Democratic National Convention officials rejected a request to allow Palestinian Americans to speak from the conference’s main stage. In protest of that decision, a group of “Uncommitted” delegates critical of the party’s stance on the war, staged a sit-in in front of the United Center Wednesday evening as party leaders continued speaking inside.

At an impromptu press conference announcing the protest, Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan and a leader with the Uncommitted movement, phoned the Kamala Harris campaign. “Tell the Vice President that I’m sitting outside, I’m not going anywhere, I hope she changes her mind – the Palestinian children need to be heard,” Alawieh said before hanging up and taking a seat on the pavement.

As the convention’s programming ended late Wednesday evening, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who blasted President Joe Biden’s administration earlier in the day for “refusing to recognize the genocidal war in Gaza,” joined in the sit-in.

DNC organizers did not comment on the record on their decision to exclude Palestinian American speakers from the main stage at the four-day convention.

Delegates with the Uncommitted movement and political leaders, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, had urged DNC officials throughout the convention to include two Palestinian American speakers on the convention’s main stage to address the ongoing war on Gaza.

Earlier this month, they had suggested as a speaker Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who most recently treated patients in Gaza with the nonprofit Medical Aid for........

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