CHICAGO – Among thousands of protesters at the March on the Democratic National Convention Monday was 23-year-old Ahlam Dahood of Frederick, Maryland, who traveled solo to call for Vice President Kamala Harris to end the U.S. supply of weapons to Israel.
Dahood, a Palestinian American, is a founding organizer of MD2Palestine, an advocacy group that raises awareness and funds for Palestinian causes and endorsed the March on the DNC alongside more than 220 groups from across the country.
“Harris is second in command in the Biden administration, and people seem to be forgetting that very conveniently,” Dahood told Capital News Service.
While Harris renewed her call for a ceasefire in Gaza at an Aug. 9 campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, Dahood isn’t satisfied with the current administration or the Democrats’ presidential hopeful. Dahood told CNS that voting for President Joe Biden in 2020 was “the worst mistake of my life” and plans to vote for third-party candidate Jill Stein.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel had agreed to the details in a new ceasefire proposal. Hamas has not yet responded to the proposal, the product of intense negotiations in recent days.
Dahood said Biden and Harris are “refusing to go to the next step, which is an arms embargo and ending military aid and weapons to Israel. The ceasefire demands from them are empty words, because you have the power to implement the ceasefire by not sending the weapons that are being fired on the Palestinians.”
Speakers and signage at the March on the DNC Monday reflected the shift from protesters calling for a ceasefire to now demanding an outright ban on weapon sales to Israel.
Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, tweeted Aug. 8 that Harris “does not support an arms embargo on Israel.”
The State Department announced Aug. 9 that it would release $3.5B as part of an aid package passed in April to supply Israel with U.S.-made weapons and military equipment for its offensive in Gaza.
Dahood was born and raised in Frederick by a Palestinian father and an American mother.
“Growing up there, there were not a lot of Palestinians. I wasn’t very much in touch with that identity, despite having traveled to Palestine,” she told CNS.
As a student at the University of Maryland, Dahood participated in Students for Justice in Palestine for five years, including three years in leadership. The group, which Dahood says became her “political home,” organizes educational and cultural events on campus.
She visited her family abroad last during the summer of 2022, taking trips to the beach and spending quality time with extended family and friends. Now she says she worries for their safety.
Following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, leaders from Biden to UMD President Darryll Pines expressed support and condolences for Israel.
But as the Palestinian death toll has mounted to at least 40,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, Dahood said those same American officials have been less vocal about the grief of Palestinians in recent months.
“It just makes you feel like your community, your people, your family, your loved ones don’t matter as much,” she said.
Dahood, who has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in public health from the University of Maryland, said she feels angry when the U.S. government allocates billions of dollars in military aid to Israel instead of investing in American communities.
“It’s just such a slap in the face every single time,” Dahood said, “when you know what that money could mean for our communities that are struggling, and for our communities that don’t have health care, and for people who can’t put food on the table.”
Ahead of the March on the DNC, Dahood told CNS: “A lot of people are very angry at the Democratic Party, rightfully so, and people will definitely make sure that the Democratic Party hears their frustrations.”
At the rally Monday, Dahood wore a brown keffiyeh scarf that a friend brought her from the West Bank, along with a baseball cap with “Palestine” stitched in Arabic letters and two pendants dangling from her neck in the shape of her father’s home country.
When asked if she had a message for Maryland delegates to the DNC, Dahood said, “I would say, take a long, hard look at what’s happening in Gaza and think about if you want to have that on your conscience that you supported that.”
State Del. Adrian Boafo, from Bowie, Maryland, and a convention delegate representing the 5th congressional district, told CNS ahead of the convention: “I assume there’ll be a lot of protests on a ton of different issues. And look, that’s how democracies work. People agree and disagree, and everyone has the right to have their voice heard.”
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