大象传媒

In late August, on the third day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Sheri Maali came to Union Park to send a message. 鈥淚 would like to see every elected official that is going up on that DNC stage 鈥� to stand up and say enough is enough. Cease-fire now, arms embargo, sanctions. I would like to see something where this just ends.鈥�

Maali鈥檚 family comes from the occupied West Bank. She says, 鈥淢y father is older than Palestine,鈥� when it was partitioned by the United Nations in 1948. Wearing a long keffiyeh-patterned dress that skimmed the grass, Maali was joined by several friends waving Palestinian flags and holding up posters denouncing President Joe Biden as 鈥淕enocide Joe.鈥� They were among 3,000 demonstrators that drew heavily from Chicago鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� the largest Palestinian community in the country.

When asked how the movement for Gaza could pressure Democrats and presidential nominee Kamala Harris to end the Israeli genocide, Maali says, 鈥淗old out our votes.鈥� She asks, 鈥淲hat else do we have besides our votes? That is our only power.鈥� 

Nearby was Satnaam Singh Mago, who wore a T-shirt with a T. rex grasping a Palestinian flag. Like Maali, Mago has voted for Democrats faithfully all his life. Now, however, he rejects the idea of 鈥渢he lesser of two evils鈥� and 鈥渧oting based on fear.鈥� But he is also hopeful. 鈥淲e have the power to change an election. 鈥� What we are trying to tell Kamala Harris is you have to earn our vote.鈥� 

I interviewed a couple dozen people the week of the DNC and asked protesters about pressing issues like abortion rights, Project 2025, and the dangers of a second Trump presidency. Almost all protesters told me things like, 鈥淕enocide isn鈥檛 a single issue, it鈥檚 the only issue,鈥� 鈥淚 can鈥檛 vote for genocide,鈥� and 鈥淭rump is worse on some things, but there is nothing worse than genocide.鈥�

The protesters reflected my own thoughts. We have real power. The more voters declare, 鈥淣o arms embargo, no vote,鈥� the more pressure it puts on Harris to capitulate to our demands ahead of the election on November 5. 

Let鈥檚 not kid ourselves. Harris supports the genocide of Palestinians. On four high-profile occasions she has declared, 鈥淚srael has a right to defend itself鈥�: after with Benjamin Netanyahu in July, during , during , and , when she also reiterated the widely debunked claim that mass rape was committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. American politicians have long  In the context of Israel wiping out Gaza in the name of 鈥渄efending鈥� itself from Hamas, that phrase is a dog whistle for genocide.

It鈥檚 hard to accept that we are complicit in genocide. It鈥檚 easier to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame, that we are not responsible, that Biden cannot end arms transfers with a phone call, that Harris will end them after she is elected.  It鈥檚 also easier to treat genocide as a transactional issue: Gaza is bad, but the threat to abortion rights and democracy and Project 2025 are bigger risks. Or, Trump will enact a worse genocide in Gaza.

We need to hear other perspectives. Outside the DNC I talked to one woman, who didn鈥檛 want to give her name, who told me she had lost more than a hundred relatives in Gaza to Israel鈥檚 attacks. She said, 鈥淓very morning I wake up in anguish. I don鈥檛 know who survived last night. Many days I can鈥檛 get in touch with anyone. I have cousins whose families have been wiped out. One aunt is in a wheelchair with a heart condition. A cousin has diabetes and can鈥檛 get medicine. They鈥檙e dying.鈥� She burst out crying while speaking to me.

Can we honestly tell her to vote for the party slaughtering her family? Why is it that we won鈥檛 save her from a violent America, but we expect her to save us from a different face of that same violence? If this was happening to you, would you be telling people to vote for the party wiping out everyone who knew and loved?

In Chicago, protesters showed us what solidarity looks like. It means seeing the world through the eyes of the people you are supporting, and to work to achieve their goals. Palestinians are being crushed by the American empire. We benefit from the empire in terms of wealth, power, jobs, and lower-cost goods and resources. Solidarity means putting the needs of oppressed peoples before our own.

The defeat of the American empire by the Vietnamese inspired international solidarity movements of all types. A mass movement of Americans in solidarity with the people of Central America  Reagan from invading Nicaragua. The anti-apartheid movement helped bring down the brutal Afrikaner regime in South Africa. 

Now we need to be in solidarity with Palestine and say, 鈥淓nd the genocide immediately.鈥� 

Genocide is the worst political act possible: the extermination of an entire people. 鈥淣ever again鈥� does not mean 鈥渘ever again except for Palestinians.鈥� If we think we can鈥檛 stop this, then we are nihilists. We are saying politics is useless.

It starts with hope. Student protesters for Gaza last spring had a rock-solid conviction they could force universities to divest from Israel. While have divested so far (it is always a trickle before it is a flood), the protests worked. They triggered an of and , , and that have made Israel an . With students returning for the fall, pro-Palestine protests are despite universities new methods to free speech and assembly. 

By continuously emphasizing ironclad support for Israel, Harris is revealing that support is actually fragile. This gives us an opening to force her to earn our vote by making it contingent on an arms embargo and an end to the genocide. This is hardball politics. It鈥檚 what billionaires do. They cut million-dollar checks to candidates and demand much more in return. Harris recently to from billionaires to drop a proposed tax on the ultrawealthy.

We have something more precious than dollars. There are horrified by the genocide and who want it to end immediately. But many of us are scared to use our power. Right before the DNC, of nearly in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. It found that 34% or more of voters in those states would be likelier to support Harris if there was a permanent cease-fire or an arms embargo on Israel.

In Chicago, a protester named Chris, a member of the Starbucks Workers United union, says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a genocide happening in real time, and people don鈥檛 want to call it that.鈥� Still, he plans to vote for Harris, saying, 鈥淚 will make sure to hold her accountable the whole time she鈥檚 in office.鈥� When asked how he can hold Harris accountable after the election, Chris says, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 tough.鈥� 

This is the problem. Instead of using our power over the Democrats before the election, when it is most potent, we surrender to them. It鈥檚 because they have perfected a formula to terrorize us. Every four years they hold a gun to our heads and say, 鈥淭he world will end if you don鈥檛 elect us.鈥� The name on the gun changes鈥擥oldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1 and 2, McCain, Romney, and Trump鈥攂ut the threat remains the same.

The Democrats have trapped us. We vote them in. But then not only do we get nothing in return, they do the dirty work of Republicans. And we ignore it.

This strategy was honed during the 1964 campaign with the infamous 鈥�.鈥� The commercial shows a little blonde girl plucking petals off a flower as she counts. She freezes as a loudspeaker at a test site starts counting down. A thermonuclear blast fills the screen, and President Lyndon Johnson intones, 鈥淭hese are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God鈥檚 children can live. Or to go into the dark. We must either love each other. Or we must die.鈥� 

Subtle, it wasn鈥檛. Johnson was saying a vote for Barry Goldwater was a vote for annihilation, and that he, in contrast, was the candidate of love. Except exactly one month before the ad aired, Congress handed Johnson a for a U.S. war that eventually killed 5 million people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. 

They have been using this trick for 60 years. Democrats have us so terrified of the right that we will sign off on any atrocity as long as Team Blue does it. Bill Clinton , Obama supersized the war on terror, and Biden is to blame for the Gaza genocide, not Trump. 

Democrats have sat in the White House for 20 of the past 32 years. They Wall Street, after it blew up the economy, and criminal bankers from prosecution. Democrats climate change accords and a historic and boom that has baked in climate catastrophe. They , passed , the far right to the courts, mass incarceration, the 鈥渕ost intrusive surveillance apparatus in the world,鈥� and a massive immigration prison system.

Harris promises more of the same: more border cruelty, more global warming, more genocide. More of the same threats we hear every election: 鈥淭his election 鈥� is the most important of our lives.鈥� 

Instead we should beware that Gaza is a threat of genocides to come.

I have reported from border cities such as Tijuana and Matamoros that have become killing fields as a result of our policies that have spawned brutal wars, criminal cartels, and climate chaos. By 2050 climate refugees could number 1.2 billion, according to . Harris鈥� vow to be 鈥溾�� than Trump on the border means more violence, deaths, and racism. Ratcheting up anti-immigrant policies as their numbers increase could bring genocide to our borders.

We cannot throw 90% of humanity under the bus. If we don鈥檛 end the razing of Gaza, we will throw open the gates of hell. Genocide is like COVID-19 and climate change: Borders won鈥檛 stop it. 

We can succumb to defeatism and believe Harris will never agree to an arms embargo and permanent cease-fire. 

Or we can remember that every movement that has made the world better鈥攍abor, the abolition of slavery, women鈥檚 suffrage, LGBTQ rights鈥攈ad an absolute belief they would win. They refused compromises, half measures, and surrendering. 

There can be no compromise in the fight for Palestine. If not now, when?

This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit聽.