Pro-Palestinian groups have more demands for Democrats
Summarize
Four progressive groups sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee with requests, suggesting the rift over the Israel-Hamas war is far from over.
Lisa Kashinsky
Democrats still have a Gaza problem four months after Kamala Harris’ loss.
A quartet of progressive advocacy groups are asking the Democratic National Committee in a new letter to better engage with pro-Palestinian voters, according to a copy shared with POLITICO — a sign that the party’s rift over the Israel-Hamas war could stretch into the midterms.
In the letter addressed to DNC Chair Ken Martin and Executive Director Roger Lau, IMEU Policy Project, IfNotNow, Gen-Z for Change and Justice Democrats accuse the Harris campaign of taking policy stances and issuing voter-outreach directives that served to “villainize” and “ignore” Democratic voters who were opposed to Israel’s actions in Gaza and wanted the Biden administration to withhold military aid to the country.
That includes limiting follow-up to people who responded to campaign text messages by asking about Gaza, according to a Harris campaign organizer granted anonymity to discuss the internal instruction that was previously reported by NBC News.
The groups are asking the DNC to improve data collection on that front — and to probe the Harris campaign’s actions on the issue as part of Martin’s promised post-election review. They are asking for a meeting with the newly installed chair ahead of the report’s release to discuss their own voter-engagement experiences over Gaza.
They also want Martin to assess whether Harris and President Joe Biden’s stances on Israel and Palestine turned away voters, citing post-election polling from IMEU and YouGov that showed “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was the top issue for nearly 30 percent of voters who cast ballots for Biden in 2020 and someone other than Harris in 2024. The economy was a close second.
And they’re angling to limit the influence of a powerful pro-Israel advocacy group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, by calling for a ban on super PAC spending in Democratic primaries — a signal of potential intra-party clashes over Israel policy to come.
The DNC did not immediately respond to questions about the letter.
Pro-Palestinian protests last year over the Biden administration’s handling of the war gave rise to a movement of “uncommitted” voters that opened a schism among traditionally Democratic constituencies and damaged Harris in some traditionally Democratic Arab American areas. Leaders in those communities have argued in the weeks and months since Harris’ loss that the then-vice president made strategic errors by refusing to give a Palestinian American a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention and shutting down protesters at campaign rallies who criticized her solidarity with Biden in supporting Israel.
“The chasm between the Democratic base and the Harris campaign could have been narrowed and course-corrected months prior to the election,” the advocacy groups argued in their letter to Martin. “The pattern of disregarding and ignoring the issues Democratic voters care about, may it be rising costs of living or ending U.S. complicity in war crimes abroad, will not lead to winning elections.”
The letter comes days after the arrest of a Palestinian graduate student involved in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University re-ignited a debate about immigration, free speech and anti-war protests on college campuses. Since President Donald Trump’s victory in November, pro-Palestinian groups in the U.S. have been confronting the challenge of an administration that has been sharply critical pro-Palestinian movement.
better go ask trump for that shyt
