of Gaza, Palestine, and Israel was the subject of only two questions—one directed to each candidate. When asked how she’d push Netanyahu to “break through the stalemate” and sign onto a ceasefire deal, Harris’s response didn’t stray far from what she said at the Democratic National Convention.

“On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young people who were simply attending a concert,” Harris said. 

“Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed: children, mothers,” she added. “What we know is that this war must end.”

But in contrast to Harris’ enumeration of Israeli deaths, she made little effort to explain the scale of the death and carnage in Gaza beyond the vague qualifier “too many.” 

According to the official numbers from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7. A July letter published in the Lancet, one of the most famous medical journals in the world, estimated the total death toll may be closer to 186,000. (The study factored in the difficulty of accurately collecting data under crumbling infrastructure, and the indirect deaths caused by lack of access to health care, food, and aid.) Another letter published by international medics later that same month estimated that 92,000 Palestinians have been killed. 

The Israeli military, which has received more than $6 billion in US funding since October 7, has also killed Americans in both the West Bank and Gaza: US peace activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot and killed by an IDF soldier at a demonstration in the West Bank village of Beita last Friday. President Joe Biden initially called the death an accident. 

“She was fatally shot in the head by a bullet that came from an Israeli sniper positioned 200 meters away,” wrote Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner. “This was no accident, and her killers must be held accountable.”

Harris issued a statement a day after the debate, saying “No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank. Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”

Trump was asked on the debate stage how he would negotiate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas on a hostage deal and prevent more civilians from being killed.

“If I were president, it would have never started,” said Trump, before attacking Harris for skipping Netanyahu’s address to Congress and falsely claiming that she didn’t meet with the Israeli prime minister on his July visit to the US. 

“She hates Israel,” Trump said. “At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone. It would have never happened.”

Harris replied, “That’s absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people.”

The short back-and-forth on Gaza probably didn’t do too much to move the political needle as far as activists for Palestinian human rights are concerned.

“Harris’s comments on Gaza continue to offend voters appalled by Netanyahu’s US-funded killing campaign,” wrote Abbas Alawieh, an organizer of the Uncommitted movement, after the debate. Alawieh had personally spoken with Harris in Detroit at a VIP greeting line. “They offer nothing new & perpetuate the murderous status quo. It’s simple: to stop the war, our government must stop sending the weapons fueling the war.”

According to a CBS/YouGov poll in April, nearly 70 percent of Democratic voters want the US to stop sending weapons to Israel. Neither candidate acknowledged an arms embargo as an option Tuesday night. Polls released the day before the debate show Harris leading Trump by only one point in the critical swing state of Michigan, which has been a center of anti-war organizing since October 2023.

The debate moved on, and shortly after it ended, Taylor Swift shared a post on Instagram endorsing Kamala Harris. On the same day, the Israeli military hit a crowded tent camp that it had designated as a humanitarian zone with an airstrike that left deep craters in the ground, killed at least 19 Palestinians, and wounded many more.

On June 6, the Rahma Worldwide international medical delegation arrived at Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis. The humanitarian volunteers noticed something immediately: Some of the medical staff welcoming them—with the best food available, an assortment of cucumbers, hummus, and french fries—appeared remarkably young to be doctors.

Before the delegation could ask any questions, an airstrike hit the neighborhood. The walls of Gaza European Hospital—then one of the only functioning medical centers in the region—shook.

“Within the first 15 minutes that we were here,” Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, an emergency specialist from Australia, recalled, “nine people came in an ambulance, already dead.”

This, the doctors learned, was typical of the day-to-day life in Gaza. It was only later the international doctors would come to find out that many of the staff were not fully credentialed doctors, but student volunteers. Dr. Bing Li, another member of the Rahma delegation—a team of a dozen doctors from different countries, there to provide support to Gaza’s depleted health system—estimated that half of the people working in European Hospital’s emergency department in June were students or trainees from Gaza’s two medical schools.

“The health care system’s on the verge of collapsing,” Salman Dasti, an anesthesiologist who worked in Gazan hospitals both before and during this war, said. “It’s being propped up because of students.”

“In this war, I lost many of my colleagues and friends from school. I lost four members of my family.”

Mustafa found the students’ ability to keep the hospital functioning remarkable. “We were getting patients moving and getting them treated. It was pretty amazing to see,” he recalled, “especially since you can see how broken they are physically, emotionally.”

On the first day, Li recalled meeting one of the volunteers keeping Gaza’s hospitals running. A patient was brought in and losing blood quickly from a blast injury to his leg. Li worked with a volunteer to stabilize the man; the volunteer then pulled Li aside and introduced herself excitedly in English: Her name was Nermeen Ziyad Abo Mostafa, and she was 20 years old.

“I had this impression she was this very friendly person, and she asked me if I wanted help with translation and seeing other patients,” Li said. The foreign doctor appreciated the aid. Earlier that day, Li, an emergency specialist from Arizona, had already had a heartbreaking experience. “We evaluated one patient that was maybe three or four years old,” she recalled. “Half his head was basically blown off.” (It ended up being “just one of many similar cases,” Li said; other doctors who have returned from Gaza say the Israeli military regularly targets children.)

As Nermeen showed Li around, another doctor noticed who the American was talking to and pulled her aside. Li was told Nermeen had a friend die earlier that same day in the blast that sent a raft of critically injured patients to the hospital.

“She was keeping this brave face despite learning that she lost somebody,” Li remembers.

Nermeen always wanted to be a doctor. As a young child, she said, she “had doctor’s tools in the form of toys.” As she grew older, she watched medical school graduation videos online, transfixed by the celebrations. She imagined herself as a cardiovascular specialist, or perhaps a pediatrician; she was overjoyed when, in 2021, she was finally able to enroll at her dream school: Al-Azhar University-Gaza. (For this article, I interviewed Nermeen using WhatsApp text messages and voice memos. Her internet and data access in Gaza is not good enough for phone calls of length.)

By October 7, 2023, Nermeen had made it through two and a half years of medical school. (In Gaza, students’ medical training starts immediately after high school, when they begin a six-year program of study.) Her tuition was expensive, and the hourlong bus ride to school from her home in Abasan Al-Kabira, a small city east of Khan Younis, made her carsick. But she was happy to be learning.

Then, the war came. In early November, Israeli warplanes destroyed Nermeen’s campus. By mid-January, Israeli bombardment had reduced every university in Gaza to rubble. Nermeen moved constantly. She evacuated from place to place four times in the first six months of the war. Eighty-four percent of Gaza is now under evacuation order. She watched classmates, professors, and friends die nearly every week. “In this war, I lost many of my colleagues and friends from school,” she told me. “I lost four members of my family.”

In April, Nermeen started volunteering at the hospital. It was the “one positive amid all of this,” she said. A third-year student would not ordinarily be actively treating patients. But her clinical phase began early. “I was learning from the doctors and helping them,” she said.

Many of those working and volunteering at the hospital had shifts lasting 24 hours—and no one I spoke with had received payment from the hospital since October. Anything shorter than a 24-hour shift would mean more trips on treacherous roads, made nearly impassable by millions of pounds of debris and sewage overflows from broken sanitation systems.

On a normal day, Nermeen began her shift early in the morning, connecting to the internet and trying to download lectures and readings from the website of her bombed university, before beginning to see the injured, “standing with doctors, talking to patients.”

As a volunteer, she cleaned wounds, translated for foreign doctors, and made treatment plans. “There were days when…the work was a lot, due to the arrival of large numbers of martyrs, and injured,” she said. “But the thing I loved to do most was stitches in the emergency department.” 

This was made difficult by short supplies. The sutures in Gaza hospitals were labeled “not for use on humans,” Mohammed Mustafa, the ER doctor from Australia, recalled. Still, he helped Nermeen with her suture technique; he noticed that she was particularly careful in caring for patients during the process. Nermeen did her best to stitch in a way that would minimize scarring.  

Conditions were hard. There were no beds, only rigid metal frames. Rooms were cramped and hot. Even the chairs in the hospital were occupied by patients, leaving little room for their caregivers to rest. The complex smelled of rot, and flies landed in patients’ wounds just as Nermeen finished disinfecting them. Even the suture needle was less sharp than it should be. 

“It would take you maybe three, four attempts to pierce the skin with the suture,” Mustafa said. “And you can imagine trying to do that with very limited anesthetic, [on] children as well.” 

Beyond the shortage of goods, there was also a shortage of personnel. Students did their best to fill in. One 22-year-old student who spoke to Mother Jones, Hasan Ali Abu Ghalyoon, was in his third year of dental school before the war. He was initially told he’d be working as a porter, then a translator. He spent four months volunteering at European Hospital, unable to see his family in Deir al-Balah after the Israeli army took over the area between the hospital and his family’s tent.

“I slept in the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross at the hospital for four months,” he said. ‘There was a broken bed that does not move from its place,” which was not used except for emergencies. When it was unoccupied by patients—and when he wasn’t being called to translate for a surgeon in the middle of the night—he got that bed.

As he spent more time in the hospital, he learned “there was a severe shortage of dentists specializing in maxillofacial surgery,” so he quickly found himself assisting with those surgeries, too. “It is difficult to talk to patients with burns or fractures,” he said, “some of whom lost a loved one with the same injury minutes before.”

Sometimes, the patients the students cared for were people they recognized. On the mid-June day when Nermeen met Bing Li, she wasn’t supposed to be at work. She was at her family’s tent, taking a rest day, when she felt a bomb detonate nearby. “We saw the smoke of the bombing, and a large number of ambulances,” she recalled. Without internet access, Nermeen worried her own relatives might be among the dead.

Nermeen decided to go to the hospital on her day off. “I put on the uniform and walked to the road.” A man with a car offered her a ride when he saw her medical uniform. His family lived in the area that had just been bombed, Nermeen remembered, and he was headed to the hospital, too. Once there, she opened her phone to scroll through the names of the dead. “My friend’s name was among the names of the martyrs of this massacre.” She rushed to the emergency room in hopes that the news was wrong. “But it was true.”

Most of her friend’s family had been killed. She found her friend’s younger sister, Samar, waiting alone, with wounds all over her body. Nermeen monitored her vital signs, stitched up a deep gash in her left foot, and patched up two wounds on her leg.

Samar was later transferred to a different department, where her head wounds were treated. “She remained in care for several days,” Nermeen remembered. Then, Samar was discharged, but “she was still in a state of shock, and would not speak.” At the end of July, Nermeen received word that Samar had been killed, too: “She joined the rest of her family.”

Gaza’s medical system has been painfully constricted for decades. This is partially due to the longstanding Israeli policy of blocking “dual-use items” at the border—medical devices that could, allegedly, be used as weapons. Those items have included crutches, hearing aid batteries, thermometers, and incubators. This means the doctors of Gaza must make do.

Dasti, the anaesthesiologist from San Francisco, visited Gaza multiple times as part of a medical mission group with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund before 2023. “I was fairly impressed with the robustness of the health care system,” he said. “I mean, it still lacked resources, but I was pretty impressed with the training that the physicians there had.”

There were 36 fully functioning hospitals in Gaza prior to the war. By mid-August, according to the World Health Organization, only 16 of those 36 hospitals were even partially operational. These 16 hospitals have treated patients far beyond their capacity. Staff is low: The UN Human Rights Office reported that more than 500 medical workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7. And an NBC News investigation recently suggested Israel has targeted doctors for kidnapping and taken them to torture camps. Hanan Balkhy, Eastern Mediterranean regional director for the World Health Organization, said that as of early August, WHO has been able to verify more than 500 attacks on medical personnel in Gaza.

This leaves a staggering hole for those in need of care. The WHO estimates that nearly 93,000 people in Gaza are injured. Among those 16 remaining hospitals, there are fewer than 1,500 hospital beds—about one for every 60 injured people. And those numbers don’t account for those who would ordinarily require hospital beds even in peacetime: diabetic patients requiring dialysis, cancer patients, and pregnant women needing somewhere to give birth.

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“The remaining students are now basically frontline doctors, because of just the lack of personnel,” Dasti said. Students spent their days at European Hospital “functioning as essentially an attending physician, while not getting paid and working long arduous hours with little sleep.” 

Balkhy, of WHO, said the students are exhibiting “more resilience than anyone should need to have.” Nermeen and her classmates dream of continuing their education—perhaps leaving and studying elsewhere if the borders reopen—but, as Balkhy said, it is “a race against time and circumstance.”

Conditions in Gaza, meanwhile, are only worsening. WHO confirmed the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years on August 22: “Health workers have been digging graves for patients they know they are not able to save because they don’t have the resources needed.”

Forty-five international doctors who spent time in Gaza published a letter on July 25 addressed to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Bing Li and Salman Dasti were among the signatories. They detailed the injuries they’d seen—preteens deliberately shot in the head, healthy babies dying of preventable diseases—and noted their “acute awareness” that Gaza’s medical professionals have been targeted. The doctors begged the president for an arms embargo, and for “unfettered aid delivery” of antibiotics, painkillers, and sutures.

On August 1, 300 days into the destruction of Gaza, Nermeen turned 21 in a white tent, as temperatures soared above 90 degrees. As she sent me WhatsApp voice notes, warplanes buzzed overhead and her siblings chattered in the background.

She had been away from the hospital for a month. It was evacuated on July 1. Patients left, or were carried out by hand, over a chaotic 24 hours. “There’s really no roads because they’ve all been destroyed,” Dasti remembered. Taking a patient a couple of miles to the nearest hospital took at least an hour. Even in the United States, under the best of conditions, it is hard to move a patient from the ICU down the hall to the operating room safely. “I think some of them died on the way,” Dasti said.

Hasan, the dental student, evacuated too. He has spent the past two months sharing an 8-by-20-foot tent with four families in Deir al-Balah refugee camp, not far from the site of the Al-Tabin School bombing, in which the Israel Defense Forces used US-made bombs to hit a school building and kill nearly 100 people. He spends time making videos about his work in the hospital, which the international doctors he met have been sharing at conferences back home.

Hasan has been trying to return to European Hospital to see if he could help if it reopens—and perhaps find a path to continuing his studies. (World Health Organization officials told Mother Jones that they are partnering with the Gaza Ministry of Health to restore emergency services at the hospital, though the timeline has been postponed amid heavy bombing.) On WhatsApp, Hasan showed me a map outlining the route he planned to take, with red danger zones highlighted. When he tried to make the journey, “the people on the road told me to go back [because] the army is on the road.” He turned around and returned to Deir al-Balah.

When we messaged last week, Hasan said he had heard a system of buses organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross might be able to bring him back to Khan Younis. But a day after we spoke, Israeli forces once again ordered the evacuation of large portions of Khan Younis—and bombed portions of Deir al-Balah, where Hasan now lives. But he hasn’t given up. “I will try again,” he said.

Nermeen faces similar obstacles. “I am impatiently waiting for the hospital to reopen, because I miss helping and learning new things,” she said. While she heard that administrative work on reopening the hospital began in mid-August, she doesn’t know when it will reopen fully. And returning to the hospital might be dangerous: “Sudden bombing could occur on the road.” So, instead, she has returned to her studies, when the intermittent-at-best internet allows, and when the “terrifying” noises of artillery shells pause long enough to let her focus. One day, Nermeen announced proudly that she’d managed to turn in her endocrinology exam online, to a virtual classroom run by professors from a university that, physically, no longer exists.

“All of this losing makes my heart broken,” Nermeen said. “I hope I can be strong, because my dreams wait [for] me, and many people…I want to help them.” 

On Wednesday night, the Uncommitted Movement called a surprise press conference outside the United Center Arena. Under giant glowing signs of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, delegate Abbas Alawieh announced that a few hours earlier the Harris campaign had given him a call. After about two months of asking, the Uncommitted movement had gotten the news: They would not be granted a speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

That means, barring any change, not a single Palestinian or Palestinian-American will be given the chance to step on to the DNC stage. Alawieh, a longtime Democratic congressional staffer—a man who has dedicated his life to working within the system—said he was “stunned” by the refusal of the request: “I said, what do you mean? We just want our voices to be heard.”

Related
Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC

At the DNC, Republican staffers have been offered the chance. An Uber lawyer who is high in the campaign got a prime-time slot. But not a single Palestinian has been given even five minutes on that stage. The Uncommitted movement tried, as Alawieh explained, to appease. He said they offered the DNC an extensive list of potential speakers—even offered to find a Palestinian speaker who would endorse Kamala Harris from the stage. (That, as Alawieh noted, “is a hard thing to do” in this moment.) They offered to send a pre-written speech, with promises not to deviate from the script. 

“I’ve had some pretty crushing days, but to be honest today took the cake,” Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American Georgia State Representative posted on X. Romman was one of the speaker candidates Uncommitted gave to the Harris campaign. “I do not understand how there’s room for an anti-choice Republican but not me in our party. I need someone to explain to me what to do now.” 

This was the smallest and most immediately achievable of the Uncommitted movement’s demands, a matter of simple representation. Their larger goals—a ceasefire, an arms embargo, the end to the killing of thousands of Palestinian children with American bombs—went unmentioned. And, nonetheless, the answer, after weeks of silence, was “no.” 

At the press conference, Alawieh picked up his phone and returned the Harris campaign staffer’s call in front of allies and reporters. “No it is not acceptable,” he said. Then, he sat down on the sidewalk and refused to move. “Call me if you change your mind. Thank you. Please pass it on. Tell the vice president that I’m sitting outside. I’m not going anywhere. I hope you change her mind.” 

As of 9:00 am on Thursday, with Harris ready to accept the nomination, Alawieh was still sitting on that sidewalk. He was joined by delegates June Rose, Sabrene Odeh, and Rima Mohammad. Supporters brought them blankets to sit on, as they struggled to get comfortable on the concrete.

News of their sit-in spread. Representatives like Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) facetimed the group. About 30 minutes into the sit-in, other Democratic groups representing voters began speaking out. Muslim Women for Harris-Walz stated that they could not continue advocating for the ticket in light of this decision. The United Auto Workers tweeted that “if we want peace, if we want real democracy, if we want to win this election,” a Palestinian must be allowed to speak from the stage. Bend The Arc—a progressive Jewish PAC that rarely speaks on international issues—sent a rabbi to join the sit-in. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) arrived on the ground around 11:00 and hugged Alawieh, who sobbed into her shoulder. As the clock ticked past midnight, delegates took turns speaking about the over 10,000 Palestinian children the IDF has killed, about the targeting of civilians that is clear in Gaza’s hospitals—and about their hope that, maybe, the Democratic Party would listen to them and stop the violence. 

Everyone at this protest thinks the families of hostages should have spoken today and were glad they did.

So why can't a Palestinian-American elected official have the same luxury?

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) August 22, 2024

The Harris campaign did text a counter-offer. A speaker “is not happening,” they said. Would the Uncommitted movement want to send representatives for a private meeting instead of speaker time? Uncommitted representatives might have taken that meeting three weeks ago. Now, though, it’s being offered as a way to deny a Palestinian presence “on the stage of a party that professes equal rights for all,” as Uncommitted organizer Waleed Shahid put it.

The denial comes in the light of a convention that has tried to a paint picture of big-tent solidity among Democrats.

The night before the denial, former President Barack Obama preached to the DNC audience about the need for unity. “Our politics have become so polarized these days that all of us—across the political spectrum—seem so quick to assume the worst in others unless they agree with us on every single issue….Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us.” Obama went on to chide the left of his party for not extending sympathy to those who do not always want to vote for Democrats. “If we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process,” Obama said.

And yet that grace, it seemed—that choice to listen and learn—did not extend to allowing a Palestinian to speak from the DNC stage. Instead, the Uncommitted delegates stayed on that sidewalk waiting. They plan to sit there for the remainder of the convention.

“My back hurts, my body’s fatigued…it’s just a shock to the system,” Alawieh said early on Thursday morning. “I suppose most acts of blatant suppression, exclusion, and silencing are.”

He still seemed confused, after waging a campaign coded in all the respectability Democrats demand from dissenters: “We talked to the DNC, we offered options, we said we’ll identify someone who is willing to express support for Vice President Harris…we did everything right, you know?”

Noah Lanard contributed reporting.

Editor’s note: The author of this post and other Mother Jones workers are represented by UAW Local 2103.

On Wednesday night, the Uncommitted Movement called a surprise press conference outside the United Center Arena. Under giant glowing signs of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, delegate Abbas Alawieh announced that a few hours earlier the Harris campaign had given him a call. After about two months of asking, the Uncommitted movement had gotten the news: They would not be granted a speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

That means, barring any change, not a single Palestinian or Palestinian-American will be given the chance to step on to the DNC stage. Alawieh, a longtime Democratic congressional staffer—a man who has dedicated his life to working within the system—said he was “stunned” by the refusal of the request: “I said, what do you mean? We just want our voices to be heard.”

Related
Here Is the Speech That the Uncommitted Movement Wants to Give at the DNC

At the DNC, Republican staffers have been offered the chance. An Uber lawyer who is high in the campaign got a prime-time slot. But not a single Palestinian has been given even five minutes on that stage. The Uncommitted movement tried, as Alawieh explained, to appease. He said they offered the DNC an extensive list of potential speakers—even offered to find a Palestinian speaker who would endorse Kamala Harris from the stage. (That, as Alawieh noted, “is a hard thing to do” in this moment.) They offered to send a pre-written speech, with promises not to deviate from the script. 

“I’ve had some pretty crushing days, but to be honest today took the cake,” Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American Georgia State Representative posted on X. Romman was one of the speaker candidates Uncommitted gave to the Harris campaign. “I do not understand how there’s room for an anti-choice Republican but not me in our party. I need someone to explain to me what to do now.” 

This was the smallest and most immediately achievable of the Uncommitted movement’s demands, a matter of simple representation. Their larger goals—a ceasefire, an arms embargo, the end to the killing of thousands of Palestinian children with American bombs—went unmentioned. And, nonetheless, the answer, after weeks of silence, was “no.” 

At the press conference, Alawieh picked up his phone and returned the Harris campaign staffer’s call in front of allies and reporters. “No it is not acceptable,” he said. Then, he sat down on the sidewalk and refused to move. “Call me if you change your mind. Thank you. Please pass it on. Tell the vice president that I’m sitting outside. I’m not going anywhere. I hope you change her mind.” 

As of 9:00 am on Thursday, with Harris ready to accept the nomination, Alawieh was still sitting on that sidewalk. He was joined by delegates June Rose, Sabrene Odeh, and Rima Mohammad. Supporters brought them blankets to sit on, as they struggled to get comfortable on the concrete.

News of their sit-in spread. Representatives like Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) facetimed the group. About 30 minutes into the sit-in, other Democratic groups representing voters began speaking out. Muslim Women for Harris-Walz stated that they could not continue advocating for the ticket in light of this decision. The United Auto Workers tweeted that “if we want peace, if we want real democracy, if we want to win this election,” a Palestinian must be allowed to speak from the stage. Bend The Arc—a progressive Jewish PAC that rarely speaks on international issues—sent a rabbi to join the sit-in. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) arrived on the ground around 11:00 and hugged Alawieh, who sobbed into her shoulder. As the clock ticked past midnight, delegates took turns speaking about the over 10,000 Palestinian children the IDF has killed, about the targeting of civilians that is clear in Gaza’s hospitals—and about their hope that, maybe, the Democratic Party would listen to them and stop the violence. 

Everyone at this protest thinks the families of hostages should have spoken today and were glad they did.

So why can't a Palestinian-American elected official have the same luxury?

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) August 22, 2024

The Harris campaign did text a counter-offer. A speaker “is not happening,” they said. Would the Uncommitted movement want to send representatives for a private meeting instead of speaker time? Uncommitted representatives might have taken that meeting three weeks ago. Now, though, it’s being offered as a way to deny a Palestinian presence “on the stage of a party that professes equal rights for all,” as Uncommitted organizer Waleed Shahid put it.

The denial comes in the light of a convention that has tried to a paint picture of big-tent solidity among Democrats.

The night before the denial, former President Barack Obama preached to the DNC audience about the need for unity. “Our politics have become so polarized these days that all of us—across the political spectrum—seem so quick to assume the worst in others unless they agree with us on every single issue….Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us.” Obama went on to chide the left of his party for not extending sympathy to those who do not always want to vote for Democrats. “If we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process,” Obama said.

And yet that grace, it seemed—that choice to listen and learn—did not extend to allowing a Palestinian to speak from the DNC stage. Instead, the Uncommitted delegates stayed on that sidewalk waiting. They plan to sit there for the remainder of the convention.

“My back hurts, my body’s fatigued…it’s just a shock to the system,” Alawieh said early on Thursday morning. “I suppose most acts of blatant suppression, exclusion, and silencing are.”

He still seemed confused, after waging a campaign coded in all the respectability Democrats demand from dissenters: “We talked to the DNC, we offered options, we said we’ll identify someone who is willing to express support for Vice President Harris…we did everything right, you know?”

Noah Lanard contributed reporting.

Editor’s note: The author of this post and other Mother Jones workers are represented by UAW Local 2103.

During the Democratic National Convention, the Uncommitted movement’s 30 delegates—chosen by voters frustrated by the United States policies toward Israel as it wages war in Gaza—are trying to speak with as many of Vice President Kamala Harris’ approximately 4,000 pledged delegates as possible and make a pitch: Help us add an arms embargo to the Harris campaign platform to bring about a ceasefire.

On Monday, delegates at the DNC formally approved the party’s policy platform for 2024. That document included no mention of an arms embargo on Israel—or even a “permanent ceasefire.” The phrases “durable ceasefire” and “lasting ceasefire” were both used.

But there is still discussion of a ceasefire and the possibility, organizers with Uncommitted hope, to push for changes in a potential Harris administration. As we previously reported, the Uncommitted movement has spent the DNC trying to recruit delegates already pledged to Harris specifically to join their push by signing a letter that requests alterations in policy.

In that petition, the Uncommitted movement asks for two key things. First: “Inclusion of language in the party and campaign platform that unequivocally supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a cessation of supplying weapons for Israel’s assault and occupation against Palestinians.” Second, the delegates ask for a “meeting between the elected leadership of the Uncommitted delegation, [Harris], senior campaign staff, and administrative staff who determine US foreign policy vis-a-vis Gaza.”

Uncommitted delegate Inga Gibson of Hawaii told Mother Jones that the responses she’s been getting from her fellow delegates are overwhelmingly positive. As the Uncommitted delegates walk around the convention, “we’re pretty identifiable,” she said. “We’re wearing keffiyehs or ‘Not Another Bomb’ pins.” That makes them a magnet for attention from Harris delegates.

“People are regularly coming up to us and saying: How can we get involved, what can I do to help?” Gibson said. “And of course, they’re thrilled to hear that you can be pledged to Harris and still join the voices, which are the majority of people in polls that want a ceasefire and an arms embargo.” When Gibson asked three Harris-pledged delegates from her home state of Hawaii to sign on, she said, they didn’t need convincing. “They were very pleased to learn that they could use their voice without compromising their position as a Biden/Harris delegate.”

Around 240 delegates have signed on to a Ceasefire Delegate letter, the Uncommitted movement told Mother Jones.

In her rhetoric on Gaza, Harris has deviated little from her predecessor. At a press conference yesterday, though, Uncommitted movement leaders including Layla Elabed of Michigan hadn’t given up hope that she might be made to shift her stance.

“We are no longer willing to choose between two impossible options—supporting a candidate complicit in genocide or one who never saw our humanity,” Elabed said. “Instead, we’ve been able to send a message, that our values, our votes, and our rightful place in the Democratic Party cannot be taken for granted.”

Update, August 20th, 10:40 p.m.: The number of delegates who have signed on to a Ceasefire Delegate letter was updated.

During the Democratic National Convention, the Uncommitted movement’s 30 delegates—chosen by voters frustrated by the United States policies toward Israel as it wages war in Gaza—are trying to speak with as many of Vice President Kamala Harris’ approximately 4,000 pledged delegates as possible and make a pitch: Help us add an arms embargo to the Harris campaign platform to bring about a ceasefire.

On Monday, delegates at the DNC formally approved the party’s policy platform for 2024. That document included no mention of an arms embargo on Israel—or even a “permanent ceasefire.” The phrases “durable ceasefire” and “lasting ceasefire” were both used.

But there is still discussion of a ceasefire and the possibility, organizers with Uncommitted hope, to push for changes in a potential Harris administration. As we previously reported, the Uncommitted movement has spent the DNC trying to recruit delegates already pledged to Harris specifically to join their push by signing a letter that requests alterations in policy.

In that petition, the Uncommitted movement asks for two key things. First: “Inclusion of language in the party and campaign platform that unequivocally supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a cessation of supplying weapons for Israel’s assault and occupation against Palestinians.” Second, the delegates ask for a “meeting between the elected leadership of the Uncommitted delegation, [Harris], senior campaign staff, and administrative staff who determine US foreign policy vis-a-vis Gaza.”

Uncommitted delegate Inga Gibson of Hawaii told Mother Jones that the responses she’s been getting from her fellow delegates are overwhelmingly positive. As the Uncommitted delegates walk around the convention, “we’re pretty identifiable,” she said. “We’re wearing keffiyehs or ‘Not Another Bomb’ pins.” That makes them a magnet for attention from Harris delegates.

“People are regularly coming up to us and saying: How can we get involved, what can I do to help?” Gibson said. “And of course, they’re thrilled to hear that you can be pledged to Harris and still join the voices, which are the majority of people in polls that want a ceasefire and an arms embargo.” When Gibson asked three Harris-pledged delegates from her home state of Hawaii to sign on, she said, they didn’t need convincing. “They were very pleased to learn that they could use their voice without compromising their position as a Biden/Harris delegate.”

More than 210 delegates have signed on to a Ceasefire Delegate letter, the Uncommitted movement told Mother Jones.

In her rhetoric on Gaza, Harris has deviated little from her predecessor. At a press conference yesterday, though, Uncommitted movement leaders including Layla Elabed of Michigan hadn’t given up hope that she might be made to shift her stance.

“We are no longer willing to choose between two impossible options—supporting a candidate complicit in genocide or one who never saw our humanity,” Elabed said. “Instead, we’ve been able to send a message, that our values, our votes, and our rightful place in the Democratic Party cannot be taken for granted.”

The most significant aspect of the press conference held by the Uncommitted movement on Monday morning at the Democratic National Convention was that it happened at all. Never before has there been an official delegation at the DNC devoted to defending the rights of Palestinians.

Since President Joe Biden stepped aside, Democrats have tried to frame the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris as one of “joy” and “unity.” Despite fears of infighting, the party quickly coalesced around Harris and moved beyond the questions about Biden’s age. But one of the central problems of the primary still looms large: How to handle the war in Gaza.

“Unity is great,” said Uncommitted organizer Natalia Latif. “But that unity can’t come at the cost of Palestinian lives.” 

Inside the hall are the thirty uncommitted delegates elected by primary voters in states including Minnesota, Michigan, and Washington. At the Monday press conference, these delegates repeatedly emphasized their main two demands: a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo against Israel.

They are vastly outnumbered by the more than 4,000 delegates pledged to Harris. But the presence of uncommitted delegates elected by a grassroots movement remains a powerful sign of many Democratic voters’ outrage over Israel’s actions in Gaza and their vote to push for a ceasefire and overall shift in how Democrats work with Israel.

“Unity is great,” said Uncommitted organizer Natalia Latif. “But that unity can’t come at the cost of Palestinian lives.” 

The efforts to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party are split between those within the convention hall and the protesters outside. And not all these groups are in total agreement on every issue, or on methods for pushing Democrats.

Outside the arena, a major protest is scheduled for later on Monday. Protest organizers have said they expect up to 40,000 people to attend. The march is sponsored by a coalition of more than 200 groups including the Arab American Action Network, American Friends Service Committee, and the Democratic Socialists of America, along with the Chicago chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Other groups in the march coalition such as the Denver Communists have much smaller national profiles. 

"Palestinian children can't eat words." —@luluelabed

Listen to @uncommittedmvmt delegates speak truth. https://t.co/RuBTqidlVe

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 19, 2024

Thus far, Harris has not broken from Biden on Gaza, even if she has shown more empathy for suffering Palestinians. But some delegates and other pro-peace activists see her as more persuadable than Biden, whose fervent support for Israel calcified back when he was a senator in the 1980s.

Over the past month, delegates with the Uncommitted movement have been pushing for a speaking slot for Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor who saw the carnage inflicted by the Israeli assault on Gaza while volunteering at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

“I’m hoping to provide moral witness to the delegates of the Democratic National Convention because an end to this military campaign is the only way to preserve human life under the current circumstances,” Haj-Hassan said on an Uncommitted movement Zoom call on August 1. Thus far, the DNC has not agreed to let Haj-Hassan or Palestinian American elected officials speak from the mainstage of the DNC. Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack on October 7 have also reportedly not been told whether they will have a speaking slot.

“I think that building bridges is going to be the most effective approach in this specific space.”

“It’s definitely telling that there’s not going to be a Palestinian speaking on the convention stage,” Latif, the Uncommitted organizer, said. The DNC will, for the first time in its history, host an official panel on Palestinian human rights on Monday afternoon.

Sabrene Odeh, a delegate from Washington, said on Friday that those associated wtih the Uncommitted movement will speak to as many fellow Democratic delegates as possible this week to build support for their movement. “A lot of it’s real old school,” said Odeh, who is Palestinian American. “I think most of my days are going to be spent giving my elevator speeches to folks—and I really hope that they care about what’s going on in Gaza.”

Odeh and other uncommitted delegates are trying to build support for a broader ceasefire delegation that includes Harris delegates. “I think that building bridges is going to be the most effective approach in this specific space,” she explained.

To that end, Uncommitted organizers estimated some 200 delegates have already pledged to sign a petition calling to make an arms embargo part of the Democratic Party platform this campaign cycle. Organizers plan to send the petition to Harris. The 91-page platform the party unveiled Sunday evening, according to the Washington Post, makes no mention of an arms embargo and is expected to pass as written.

Latif said that Harris delegates who sign on to the “ceasefire” pledge and walk around the convention with “not another bomb” pins and t-shirts will help show Harris and Biden that “even their own delegates are in line with this policy.” 

“A ceasefire and an arms embargo is actually in line with what a majority of Democrats want, and our leadership right now is actually out of step with those desires,” Latif said. According to one Data for Progress poll in May, 83 percent of Democratic voters support a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Latif and the Uncommitted Movement believe that a permanent ceasefire can only come about when coupled with an arms embargo. 

Uncommitted delegates are clear-eyed about the challenges they face. Harris has served as vice president while Biden has offered Israel almost unconditional support as it wages a war on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people. The International Court of Justice has found that Israel’s actions may constitute genocide, and has argued that the country’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza is equivalent to apartheid. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with leaders of Hamas for their actions on October 7.  

“At the end of the day, what we really want folks to realize is this movement has been pulled together in like six months,” Odeh said. “This is incredibly, incredibly successful—especially for really something that is one issue. We don’t see this happen very often. And so as a Palestinian, I’m just incredibly proud.”

Update, August 19, 2024, 3:48 p.m.: This story has been updated to reflect more signatories of the call for an arms embargo.

The most significant aspect of the press conference held by the Uncommitted Movement on Monday morning at the Democratic National Convention was that it happened at all. Never before has there been an official delegation at the DNC devoted to defending the rights of Palestinians.

Since President Joe Biden stepped aside, Democrats have tried to frame the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris as one of “joy” and “unity.” Despite fears of infighting, the party quickly coalesced around Harris and moved beyond the questions about Biden’s age. But one of the central problems of the primary still looms large: How to handle the war in Gaza.

“Unity is great,” said Uncommitted organizer Natalia Latif. “But that unity can’t come at the cost of Palestinian lives.” 

Inside the hall are the thirty uncommitted delegates elected by primary voters in states including Minnesota, Michigan, and Washington. At the Monday press conference, these delegates repeatedly emphasized their main two demands: a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo against Israel.

They are vastly outnumbered by the more than 4,000 delegates pledged to Harris. But the presence of uncommitted delegates elected by a grassroots movement remains a powerful sign of many Democratic voters’ outrage over Israel’s actions in Gaza and their vote to push for a ceasefire and overall shift in how Democrats work with Israel.

“Unity is great,” said Uncommitted organizer Natalia Latif. “But that unity can’t come at the cost of Palestinian lives.” 

The efforts to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party are split between those within the convention hall and the protesters outside. And not all these groups are in total agreement on every issue, or on methods for pushing Democrats.

Outside the arena, a major protest is scheduled for later on Monday. Protest organizers have said they expect up to 40,000 people to attend. The march is sponsored by a coalition of more than 200 groups including the Arab American Action Network, American Friends Service Committee, and the Democratic Socialists of America, along with the Chicago chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Other groups in the march coalition such as the Denver Communists have much smaller national profiles. 

"Palestinian children can't eat words." —@luluelabed

Listen to @uncommittedmvmt delegates speak truth. https://t.co/RuBTqidlVe

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 19, 2024

Thus far, Harris has not broken from Biden on Gaza, even if she has shown more empathy for suffering Palestinians. But some delegates and other pro-peace activists see her as more persuadable than Biden, whose fervent support for Israel calcified back when he was a senator in the 1980s.

Over the past month, delegates with the Uncommitted movement have been pushing for a speaking slot for Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor who saw the carnage inflicted by the Israeli assault on Gaza while volunteering at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

“I’m hoping to provide moral witness to the delegates of the Democratic National Convention because an end to this military campaign is the only way to preserve human life under the current circumstances,” Haj-Hassan said on an Uncommitted Movement Zoom call on August 1. Thus far, the DNC has not agreed to let Haj-Hassan or Palestinian American elected officials speak from the mainstage of the DNC. Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack on October 7 have also reportedly not been told whether they will have a speaking slot.

“I think that building bridges is going to be the most effective approach in this specific space.”

“It’s definitely telling that there’s not going to be a Palestinian speaking on the convention stage,” Latif, the Uncommitted organizer, said. The DNC will, for the first time in its history, host an official panel on Palestinian human rights on Monday afternoon.

Sabrene Odeh, a delegate from Washington, said on Friday that those associated wtih the Uncommitted movement will speak to as many fellow Democratic delegates as possible this week to build support for their movement. “A lot of it’s real old school,” said Odeh, who is Palestinian American. “I think most of my days are going to be spent giving my elevator speeches to folks—and I really hope that they care about what’s going on in Gaza.”

Odeh and other uncommitted delegates are trying to build support for a broader ceasefire delegation that includes Harris delegates. “I think that building bridges is going to be the most effective approach in this specific space,” she explained.

To that end, Uncommitted organizers estimated 120 delegates have already pledged to sign a petition calling to make an arms embargo part of the Democratic Party platform this campaign cycle. Organizers plan to send the petition to Harris. The 91-page platform the party unveiled Sunday evening, according to the Washington Post, makes no mention of an arms embargo and is expected to pass as written.

Latif said that Harris delegates who sign on to the “ceasefire” pledge and walk around the convention with “not another bomb” pins and t-shirts will help show Harris and Biden that “even their own delegates are in line with this policy.” 

“A ceasefire and an arms embargo is actually in line with what a majority of Democrats want, and our leadership right now is actually out of step with those desires,” Latif said. According to one Data for Progress poll in May, 83 percent of Democratic voters support a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Latif and the Uncommitted Movement believe that a permanent ceasefire can only come about when coupled with an arms embargo. 

Uncommitted delegates are clear-eyed about the challenges they face. Harris has served as vice president while Biden has offered Israel almost unconditional support as it wages a war on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people. The International Court of Justice has found that Israel’s actions may constitute genocide, and has argued that the country’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza is equivalent to apartheid. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with leaders of Hamas for their actions on October 7.  

“At the end of the day, what we really want folks to realize is this movement has been pulled together in like six months,” Odeh said. “This is incredibly, incredibly successful—especially for really something that is one issue. We don’t see this happen very often. And so as a Palestinian, I’m just incredibly proud.”

When a man with painful cystic acne came to dermatologist Eva Rawlings Parker for help in a Nashville clinic, she couldn’t prescribe him doxycycline or minocycline, two medications she’d typically use to treat this condition. This is because the man was a roofer, says Parker, and these medications would have impacted his ability to tolerate heat. 

Parker’s patient was far from alone. Other common medications for physical health, like beta blockers, can impact people’s ability to handle heat. Many medications for mental health do, too.

Conventional wisdom tells people with conditions that make them unusually vulnerable to the sun, like the autoimmune disorder lupus, or are on medications that lead to heat sensitivity, to avoid staying outside when the sun is at its strongest.

“We know that workers have been dying because of chronic conditions that accumulate through heat stress over many years and decades that lead to shorter life spans.”

But for the one-third of US workers who must spend regular time outdoors, that advice bursts into flames. For some, such as farmworkers, hours and hours of heat exposure, with minimal or no reprieve, are just part of the job. Increasing heat waves and more frequent wildfires point to the need to find real solutions for outdoor workers—and highlight how labor and climate change are intertwined. 

Alongside heat waves getting worse and longer, which can trigger mental health episodes, more and more people are taking antipsychotic medications or antidepressants like SSRIs. Even before the toll of the Covid pandemic, the CDC estimated that more than one in eight adults took antidepressants. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, SSRI prescriptions for adolescents and young adults has increased by 63 percent.

Edward Flores, faculty director of the Community and Labor Center at the University of California, Merced, specializes in the conditions of low-wage and immigrant workers in California. He says the need for heat safety policy reform is acute. “We know that workers have been dying,” Flores says, “because of chronic conditions that accumulate through heat stress over many years and decades that lead to shorter life spans.”

Parker, the dermatologist, is acutely aware of how heat can trigger or worsen skin problems. She is co-chair of the American Academy of Dermatology’s group on climate change and environmental issues, and was an author of a 2023 review on the ways climate change can contribute to dermatological issues, including triggering flares of conditions like hidradenitis suppurativa—which causes painful lumps deep in a person’s skin—and skin cancer.

“The skin is really probably our most climate-sensitive organ, also a very large and complex organ, and it’s really the major interface to the environment,” says Parker, who is also a Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor. Her experience with patients, many of whom are low-income and migrant workers, lets her see firsthand just how challenging giving practical health advice can be in a warming world. 

People’s core temperature can rise much more quickly on SSRIs, for instance, putting them at increased risk of heat stroke. And there’s the challenge, says Rupa Basu, a heat epidemiologist with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment: “It’s really hard to monitor core body temperature.” 

Workers do have some legal rights to breaks and water, depending on the locale. California, Oregon, and Washington are the only states that mandate those breaks. And roughly half of crop farmworkers have no legal work authorization. That lack of legal status, and the threat of deportation, gives many workers reason to fear complaining about working conditions.

In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a new set of rules which would help protect more than 36 million workers from heat-related illness or death. The proposed OSHA rules would require employers to monitor their workers for heat exhaustion symptoms, provide adequate water and shade, designate break areas, and provide mandatory rest breaks, among other things. 

In one landmark 2022 farmworker health study that Flores, of the University of California, worked on, nearly half of workers interviewed said their employer had no heat-illness prevention plan—such plans are required by state law, and may soon be required federally—and one in six did not receive state-mandated rest breaks. When that lack of respite causes illness, many farmworkers are unlikely to see a doctor: 23 percent of those interviewed had not had a doctor’s visit in the past year, even at clinics tailored towards migrants.

23 percent of those interviewed had not had a doctor’s visit in the past year, even at clinics tailored towards migrants.

But enforcement, if the rules are implemented, will be a challenge. For one thing, as Flores explained, California has very few Spanish-speaking OSHA inspectors—and none that he’s aware of in the Central Valley, which supplies 8 percent of America’s total agricultural output. (89 percent of California agricultural workers speak Spanish as their primary language.) Nationwide, many accounts exist of inspectors arriving at a workplace without being able to speak workers’ main language.

Summers, meanwhile, are only going to get hotter. Without adequate regulation and enforcement, workers will keep dying in the heat. As Bill Field, director of AgrAbility, a Department of Agriculture program for disabled farmers, put it: “If you go to the racetrack, all the horses have multiple fans blowing on them…Why? Because we care more about the horses than we do the people.”

The adversity brought on by the climate crisis, Flores said, makes it “all the more important to safeguard workers’, outdoor workers’, health and well-being with improved standards and enforcement.”

Whether or not it is legally required, there are steps that employers can already take—but seldom do—to make outdoor working environments safer. “It could be things like increasing water breaks,” Basu said, “or putting up structures to increase shade.”

When the sun beats down on workers, clothes that protect against ultraviolet light can be a useful tool. Research suggests that UV-protective clothing is more effective in preventing skin damage, blocking 96 to 98 percent of the sun’s radiation—by comparison, a cotton shirt will only block around 80 percent. But these garments also tend to be more expensive—protective long-sleeve shirts can easily cost $50 or more. Field believes that employers should cover the cost of UV-protective clothing for exposed workers.

“If I’m a legitimate apple grower or a peach grower in New Jersey, and I’ve got to hire people,” Field said, “I need to be able to budget for them to all have hats and water bottles and things that are going to protect them while they’re in the field.” 

Those changes wouldn’t just benefit workers who are chronically ill—prolonged heat can disable and kill anyone. “When we’re thinking about public health messaging,” Basu adds, “it’s so important to say it’s not just people who you would think would be at high risk.” 

It has been a little over three weeks since President Joe Biden stepped down from his campaign for reelection. Since then, the Israeli military has killed at least 1,017 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, tipping the death toll over 40,000; Israel has bombed multiple schools, claiming the buildings were used as centers for Hamas fighters—in one strike, 93 Gazans were killed with American-made bombs; and the United States has approved another sale of weapons to Israel, this time for $20 billion.

The US backing of Israel’s war on Gaza has largely faded from the headlines, eclipsed by the drama surrounding a new candidate in the upcoming presidential election. But as Vice President Kamala Harris heads into the Democratic National Convention, the war has far from halted. And there is not much hope for a cessation in fighting to come soon.

As her campaign emerges, Harris will have to speak directly about a conflict that is still at the center of the world. Hundreds of thousands voted against nominating Biden, with 30 Uncommitted delegates headed to the DNC to call for an arms embargo, among other policies.

Ceasefire talks—scheduled for Thursday and pushed by the US, Qatar, and Egypt— look unlikely to succeed, in part because Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas negotiator, was assassinated in Iran on July 31, in an action widely thought to have been carried out by Israel (though no government has claimed responsibility). Hamas leaders have stated that they will not participate in this week’s round of talks. 

While the official death toll has ticked past the 40,000 mark, the real number of people killed in Gaza is likely much higher. A letter in the journal The Lancet in early July said the number of dead “could exceed 186,000”; another letter, written by 45 US doctors recently returned from Gaza, estimated the current death toll at 92,000. The actual death toll will likely remain unknown until after a ceasefire is reached—many of those who die from being trapped under rubble or due to lack of medical care die are uncounted. “Everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both,” the doctors said, calling for an arms embargo and for the reopening of Rafah crossing. 

One Palestinian father’s grief was shared widely on social media this week. He left his wife and 4-day-old twins alone in their apartment in central Gaza to retrieve their birth certificates. When he returned, he found his family dead in an Israeli strike. At least 115 infants born during the 10-month war have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Harris has called for a ceasefire deal, long something that Biden has also endorsed. She has said there have been “too many” civilian deaths in Gaza. But, like Biden, she has not declared support for an arms embargo—which is now the main demand from antiwar protesters in the United States. As the DNC kicks off on Monday, many thousands of protesters are expected to arrive in Chicago to attempt to pressure the Democratic Party.

A new poll conducted by the Institute for Middle East Understanding and YouGov shows that key Democratic voters would be accepting or even enthusiastic about a presidential candidate who withholds weapons from Israel. Over a third of those surveyed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona would be more likely to support such a candidate. Less than 10 percent of voters across those swing states said such a move would negatively impact their support. 

Meanwhile, a regional war looks closer every day. The US Department of Defense has stated that it “seeks to deter” such a conflict by moving more US military vehicles into the region—as Israel responds to an attack by Hezzoblah from Lebanon that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights, and Iran threatens retaliatory strikes for Haniyeh’s death on their soil. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has sabotaged ceasefire talks by continually adding new conditions to Israel’s demands, as recent reporting in the New York Times showed. 

“It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination,” Harris said after meeting with Netanyahu in late July. She has not yet indicated a plan for America’s role in achieving those goals.

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris briefly met with Uncommitted movement leaders Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh before a public rally. It was the first time a group affiliated with the diverse and varied pro-Palestine movement had interacted face-to-face with Harris since her elevation to presumptive Democratic nominee. 

The Uncommitted movement co-founders—who represent Michigan voters who chose not to pick Biden as a Democratic nominee because of his policies supporting Israel during its offensive on Gaza—were introduced to the vice president by one of her aides, they said.

In that short conversation, Elabed and Alawieh told Mother Jones, Harris expressed some empathy for Palestinians. “We were kind of holding onto each other as I was speaking, because I was so emotional,” Elabed said. But she, and the movement, were also clear with Harris: They wanted more than words and emotion. They want a formal, official meeting with Harris to talk policy.

“I told VP Harris through the tears that Michigan voters want to vote for her,” Elabed said, “but we need a policy change that is going to save lives.”

“We need Vice President Harris to embrace an affirmative message that stops the killing so that we can mobilize voters for whom Gaza is a top policy issue.”

An arms embargo has been the central request of the Uncommitted movement, who garnered 700,000 votes and will be sending 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Elabed asked the vice president if she would formally meet with her and Alawieh to discuss an embargo. “She agreed, yes, we will meet,” Elabed recalled. And “she said ‘it’s horrific’” of the bombing of Gaza.

But, during the brief interaction, Harris did not say whether she would make any movement towards an arms embargo or when a meeting would happen. When contacted about the conversation, the Harris campaign would not clarify whether the Uncommitted movement was formally invited to the rally.

“We were invited to join the VP in welcoming her to Michigan, and that’s when both Layla and I each had our own one-on-one interactions with the Vice President and Tim Walz,” Alawieh said.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Mother Jones: “Since October 7, the Vice President has prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza. In this brief engagement, she reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities. The Vice President is focused on securing the ceasefire and hostage deal currently on the table.”

Elabed had hoped for more. “Her empathy towards me, towards Palestinians, did feel genuine,” she said. “But that’s not enough, right? Palestinian children can’t live off of prayers and sorrows.” 

At the announcement of Harris’ candidacy, the Uncommitted movement hoped that Harris would take less of a hardline approach to supplying Israel with weapons. But that policy change has not been forthcoming. And this week has become a flashpoint. At a rally in Michigan, shortly after the interaction with Uncommitted, Harris publicly rebuked protesters pushing for a ceasefire.

As Harris spoke, two activists interrupted her. “If you want Donald Trump to win,” she told the protesters to cheers, “then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” 

Elabed, who had spoken with the Vice President earlier that same day, was “disappointed.” (As Mother Jones reports today, the two protesters are not affiliated with the Uncommitted movement—even though the students share aims with Elabed and others pushing for a ceasefire and end to arms shipments to Israel.)

Related
Here’s Why Two Protesters Interrupted Kamala Harris—in Their Own Words

This interruption was more than predictable. For months, protesters have dogged President Joe Biden, interrupting campaign events and rallies with the same simple demand, which surveys say over 80 percent of likely Democratic voters want: a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

President Biden has, in the past, introduced proposals for an “enduring ceasefire” to his allies in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. But those proposals have not been successful. Biden has not called for an arms embargo, and—because Israel’s military depends on American weapons—many progressives have been frustrated, believing that the only way to end the carnage in Gaza would be to cut off the weapons. Since the start of the war, the US has enacted legislation providing at least 12.5 billion dollars worth of military aid to Israel.

As recently as June, Joe Biden responded to protesters on the campaign trail with more sympathy: “Look, they care. Innocent children have been lost. They make a point,” he said. 

Harris’ response on Wednesday was quite different. 

“These are protesters that are advocating for human rights,” Elabed said. “These are people in our community who are grieving and who for 10 months have watched people with names and faces like those in our community—have watched their family members’ homes and lives blown apart by American bombs.” 

Campaign protests have in the past successfully shifted policy: protesters on former President Barack Obama’s campaign trail demanded protections for the children of undocumented immigrants.

The morning after Wednesday’s rally, the Uncommitted movement sent out a press release explaining their experience speaking with Harris, and requesting a formal meeting to discuss an arms embargo. Less than one hour after that email was sent, Harris’ national security advisor, Phil Gordon, tweeted that the vice president was absolutely not interested in stopping the flow of weapons.

.@VP has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.

— Phil Gordon (@PhilGordon46) August 8, 2024

“[Harris] has been clear…She does not support an arms embargo on Israel,” Gordon, who had previously written against America’s backing of Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, stated. “She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.” 

Upholding international humanitarian law, as the International Court of Justice declared in July, could mean refraining from arms shipments to Israel. As such, it is not immediately clear what work Harris is “continuing” to do toward upholding that law and protecting civilians. The same day that Gordon reaffirmed Harris’ evident disinterest in an arms embargo, Israel bombed schools in Gaza City, according to on-the-ground reports.

“We know she doesn’t support an arms embargo,” Uncommitted co-founder Alawieh said in response to Gordon’s statement. “That’s why we need an update to this policy.” 

Thousands of Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the primary—and if Harris doesn’t change course, the Uncommitted representatives said, she risks losing a crucial swing state. 

“We know that Donald Trump’s policies would be destructive,” Alawieh said. “That’s precisely why we need Vice President Harris to embrace an affirmative message that stops the killing so that we can mobilize voters for whom Gaza is a top policy issue.” 

Valentina Gomez, the 25-year-old former Missouri Secretary of State candidate known for crass posts—like calling her opponents “weak and gay” while jogging in a tactical vest—lost her eight-way primary last night.

Gomez rose to national (or maybe just very online) prominence by posting wildly. She declared that she would protect Missourians from the “transgender industry,” using a flamethrower to burn books in a campaign advertisement. She parted ways with her former employer, the dog food company Purina, and then told her fans to “feed your dogs something that is not weak and gay.” She instructed Black Americans to leave the country in a Juneteenth message. She recently said the Olympics were catering to “faggots.” 

On Tuesday, Gomez discovered that Twitter is not real.  She lost—and badly—with only about 7 percent of the vote.

@LupeFiasco is weak and gay. You should thank me for making you relevant again, after 15 years of not producing a hit. @elonmusk thank you for buying @X Long Live Freedom thanks @Sony for being a fan pic.twitter.com/9RZ5cf1tn8

— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) May 17, 2024

Gomez’s minor celebrity, however, may distract from what actually happened in Missouri. The Republican nomination for Secretary of State was won by Denny Hoskins, a Missouri legislator and State Freedom Caucus member who wants to reform state election law in order to “ensure that none of the electoral fraud that took place in 2020 and stole the election from President Trump happens here,” as reported by the Missouri Independent.

Beyond his election trutherism, Hoskins is staunchly anti-trans and anti-immigrant, railing in the Missouri senate chambers against gender-affirming care, which he describes as “little kids having their private parts cut off.” 

He is currently embroiled in a federal defamation lawsuit over posts he made misidentifying a Kansas City area mass shooter as an undocumented immigrant. (Hoskins posted a picture of a man at the scene and claimed that he was both the shooter and undocumented—neither claim was true: the man, according to reporting, was both uninvolved and from Kansas.) 

There was never any serious chance that Gomez would win the primary. But her brand of outlandish meme-politicking serves to make equally hard-right politicians look almost reasonable. Would she have been, in office, that far off from Hoskins?

The campiest bigot with the funniest tagline lost her job, her election, and, it seems, her brother’s job (he worked for the Jersey City government and reportedly refused to denounce his sister’s actions).

But that doesn’t mean the Missouri Republican party meaningfully rebuked any of her actual policy positions. On her pet issue, which is transphobia, she seems to say bluntly what others imply.

Andrew Bailey, the incumbent Attorney General who won yesterday’s primary on a Trump endorsement, has described trans healthcare as “a bloody scourge intended to defile innocents.” He shares some of those views with Mike Kehoe, the Republican nominee for governor, who is likely to win in November. No flamethrowers, no tactical vests—but the likely outcome, absent Valentina Gomez’ memeability, is exactly the same: A Missouri Republican party pushing towards the exclusion of trans people from public life. 

Gomez’s small time in the spotlight was a rawer, clearer articulation of ideas that more professional politicians must couch in acceptable language.

One thing to remember though: When Gomez put her beliefs out there bluntly, they were rejected by red-state residents—including and especially those of Gomez’s own hometown.

One writer from the Soulard neighborhood, the gay-friendly area Gomez used as a video backdrop, responded: “Soulardians might be called many things. Gay? Sometimes. But weak? Never. The weak are Gomez’s target audience, who are presumably hunkered down somewhere, anxiously peeking through their blinds at any noise while waiting for the government to come for their guns. By contrast, Soulardians aren’t afraid of shit.”  

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris briefly met with Uncommitted movement leaders Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh before a public rally. It was the first time a group affiliated with the diverse and varied pro-Palestine movement had interacted face-to-face with Harris since her elevation to presumptive Democratic nominee. 

The Uncommitted movement co-founders—who represent Michigan voters who chose not to pick Biden as a Democratic nominee because of his policies supporting Israel during its offensive on Gaza—were introduced to the vice president by one of her aides, they said.

In that short conversation, Elabed and Alawieh told Mother Jones, Harris expressed some empathy for Palestinians. “We were kind of holding onto each other as I was speaking, because I was so emotional,” Elabed said. But she, and the movement, were also clear with Harris: They wanted more than words and emotion. They want a formal, official meeting with Harris to talk policy.

“I told VP Harris through the tears that Michigan voters want to vote for her,” Elabed said, “but we need a policy change that is going to save lives.”

“We need Vice President Harris to embrace an affirmative message that stops the killing so that we can mobilize voters for whom Gaza is a top policy issue.”

An arms embargo has been the central request of the Uncommitted movement, who garnered 700,000 votes and will be sending 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Elabed asked the vice president if she would formally meet with her and Alawieh to discuss an embargo. “She agreed, yes, we will meet,” Elabed recalled. And “she said ‘it’s horrific’” of the bombing of Gaza.

But, during the brief interaction, Harris did not say whether she would make any movement towards an arms embargo or when a meeting would happen. When contacted about the conversation, the Harris campaign would not clarify whether the Uncommitted movement was formally invited to the rally.

“We were invited to join the VP in welcoming her to Michigan, and that’s when both Layla and I each had our own one-on-one interactions with the Vice President and Tim Walz,” Alawieh said.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Mother Jones: “Since October 7, the Vice President has prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza. In this brief engagement, she reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities. The Vice President is focused on securing the ceasefire and hostage deal currently on the table.”

Elabed had hoped for more. “Her empathy towards me, towards Palestinians, did feel genuine,” she said. “But that’s not enough, right? Palestinian children can’t live off of prayers and sorrows.” 

At the announcement of Harris’ candidacy, the Uncommitted movement hoped that Harris would take less of a hardline approach to supplying Israel with weapons. But that policy change has not been forthcoming. And this week has become a flashpoint. At a rally in Michigan, shortly after the interaction with Uncommitted, Harris publicly rebuked protesters pushing for a ceasefire.

As Harris spoke, two activists interrupted her. “If you want Donald Trump to win,” she told the protesters to cheers, “then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” 

Elabed, who had spoken with the Vice President earlier that same day, was “disappointed.” (As Mother Jones reports today, the two protesters are not affiliated with the Uncommitted movement—even though the students share aims with Elabed and others pushing for a ceasefire and end to arms shipments to Israel.)

Related
Here’s Why Two Protesters Interrupted Kamala Harris—In Their Own Words

This interruption was more than predictable. For months, protesters have dogged President Joe Biden, interrupting campaign events and rallies with the same simple demand, which surveys say over 80 percent of likely Democratic voters want: a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

President Biden has, in the past, introduced proposals for an “enduring ceasefire” to his allies in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. But those proposals have not been successful. Biden has not called for an arms embargo, and—because Israel’s military depends on American weapons—many progressives have been frustrated, believing that the only way to end the carnage in Gaza would be to cut off the weapons. Since the start of the war, the US has enacted legislation providing at least 12.5 billion dollars worth of military aid to Israel.

As recently as June, Joe Biden responded to protesters on the campaign trail with more sympathy: “Look, they care. Innocent children have been lost. They make a point,” he said. 

Harris’ response on Wednesday was quite different. 

“These are protesters that are advocating for human rights,” Elabed said. “These are people in our community who are grieving and who for 10 months have watched people with names and faces like those in our community—have watched their family members’ homes and lives blown apart by American bombs.” 

Campaign protests have in the past successfully shifted policy: protesters on former President Barack Obama’s campaign trail demanded protections for the children of undocumented immigrants.

The morning after Wednesday’s rally, the Uncommitted movement sent out a press release explaining their experience speaking with Harris, and requesting a formal meeting to discuss an arms embargo. Less than one hour after that email was sent, Harris’ national security advisor, Phil Gordon, tweeted that the vice president was absolutely not interested in stopping the flow of weapons.

.@VP has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.

— Phil Gordon (@PhilGordon46) August 8, 2024

“[Harris] has been clear…She does not support an arms embargo on Israel,” Gordon, who had previously written against America’s backing of Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, stated. “She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.” 

Upholding international humanitarian law, as the International Court of Justice declared in July, could mean refraining from arms shipments to Israel. As such, it is not immediately clear what work Harris is “continuing” to do toward upholding that law and protecting civilians. The same day that Gordon reaffirmed Harris’ evident disinterest in an arms embargo, Israel bombed schools in Gaza City, according to on-the-ground reports.

“We know she doesn’t support an arms embargo,” Uncommitted co-founder Alawieh said in response to Gordon’s statement. “That’s why we need an update to this policy.” 

Thousands of Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the primary—and if Harris doesn’t change course, the Uncommitted representatives said, she risks losing a crucial swing state. 

“We know that Donald Trump’s policies would be destructive,” Alawieh said. “That’s precisely why we need Vice President Harris to embrace an affirmative message that stops the killing so that we can mobilize voters for whom Gaza is a top policy issue.” 

Valentina Gomez, the 25-year-old former Missouri Secretary of State candidate known for crass posts—like calling her opponents “weak and gay” while jogging in a tactical vest—lost her eight-way primary last night.

Gomez rose to national (or maybe just very online) prominence by posting wildly. She declared that she would protect Missourians from the “transgender industry,” using a flamethrower to burn books in a campaign advertisement. She parted ways with her former employer, the dog food company Purina, and then told her fans to “feed your dogs something that is not weak and gay.” She instructed Black Americans to leave the country in a Juneteenth message. She recently said the Olympics were catering to “faggots.” 

On Tuesday, Gomez discovered that Twitter is not real.  She lost—and badly—with only about 7 percent of the vote.

@LupeFiasco is weak and gay. You should thank me for making you relevant again, after 15 years of not producing a hit. @elonmusk thank you for buying @X Long Live Freedom thanks @Sony for being a fan pic.twitter.com/9RZ5cf1tn8

— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) May 17, 2024

Gomez’s minor celebrity, however, may distract from what actually happened in Missouri. The Republican nomination for Secretary of State was won by Denny Hoskins, a Missouri legislator and State Freedom Caucus member who wants to reform state election law in order to “ensure that none of the electoral fraud that took place in 2020 and stole the election from President Trump happens here,” as reported by the Missouri Independent.

Beyond his election trutherism, Hoskins is staunchly anti-trans and anti-immigrant, railing in the Missouri senate chambers against gender-affirming care, which he describes as “little kids having their private parts cut off.” 

He is currently embroiled in a federal defamation lawsuit over posts he made misidentifying a Kansas City area mass shooter as an undocumented immigrant. (Hoskins posted a picture of a man at the scene and claimed that he was both the shooter and undocumented—neither claim was true: the man, according to reporting, was both uninvolved and from Kansas.) 

There was never any serious chance that Gomez would win the primary. But her brand of outlandish meme-politicking serves to make equally hard-right politicians look almost reasonable. Would she have been, in office, that far off from Hoskins?

The campiest bigot with the funniest tagline lost her job, her election, and, it seems, her brother’s job (he worked for the Jersey City government and reportedly refused to denounce his sister’s actions).

But that doesn’t mean the Missouri Republican party meaningfully rebuked any of her actual policy positions. On her pet issue, which is transphobia, she seems to say bluntly what others imply.

Andrew Bailey, the incumbent Attorney General who won yesterday’s primary on a Trump endorsement, has described trans healthcare as “a bloody scourge intended to defile innocents.” He shares some of those views with Mike Kehoe, the Republican nominee for governor, who is likely to win in November. No flamethrowers, no tactical vests—but the likely outcome, absent Valentina Gomez’ memeability, is exactly the same: A Missouri Republican party pushing towards the exclusion of trans people from public life. 

Gomez’s small time in the spotlight was a rawer, clearer articulation of ideas that more professional politicians must couch in acceptable language.

One thing to remember though: When Gomez put her beliefs out there bluntly, they were rejected by red-state residents—including and especially those of Gomez’s own hometown.

One writer from the Soulard neighborhood, the gay-friendly area Gomez used as a video backdrop, responded: “Soulardians might be called many things. Gay? Sometimes. But weak? Never. The weak are Gomez’s target audience, who are presumably hunkered down somewhere, anxiously peeking through their blinds at any noise while waiting for the government to come for their guns. By contrast, Soulardians aren’t afraid of shit.”  

In one of the most watched primaries this year, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—among the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire—lost to St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who jumped into the race late, and with the backing of millions of dollars from pro-Israel groups. The Associated Press called the race for Bell around 10:00 PM local time.

“Organized people beat organized money,” Bush’s campaigners have repeated. This race, however, has tested whether that’s true: as of election day, it is the second-most expensive Congressional primary in American history—and the money has, indeed, made a difference.

Bell dropped out of his bid to dethrone Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and chose to challenge Bush soon after the war began in Gaza. Bell has benefited from an incredibly well-funded advertising campaign since then.

Over half of all the outside money spent on the race came from the United Democracy Project (UDP), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)’s electoral arm. The money UDP spent here is second only to that which they spent on a successful campaign to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York. In total, UDP spent nearly 9 million dollars in MO-01, bolstered by $1.5 million from the crypto PAC Fairshake. Bush and her backers also attracted some outside spending: Justice Democrats, a progressive PAC founded by former campaigners for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent $2 million her way.

Bell’s choice to take that money has been divisive. Mike Jones, a 75-year-old former alderman and Board of Education member with a long career in St. Louis politics put it this way: “I think everybody knows that the race is not about the issues that have surfaced. It’s about the issue nobody’s talking about.” On most issues, Bell and Bush’s stances are near-identical. “So, literally, the only reason for this campaign, at a political level, is AIPAC money,” Jones said. 

Over a quarter of children in the district live in poverty, per the latest census numbers. Schools in the City of St. Louis are so underfunded that the district may not have a full fleet of school bus drivers this year. Healthcare access in the district remains limited, particularly for Black women—and abortion, which both candidates hope to restore, remains illegal in the state.

But the millions brought into the district for this campaign by outside groups on both sides of the election are not doing much to address those issues. Instead, they’re flooding people’s mailboxes with fliers, often several per day, about Bush not backing Biden, as I previously reported.

The campaign became vitriolic in its final weeks. Each candidate has dealt with leaked, compromising audio recordings: Bell swearing he wouldn’t run against Bush, only to renege on that promise; Bush comparing the DOJ investigation over her office’s money-management practices to the FBI spying on Martin Luther King Jr. 

The youth voter-engagement group Protect Our Power has been on the ground in St. Louis for the past month knocking on doors. Many of those canvassing are the same young campaigners who powered Jamaal Bowman’s reelection campaign in New York, only to witness his defeat.  Ella Weber, 22, was one of those campaigners said she and her Protect Our Power co-campaigners “went on a long walk” that night “and just like, talked about how important it was that we don’t retreat.” So they moved on quickly to the next “Squad” race to try again. They crashed on couches and canvassed for a month in St. Louis, working what Weber described as “70-hour weeks” for free. As they canvassed, though, they were up against a well-run and well-funded campaign on the other side. 

“I think few times in my political experience have I seen it so clearly that voters are watching a lot of ads,” said Denae Ávila-Dickson of Sunrise Movement.

“I think people power is still putting up a really, really strong fight against this historic funding,” she told Mother Jones about 5 hours before the polls closed. “But I think the reality is that our election systems aren’t equipped to deal with the scale of spending that is in this race.” 

In June, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) lost to George Latimer in the most expensive primary in the history of the House of Representatives. Latimer was backed extensively by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). While many factors—like a recent redistricting—affected the race, the contest was viewed widely as an indication of the power of AIPAC to help oust progressives. (Bowman had, notably, called Israel’s campaign in Gaza a genocide.)

But to say Bowman lost because of his views on Israel misses the way money works. AIPAC and other ads targeted Bowman on a myriad of issues. A key talking point, repeated consistently, was that Bowman did not vote for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. “Jamaal Bowman has his own agenda,” explained one $2.8 million spot, “and refuses to compromise with President Biden.”

In this election cycle, the attack has become a common theme. AIPAC and its subsidiary the United Democracy Project (UDP) have targeted progressive members of Congress who have vocally opposed Israel’s 10-month war in Gaza. But their line of attack has often not been about foreign policy but, instead, that the leftists did not toe the Democratic line.

Tomorrow, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) will go up against St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, who entered the race almost immediately after Bush called for a ceasefire in Gaza—and, in doing so, has accessed massive ad funding from those same PACs that funded Latimer.

The same dynamic is at play in the race: Bell’s ads have repeatedly said Bush did not vote for the infrastructure bill.

That’s true—but also misses key context.

President Joe Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorized $1.2 trillion in federal spending to modernize America’s roads and bridges, among other things. It was a landmark achievement. But it came as a compromise—excluding provisions around human infrastructure needs, like child care. Bush had fought for the wider agenda as part of Biden’s original goal to Build Back Better.

When Build Back Better was first introduced, it was budgeted at about $3.5 trillion. The House passed a version of the bill, only to be thwarted by Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), who at the time had de facto veto power. Eventually, through a lot of negotiations (and exhausting back and forth), Biden and Congress passed two bills: the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

During that process, to push for as many components of Build Back Better as possible, members of the progressive caucus withheld their votes from the infrastructure bill.

Bush and Bowman, alongside three other progressives, kept pushing to pass a fuller version that would give families a $3,600 annual Child Tax Credit, establish a guaranteed free pre-K program, increase housing investments, supply tax-funded elder care, incentivize green energy development, and expand Medicare and Medicaid. At the time, Bush said this more robust plan would have benefited low-income residents of her district, and people like herself—a Black single mother who spent time living in her car. 

“St. Louis deserves the president’s entire agenda,” Bush said at the time. “So that means both the bipartisan infrastructure package and the Build Back Better Act.” The Build Back Better Act included $1.75 trillion in child care and climate readiness investment; the infrastructure package did not. (Some elements of Build Back Better did make it into the Inflation Reduction Act.)

Bush’s position that both bills needed to pass was not particularly radical. Joe Biden himself initially said that: “If this is the only one that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.” 

Everyone seemed to understand the dynamics at play in the aftermath. Bush handily won reelection in 2022 with about 70 percent of the vote in her district. Her “no” vote on the infrastructure bill was not brought up as loudly at any point during that election. Now, though, it’s near-impossible to turn on the television in Bush’s district without seeing a portrayal of Bush as anti-union, anti-infrastructure, anti–St. Louis. 

“What I find really disheartening about that is, before she took that vote, she did a district Zoom meeting,” Megan Green, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and a staunch Bush supporter, remembers. “There were labor leaders on the call, there were a lot of elected officials on the call, and she said, I just want to talk through what we’re doing and why I’m taking this vote this way.”

“To kind of turn around and use that against her is really disappointing,” Green continued.

Latimer’s campaign—well-subsidized by PACs like AIPAC and Fairshake, a cryptocurrency lobby group—deployed that same playbook earlier this summer. 

Like Bell in his race against Bush, Latimer’s campaign dug up Bowman’s “no” vote on the infrastructure bill and presented him as an incorrigible obstructionist. But that’s not an accurate account of what happened back in 2021, as Bowman explained at the time. 

“While one is the hard infrastructure bill—roads, bridges, tunnels and construction jobs; great, we need that. We also need child care. We also need universal pre-K. We need to lower drug prices. We need paid family leave,” Bowman said. “The plan was to pass both together, and when we decided not to do that, I decided to vote no on that bill.” 

Latimer defeated Bowman by 17 percentage points. 

Don Samuels, who will be up against Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in an August 13 primary, is using a note-for-note identical strategy in his first advertisement of the campaign. 

It has been three years since the infrastructure bill vote, and the Build Back Better Act still hasn’t been passed.

Bowman lost, and Bush, tomorrow, runs the risk of being ousted too.