A group of young pro-Palestine activists who heckled US presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this week, due to concerns she wouldn’t pursue meaningful policy changes towards Israel if she won the race for the White House, have started a campaign to disrupt her election rallies across the country.

“I would encourage everyone in wherever city they come from, to make sure that where Kamala shows up, she must recognise and address the genocide that she’s complicit in, and that she will not go without this being recognised and disrupted,” Eaman Ali, an activist who took part in the initial disruption, told MEE.

Hakim said it came as no surprise that the vice-president had leaned on the bogey of a second Trump term to deter them from protesting for a change of US policy against the war on Gaza.

"That’s all they said. “Trump is like this. Trump is like that; that’s their whole platform. I wasn’t surprised at all when her only answer [to us] was: “Oh, you want Trump to win”,” Hakim said, ridiculing the notion that any of them wanted Trump to become president.

"If they’re constantly putting forth this rhetoric that, “We are not Trump”, then they need to understand that we don’t expect them to be Trump. “You cannot just say you are not Trump. You have to actually be better, and you have to actually address the issue that we are putting forward. And it’s especially crucial if they’re doing that in Michigan.”

“Until a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel are achieved, it is a moral obligation for all people of conscience to disrupt the war machine that is fuelling this genocide,” Munir said.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    No they’re disrupting the one campaign that is even remotely sympathetic to their cause which is likely to lead to the election of the man that has said that Israel should not be allowing video out of Gaza because it makes them look bad

    “I think Israel made a very big mistake,” he said. “I wanted to call [Israel] and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, ‘Oh, that’s a terrible portrait.’”

    “It’s a very bad picture for the world,” he continued. “The world is seeing this … every night, I would watch buildings pour down on people. It would say it was given by the Defense Ministry, and said whoever’s providing that, that’s a bad image.”

    …and that Israel should hurry up and hurry up and get it over with.

    “You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You’ve got to get it done,” he said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. “We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.”

    If these people want to help Palestine, they really should try and find a way that at least has a chance at a positive result.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      They’re disrupting her campaign event because:

      1. She’s the only one that can be pushed on this issue. Disrupting Trump’s events doesn’t hurt him at all and isn’t going to force him to change his position on Palestine, he’ll just use it as a chance to score points with his own base. I’m really confused about what you think the purpose of protest is?

      2. She is going to lose if she doesn’t commit to ending the genocide. A lot of Democrats are willing to vote for the lesser-of-two-genocides, but Palestinian-Americans aren’t going to vote for her if she’s just going to continue Biden’s policies. They’ve told us this. Instead of talking down to them, try to listen to what they’re saying.

      3. She is the Vice President! She is part of the administration that is carrying out genocide! She’s not just a candidate like Trump is.

      It’s like it’s not enough for you if they vote for Harris. They have to like it!

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Yes, they likely can change her mind, but not now. If she commits to a weapons embargo or anything else that they are demanding before she’s elected then AIPAC will drop hundreds of millions of dollars fighting her and helping Trump. They’ve already spent committed $100 million to fight the squad. If Kamala takes an anti-Israel position she could well lose and Trump will make sure Israel has everything they need to wipe every Palestinian off the face of the planet.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          “Israel is so powerful that they can do genocide with impunity and no one on Earth can stop them; if the US ever went soft on support for Israel it could install whoever they want as the president, ushering in an age of fascism in the US.”

          🙄

          The presidency isn’t a primary for a House seat! AIPAC isn’t an all powerful cabal that controls everything behind the scenes.

          This is kinda antisemitic tbh