The Uncommitted National Movement released a statement last month on the social media platform X, saying they would not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after failing to address the movement’s request to meet with Palestinian families.
Following Harris’ lack of response to the movement’s request to meet with Palestinian-American families in Michigan who lost loved ones during Israel’s assault on Gaza by Sept. 15, leaders of the movement unveiled their next steps. With the presidential election approaching, the movement announced in a Sept. 19 statement that it would not endorse Harris.
Abbas Alawieh, founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, said that the Harris campaign did not have any engagements they could point the movement to but would keep them updated as things develop.
The Uncommitted National Movement emerged during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, advocating for a permanent ceasefire and an end to American arms sales to Israel. The movement’s goal is “reshaping U.S. political discourse and policy on Palestine and Israel.”
“The Uncommitted National Movement was born out of historic anti-war organizing by people across the country witnessing a genocide unfold in Gaza against Palestinians whose humanity we recognize as no different than our own,” the statement said.
Since Oct. 7, Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip has led to more than 41,500 Palestinian deaths, according to Al Jazeera. Pro-Palestinian advocates and experts have since accused Israel of genocide.
In March, Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur wrote a report titled Anatomy of a Genocide. During the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Albanese said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe genocide is being committed in Gaza.
Besides Harris’ lack of response to the movement’s Sept. 15 request, the statement noted other instances of Harris and the Democratic Party “sidelining disillusioned anti-war voices.”
The statement cited the exclusion of a Palestinian-American speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in August, and Harris’ decision not to change America’s policies regarding arms sales to Israel.
According to a June Poll by CBS, 61 percent of Americans and 77 percent of Democrats oppose weapons aid for Israel’s ongoing conflict with Gaza.
While the movement will not endorse Harris, it also opposes a Donald Trump presidency. The statement did not recommend voting third party because it could inadvertently boost Trump’s chances of victory.
“In our assessment, our movement’s best hope for change lies in growing our anti-war, organizing power and that power would be severely undermined by a Trump administration,” the movement said.
Christopher Gunderson, a sociology professor at Howard said the movement’s current strategy reflects the struggle of leveraging the American two-party system.
“It is a punt that reflects the limitations of trying to leverage the electoral system to stop a genocide when the leadership of both major parties is deeply committed to continuing to supply the other arms that are instruments of that genocide,” he said.
Gunderson believes that a Trump presidency would make it more difficult to advocate for Palestine, but will also create false hope that the Democratic Party will produce results in the White House.
Dr. Anaheed Al-Hardan, a professor in Howard’s department of sociology and criminology, believes that the movement’s decision not to endorse Harris while simultaneously telling voters to avoid voting third party is contradictory.
“Movements need to organize people around alternatives, whereas they seem to be forfeiting their responsibility to organize their constituency around people-before-profit and anti-war presidential candidates and political parties,”Al-Hardan said.
The movement ended its statement by inviting stakeholders of the Democratic Party to join the movement in pushing Democratic Party leaders to align with the majority of Democratic voters—a call to end the sales and transfers of American weapons to Israel.
Marcus Board Jr., a professor in Howard’s department of political science, spoke about the importance of political education within advocacy organizations in changing social narratives.
“As much as this seems like the moral issue of our times, everyone doesn’t agree. It’s not always a question of education in the sense of doing research, it’s education in the sense of political transformation and how we get people to believe that the world can be different,” Board said.
Al-Hardan also emphasized the importance of pro-Palestinian organizers developing grassroots campaigns around political alternatives.
“Pro-Palestinian organizers need to start building grassroots campaigns around third-party people-before-profit and anti-war alternatives in this country,” she said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
