ARAB AND WORLD

Fri 23 Aug 2024 2:51 pm - Jerusalem Time

In her nomination speech, Harris stresses that it is time to stop the fire in Gaza and end the suffering

The US Vice President, and the Democratic candidate in the November 5 elections against the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, said that regarding the war on Gaza, “President Joe Biden and I are working around the clock because the time has come to conclude the hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza,” indicating in her speech in which she accepted her party’s nomination for president on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.


Harris pledged to ensure that Israel always has the ability to defend itself if she is elected in November.


“I will always defend Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said, stressing that “the people of Israel must never again face the horrors unleashed by a terrorist organization called Hamas on November 7, which included unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.”


"At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives, starving people fleeing to safety time and time again. The scale of the suffering is heartbreaking," she stressed in the speech's clip.


“President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is safe, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,” Harris added, in words that drew the loudest applause in the foreign policy section of her speech.


It also pledged to "defend our forces and interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists."


It is noteworthy that less than five weeks ago, she was the vice president, and the second candidate on the Democratic presidential nomination ticket.


But on Thursday night, Vice President Kamala Harris took center stage at the Democratic National Convention to formally accept the party's nomination for president.


It is noteworthy that during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, pro-Palestinian advocates tried to hold out hope that the week's actions were important steps in the party's historic shift toward recognizing their cause.


But the Democratic National Convention’s refusal to grant speaking time to a Palestinian-American — despite weeks of negotiations along with public and private lobbying efforts — is a stark reality check for many about the Democratic Party’s prioritization of their votes.


Seven pro-Palestinian delegates from the "non-conformist" national movement staged a sit-in outside the United Center after the Democratic National Convention denied their request for speaking time for a Palestinian-American.


“Vice President Harris, unfortunately, has made a decision that the child inside me, the American child inside me, who was sure my government was going to kill me, will not be heard at this conference,” said Abbas Alawiya, a founder of the non-committal National Movement, vowing to stay until a Palestinian is given time to speak.


The organization’s leaders — Alawiya, John Rose, and Sabrina Odeh — and the unpledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention issued a statement saying, “We are awaiting a phone call from Vice President Harris and the Democratic National Convention to allow one Palestinian American speaker to speak from the convention stage. Our party platform states that every life matters: whether American, Palestinian, or Israeli.


“We will do the moral thing by sitting in the convention to push our party to better align our actions, rather than just our words, with the idea that every life counts once a Palestinian American is allowed to speak from the podium.”


Harris began her speech by touting her foreign policy resume as vice president to contrast with what a second Donald Trump presidency might bring — and she got some of the loudest applause on that point.


“We must also be steadfast in advancing our security and values abroad,” Harris said. “As vice president, I confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and engaged with our brave troops abroad.


Vice President Harris laid out her plans for the presidency on Thursday by accepting the Democratic nomination.


Harris drew on her own backstory as a multiracial child of immigrant parents in California. She will focus on Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s agenda, which has become a key target for Democrats heading into the November elections.


Vice President Kamala Harris used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to present herself as a pragmatic leader who can unite all Americans behind a “new way forward,” and she called her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, a dangerous and “unserious” man whose election would change the foundation of American democracy.


In a nearly 40-minute speech before tens of thousands of supporters at the United Center in Chicago, she said her nomination was not what her party had expected just weeks ago. But she told the crowd she was “no stranger to unexpected journeys,” describing herself as the daughter of an Indian scholar whose dreams of a new life in the United States became the catalyst for Ms. Harris’s legal and political careers.

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In her nomination speech, Harris stresses that it is time to stop the fire in Gaza and end the suffering