Faith groups are mobilizing thousands to march outside the DNC

(RNS) — Jameeleh Shelo, a Palestinian American and a native of Chicago, plans to march alongside thousands of others outside the Democratic National Convention next week to protest the party’s stance on Israel.

Shelo, who is Muslim, will join people of various faiths and no faith to demand that the party end U.S. aid to Israel, which has carried out a 10-month war on Gaza that has so far killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

A series of massive protests outside Chicago’s United Center, where Vice President Kamala Harris will accept her party’s nomination (Democrats already officially nominated Harris in a virtual vote of delegates), are planned for every day of the convention, Aug. 19-22.

“People of all faiths are coming together to stop what’s happening in Gaza,” said Shelo, 41, a documentary filmmaker whose parents were born in the region now held by Israel. “At this point, it transcends faith. This isn’t just a religious issue or a moral issue. It’s a human issue. Whatever your faith is, whatever your belief system is, you can look at what’s happening and know that it’s wrong and that you want to stop it.”

The Coalition to March on the DNC, the umbrella organization coordinating the various marches and protests, is composed of more than 150 groups, each with its own causes, whether immigration, reproductive health care or LGBTQ rights. But as a whole, the groups have united to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel and to stand up for Palestinians.

That’s significant, said Ian Lustick, a political scientist and Middle East expert. Although every American president has been deeply involved in policy toward Israel since the country was created in 1948, criticism of U.S. policy on Israel has never played such a prominent role in the election season.

“You don’t have a lot of other examples of mass public disputes over Israel policy as part of electoral politics,” Lustick said. “That’s what makes what’s happening now so important and unusual.”

Protests outside party conventions are not new. There were mass protests in 1968, 1972 and 2004. In those instances, protesters rallied against unpopular wars in Vietnam and Iraq, respectively. The U.S. military is not fighting in Gaza, but it has provided Israel with $12.5 billion in military aid since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on Oct. 7.

That aid has helped Israel flatten much of the Gaza Strip, including mosques, churches, homes, colleges and farmland. The human toll of 40,000 dead, according to the local Health Ministry, is mostly made up of civilians.

American Jews have generally supported the war, but growing numbers of younger U.S. Jews are opposed. Israel launched its assault after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Only 18% of U.S. Muslims see Israel’s reasons for waging the war as valid, according to a recent Pew poll.

Approximately 700,000 Democratic voters cast an uncommitted ballot in the primaries, many to oppose President Joe Biden’s unconditional aid to Israel. Biden dropped out of the race last month, but anger over the brutal war has continued with the elevation of Harris to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee.

“We want to make it very clear that the Palestinians are suffering with the enabling of aid by this administration embedded with our tax dollars,” said Tarek Khalil, a board member of the Chicago chapter of American Muslims for Palestine. “We’re not letting Kamala Harris off the hook just because she’s vice president and she can lay claim to the fact that she’s beholden to the president’s agenda.”

American Muslims for Palestine is arranging to bring demonstrators from mosques around the Chicago metropolitan area and beyond. While AMP marchers will be at all the week’s demonstrations, the group is co-sponsoring its own march on Wednesday (Aug. 21) at Union Park alongside the Coalition for Justice in Palestine.

The main two marches will take place Monday and Thursday.

Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace will join in as well, as will members of the anti-Zionist Jewish congregation Tzedek Chicago, which is also sponsoring a rally on Sunday.

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, is planning an interfaith vigil for Gaza at the Montrose Beach Harbor on Lake Michigan on Tuesday.

Pro-Israel activists will mount a “Hostage Square” exhibit on a private lot near the convention center. Organized by the Israeli American Council, the exhibit will spotlight the hostages being held in Gaza.

Harris has adopted a somewhat different tone on the war. In March, she became the first Biden administration official to call for an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which she has repeated since becoming the Democratic front-runner. She has expressed empathy for the plight of Palestinians.

But many of the marchers say that’s not enough.

“Biden and Harris’ calls for a cease-fire are hollow as long as they’re actively aiding one side against another,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago. “Cease-fire without arms embargo is toothless.”

The Harris campaign said last week that the vice president does not support an arms embargo on Israel. That leaves many marchers in a difficult bind.

“We have members who are uncommitted or would find it very difficult to vote for a candidate who is not willing to state that they will stop funding an ongoing genocide,” Rosen said. “It’s an act of conscience.”

Shelo, the Palestinian American who will attend next week’s marches, said she too is likely going to vote for a third party. But she added, “I think that if we saw inroads being made by any political party, that political party is much more likely to win people’s vote and potentially their loyalty in the future.”

She hopes the marches might help bring about those inroads.