Above photo: Kamala Harris speaking at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona on August 9, 2024. Gage Skidmore/Flickr.
The Uncommitted Movement voluntarily gave up its leverage.
But it is not too late to hold Kamala Harris accountable for supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The activists had them right where they wanted them. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had done everything they could think of to suppress the growing public outrage over their administration’s complicity in the genocide in Palestine, but hundreds of thousands of potential Democratic voters weren’t giving in. Led by the Uncommitted National Movement, they’d refused to pull the lever for Biden in the primaries, and were now threatening to withhold their support for Harris in November unless she and her current boss placed an embargo on America’s weapons shipments to Israel before the 2024 US presidential election. Then, with the race likely headed for a photo finish, the protesters – well-meaning as they undoubtably are – pulled the rug out from under themselves.
Though Harris has consistently mirrored Biden’s unwavering support of Israel’s genocidal regime, Uncommitted released a statement on September 19 that could only be interpreted as a thinly-veiled endorsement of the Democratic nominee – urging their members to vote against her opponent, Donald Trump, but not for a 3rd party. On October 8 they doubled down on their ill-fated decision, all but guaranteeing that the genocide will continue unabated, since there is no reason to believe that Harris will suddenly do an about face and implement a weapons embargo after the election.
Until they gave away their leverage, odds were that Harris would have become increasingly concerned about heading into the final days of her campaign with upwards of a million Americans, many in key swing states, planning to write her off if she didn’t meet their demand. She then would’ve faced a choice: try to capture the election without their support or improve her chances of winning by ending the flow of weapons to Israel before November 5.
Yet, instead of forcing Harris to confront her moment of truth, Uncommitted succumbed to the drumbeat of fear surrounding the potential return of the Republican nominee to the Oval Office and decided to prioritize defeating him in lieu of going all-in to try to prevent an untold number of casualties in Palestine. Lost in the equation was the fact that they didn’t have to choose between the two. Staying true to their original mission – leverage in hand – would have given them their best chance to both end the genocide and foil Trump.
Experts at the United Nations, the University of Edinburgh, and The Lancet medical journal estimate that nearly 200,000 Palestinians have already been killed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces since last fall – five times the lowball figure commonly quoted by the mainstream media. At the current rate of approximately 20,000 fatalities per month, the death toll is projected to rise to more than 300,000 by the close of the year, with no end in sight.
With less than three weeks remaining before the general election, the Uncommitted movement still has a sliver of time to right the ship. A press release declaring their intention to align with activists who’ve unequivocally embraced a “No Embargo, No Vote” stance would garner at least as much media coverage as their surrender announcement did a few weeks ago and would shift the pressure back onto Harris. However, there is no sign organizers are headed in that direction.
By withdrawing their demand for an embargo on US weapons deliveries to Israel before the election, Uncommitted may well help propel Harris – who is, by any measure, complicit in a crime so heinous that a word had to be invented to describe it – into the winner’s circle. But it will come at the expense of the Palestinian people. Were that to happen, it would be an outcome the movement’s leaders will live to regret.
The Uncommitted National Movement has one last chance to course-correct.
They desperately need to take it.