Day 313: Protesting genocide at the DNC

City officials have imposed severe restrictions on planned marches to protest the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris is due to be formally anointed as the party’s presidential candidate next week.

The protests – and government efforts to impede them – were the headline topic on another packed Electronic Intifada livestream this week, on day 313 of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

We also covered Harris’ support for Israel and her attacks on anti-genocide protesters, as well as new revelations about how the American-backed Israeli military is systematically forcing Palestinian civilians, including children and elders, to act as human shields.

Soldiers send the captive civilians into tunnels and buildings which they suspect could be boobytrapped, a horrendous war crime in which the lives of civilians are deliberately endangered or sacrificed to protect occupation forces perpetrating genocide.

We also discussed Israel’s ongoing internal unraveling, and how Iran is leveraging its vow to retaliate against Israel for the murder of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, to pressure the United States to finally force its Israeli proxy to accept a ceasefire.

And contributing editor Jon Elmer analyzed videos documenting the latest resistance operations against Israeli forces in Gaza with a focus on Khan Younis and the ongoing defense of Rafah in southern Gaza, as well as a complex ambush in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in the north that Palestinian fighters had been planning for eight months.

You can watch a recording of the whole program, which began with a news brief from associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman, in the YouTube video above, or listen to the audio at the end of this article.

“Unvarnished attempt” at censorship

On Wednesday evening, Chicago authorities notified protest organizers that they will be permitted to march with the tens of thousands preparing to join next week’s protests outside the DNC. But they have “attached outrageous conditions that make it impossible for their messages about ending US aid for Israel and stopping the Biden, Harris and Democratic Party-supported Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza to be heard,” the March on the DNC Coalition said in a press release.

A letter from the Chicago government told organizers that they will be allowed to use a park in the vicinity of the convention venue for mass marches on 19 and 22 August, but that “no stages or platforms, portable restrooms or toilets, tents or canopies, or sound equipment may be installed by your organization.”

The coalition called the extraordinary restrictions, especially the ban on audio equipment, “an unvarnished attempt to silence dissenting voices, in violation of the right to free speech.”

On Monday, a federal judge sided with the city, rejecting organizers’ challenge to a march route imposed by authorities that organizers say is too short to accommodate the huge numbers of people expected and which does not bring the protests close enough to the DNC.

Organizers are now planning to file for an emergency injunction to lift the latest restrictions.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the March on the DNC Coalition, spoke to The Electronic Intifada livestream about these government efforts to limit the protests.

The mass marches are being held under the banner, “Stand with Palestine! End US Aid to Israel!” but the coalition’s platform includes a broad range of anti-war, racial justice and socioeconomic demands, reflecting the many communities supporting it.

“The Democratic Party has taken for granted all of our communities for a long, long time, and especially the Black community, Mexican community, other immigrant communities and the Arab and Palestinians as well,” Abudayyeh told the livestream.

“So it is going to be a really beautiful, rich, broad coalition” with people participating “from all different physical abilities, all different immigration statuses, children and seniors.”

Abudayyeh, who is also national chair of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), spoke about the smears and incitement by the Israel lobby against groups and individuals organizing the DNC protests.

Abudayyeh recently received a threatening note in the foyer of his apartment building, which he said was the result of the fear mongering by such lobby groups as the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish United Fund of Chicago.

“We’re holding the ADL and JUF responsible if anything happens to anybody in our community,” Abudayyeh said.

Message from Gaza: Don’t stop protesting

The importance of the marches and other solidarity actions was underscored by Abubaker Abed, a regular contributor to The Electronic Intifada, who joined the program live from Gaza.

“What really makes us the most hopeful, what really lifts our spirits is your support,” Abed said.

“As long as we don’t feel we are alone, then we still have hope,” he added, urging people around the world not to give up their protests and pressure to end the genocide.

Abed spoke of the struggle to survive and the psychological terror that he, his family and everyone else in Gaza are facing amid hunger, lack of water and relentless Israeli bombardment by land, sea and air.

“It’s beyond what a human being can imagine,” Abed said.

“At the end of the day, we just say that we’re lucky if we really wake up the next day.”

Can Iran force a ceasefire?

Senior Iranian officials told Reuters on Tuesday that Tehran would hold back from its planned retaliation for Israel’s murder of Haniyeh if there was a quick end to Israel’s genocidal American-backed war.

“One of the sources, a senior Iranian security official, said Iran, along with allies such as Hizballah, would launch a direct attack if the Gaza talks fail or it perceives Israel is dragging out negotiations,” the news agency reported, adding that the official “did not say how long Iran would allow for talks to progress before responding.”

But the report held particular significance as Israel is sending a senior negotiating team to Doha for another planned round of indirect negotiations slated to begin Thursday, shepherded by Qatar, Egypt and Washington.

Hours after the Reuters report, President Joe Biden was asked if he thought a ceasefire deal would convince Iran to forgo its military response. “That’s my expectation,” the president said.

Although Hamas has said it won’t attend the Doha talks – instead demanding that previous agreements be implemented – there are hopes that the pressure from Iran could help clinch a deal.

Failure to achieve a ceasefire could mean a major escalation and regional war.

As Israel braces for the Iranian counterattack, Western leaders have stepped up their appeals on Tehran to show “restraint” – a demand they fail to make of Israel which is constantly provoking escalation towards a major regional war.

In recent days, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant admitted that “absolute victory” against Hamas was unachievable, and that Israel was incapable of launching a war against Hizballah in Lebanon.

Gallant’s assessments opened up another major public clash with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seen in Israel as the main obstacle to a ceasefire deal that would also return Israelis detained in Gaza as part of a prisoner exchange.

In the livestream discussion, this writer argued that what these leaders really care about is preventing the Iranian retaliation because “there is real fear that that the retaliation could really expose the extent of Israel’s vulnerability and weakness, and that would be a strategic catastrophe for Israel.”

The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance.

The Electronic Intifada livestream cohost Asa Winstanley was off this week and will return next Wednesday.