Editor’s note: Below we reprint the full text of a statement read by Abla Abdelkader, a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, at a press conference on August 18. The press conference was held in Chicago’s Union Park to announce the mass demonstration for Palestine on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention.
This week, we are protesting the Democratic National Convention because as we enter the 10th month of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the Democratic Party has done nothing but unconditionally back Israel in its onslaught of war crimes.
We have witnessed the loss of over 100,000 Palestinian lives;1.5 million Gazans have lost their homes and are forced to take shelter in disease-filled camps. Many are on the brink of a man-made famine, with limited access to food or clean water. Almost all of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed, including homes, hospitals, and educational institutions. A public health crisis is actively unfolding in Gaza, with entirely preventable diseases like polio, hepatitis A, and [hepatitis] B spreading like wildfire throughout refugee camps.
Our representatives have done nothing to put an end to the violence. Rather, the Democrats just approved 3.5 billion more dollars in military aid to Israel earlier this month. This is the party that prides itself on being committed to human rights, while being complicit in some of the worst human rights violations of the century. Throughout the course of the American-backed genocide, civil unrest has been rampant throughout the country. From disrupting Democratic campaign events to protesting in the streets and eventually on our own college campuses, the students along with everyone else have made it known in every way possible that we demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to the funding and arming of Israel.
The Democrats have failed the American people, not only by turning their backs on the so-called “moral standings” of American values, but by also neglecting the urgent needs of the people in this country. Forty-three million Americans have crippling student debt; the housing crisis is at an all-time high; many Americans don’t have access to life-saving medical treatment, and the future of humanity is left uncertain by the rapidly unfolding climate crisis. By prioritizing military aid and profit over domestic welfare, the Democrats, especially Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have shown that they do not truly put the interests of their citizens first, instead revealing a system driven by the bribery of AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] rather than the well-being of its citizens.
This upcoming week marks a continuation of the unrest we’ve witnessed over the past 10 months. Despite our relentless demands for the Democratic Party to end the genocide in Gaza, we are continuously ignored. Instead, we see increased militarization of the police, violent repression, and unjust targeting of protesters and student activists. As students we understand the critical role our universities play in the bolstering of Israel’s military and economic strength. Our universities share deep economic and political ties with Israel and continue to benefit from Israel’s genocidal agenda.
This normalization of Israel’s existence has no space in the global and academic spheres. Students of these administrations are calling upon our universities to do one simple thing: put humanity first. We demand they immediately divest our tuition dollars and any private endowments from human-rights violations all across the world and invest time, effort, and resources into our futures instead.
The student movement vows to our administrators and our elected representatives that we will continue to disrupt the everyday operations of campus life until we see an end to the economic and political ties supporting Israeli war crimes. We are the catalyst of change, and that is why we are here to disrupt the DNC, to continue our fight for humanity and to see a total liberation of Palestine from river to sea.
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