Democrats united despite tide of pro-Palestinian protests, Illinois delegates say

During a week of rallies for unity at the Democratic National Convention, members of the Illinois congressional delegation pushed back on the idea that Israel’s actions in Gaza in the war against Hamas is dividing members — but cautioned that progressive voters could get dissuaded from turning out for Kamala Harris in November.

A small but vocal contingent of delegates have withheld support for Vice President Kamala Harris unless she commits to cutting off U.S. weapon supplies to Israel, leading Illinois members of Congress warned boycotting the polls could tip the scale toward former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

That would be tantamount to preventing a two-state solution, west suburban Rep. Sean Casten warned.

“If you want to completely carve up the Palestinian state into 15 enclaves that make it impossible to govern — which [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu — does, you want Donald Trump,” Casten said. “If you care about the Palestinian people, keep Donald Trump the hell out of the White House. That’s it. That’s the choice before us.”

Far west suburban Rep. Bill Foster said his colleagues have “a lot of distrust of Bibi Netanyahu and how sincere he is about doing anything for the hostages or the ceasefire,” but they remain united in a call to end the violence.

“Democrats realize that if they stay home and that results in Donald Trump getting elected, that's not going to be good for the Palestinians,” Foster said.

North suburban Rep. Jan Schakowsky also criticized Netanyahu, saying “he wants a blank check from the United States. We just cannot do that.

“There is such a thing as there is something worse, and that is because of people staying away, not voting, discouraging voting — Donald Trump will be far, far worse than anything,” she said.

While outrage against the Israeli offensive has defined most of the protests outside the convention, the situation in the Middle East had mostly been absent from the convention floor until Tuesday night.

In a primetime slot, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said “we must end this horrific war in Gaza. Bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire.”

Protesters unfurled a banner on the convention floor Monday night during President Joe Biden’s speech, calling for him to “stop arming Israel.” It was swiftly snatched away by delegates nearby, videos showed.

North Side Rep. Mike Quigley said he doesn’t think of the debate “in political terms.”

“It's an issue we need to meet head on and get resolved,” Quigley said on the convention floor. “People deserve a voice, so God bless them. They want to do it [protest] here, great.”

Speaking about the prospect of voters considering sitting out November, Quigley said “there's too much at stake,” and called a second Trump administration a greater overall threat to democracy.

“I think they can continue to protest, and they will,” West Side Rep. Danny Davis said. “I think that Democrats are going to be as forthcoming as possible, trying to find peace, trying to find peaceful resolve.”

Among more than 4,600 delegates nationwide, 52 were listed as “present” in the roll call, meaning they didn’t support Harris’ nomination, according to an Associated Press tally.

One of Illinois’ 177 delegates was counted as “present,” though it still wasn’t clear Wednesday who had withheld support for the top of the Democratic ticket — or why.

Many of those uncommitted delegates have come from the massive protest movement calling on President Joe Biden’s White House to cut off the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel, and demanding Harris commit to such an embargo.

Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted Michigan delegate who helped lead the nationwide push for delegates to reject Harris, said they’re urging the vice president “to help us help her” by calling for a halt of supplies to Israel.

“We're having the difficult conversations with our communities through our grief, through our pain, as we are seeing the mass killing of children and babies in Gaza using U.S. weapons,” Alawieh said at the United Center. “We're still having the conversations about Donald Trump and his very dangerous agenda.”

“We've built trust with voters who we need to mobilize ahead of November if we're going to have the best chance we can possibly have at beating Donald Trump — 101,000 such voters are in Michigan, and we are hoping to hear from Vice President Harris,” Alawieh said.

Contributing: Associated Press