‘Stop US Funding Genocide’ – Protests as Biden Delivers Farewell Speech at DNC

August 20, 2024

A 'Stop arming Israel' banner at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. (Photo: video grab)

By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle  

“Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are Responsible for the Israeli Genocide Against Gaza,” protesters said.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Chicago, ahead of US President Joe Biden’s farewell speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night wherein he vowed to keep “working around the clock” to end the war in Gaza.

“We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State and I, to prevent a wider war, reunite hostages with their families, and surge humanitarian aid, health services, and food assistance into Gaza now,” Biden said, adding that “to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people, and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire in this war.”

“A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to that goal than we’ve been since October 7th,” he added.

He also said, “We’ll keep working to bring hostages home, end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East. ”

Acknowledging the demonstrators, he stated, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”

Inside the arena, some attendees protested with a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel,” but other attendees blocked the banner with the vertical “WE ❤️ JOE” signs, CNN reported. The lights were then dimmed in that section of the venue, as the protesters were reportedly escorted out.

Tax Dollars for Genocide

The protest organizers, under the banner “March on the DNC 2024” said in a statement on its website that “The Coalition to March on the DNC stands in unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, and we demand an end to the use of US tax dollars to fund Apartheid Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine.”

“Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are Responsible for the Israeli Genocide Against Gaza,” the statement added.

In addition to financial support, the statement said, Biden and the US government “have given their unconditional political support to Apartheid Israel’s genocide.”

“This includes vetoing UN resolutions to stop the aggression against Gaza, passing resolutions conflating anti-zionism with antisemitism, and Biden casting doubt on the number of people murdered by the IOF.”

The Democratic and Republican party leaders “are in lockstep when it comes to support for the apartheid entity and repression of pro-Palestinian protests in the US,” it said.

Protesters, including families with babies in prams, waved the Palestinian flag and banners, with one reading ‘Stop U.S. Funding Genocide, Victory to Palestine’ and another reading: “End US Aid to Israel”.

Presidential candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party, who was amongst the protesters told Al Jazeera that the demonstration was “a gathering of working people, homeless people, the poor people’s army … to bring the real issues of poverty and homelessness and lack of health care, and student debt and medical debt that we don’t hear a word about actually from the Harris Trump campaigns.”

Ceasefire Talks

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the ongoing ceasefire talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas might be the final opportunity to end the war.

This is “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken said, calling this a “decisive moment”.

Hamas said last week it would not participate in the talks in Doha.

In a statement on Sunday, the movement “expressed its approval of the mediators’ proposal on 6-5-2024, welcomed President Biden’s announcement, and the contents of the UN Security Council resolution, and responded positively to the proposal presented by the mediators, which it approved on 2-7-2024.”

It said the “new proposal accommodates (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s conditions and aligns with them, particularly his refusal of a permanent ceasefire, the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, his insistence on continuing to occupy the Netzarim junction, the Rafah crossing, and the Philadelphia corridor.”

Staggering Death Toll

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,173 Palestinians have been killed, and 92,857 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.