Changes are called for in Gaza –

CHICAGO (EFE/AP).— As Democratic Party leaders in the United States prepared to cement the election of Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate in Chicago, thousands of people took to the streets of the city yesterday to ask the vice president for a change in the country’s policy towards the conflict in Gaza.

The protest, called by a coalition of more than 200 organizations from across the United States, was attended by activists and voters alike who expressed disillusionment with the Biden administration’s handling of the Middle East conflict and hope to generate enough pressure to force Kamala to limit or withdraw her support for Israel.

For some, this issue is so important that it will define their vote on November 5 in a tight election where Kamala leads former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump (2017-2021) by just three percentage points nationally, according to a survey published the day before yesterday by CBS News.

At one point, protesters broke through a security fence set up by police near the Democratic National Convention site. As the larger group marched, a few dozen people broke off and tore down the security fence.

Some protesters, dressed in black and with their faces covered, dragged pieces of the fence to a park near the United Center, where the event was taking place.

Police arrested and handcuffed several of the protesters who had managed to get over the fence.

Authorities said the internal security perimeter surrounding the convention was not breached and there was no threat to attendees.

They ask for a change

“Now that Biden is out, I hope Harris can change her mind and propose something better than genocide,” Issa, a Palestinian born in Ramallah and a US citizen who has lived in Chicago for more than 40 years, told EFE.

Wearing a kufiya around his neck, the 74-year-old man said he decided to join the protest because he believes it is important to “continue to put pressure” on his country’s political leaders to listen to the voices of voters, and especially those of Palestinians.

“I feel like the whole world is against us. It hurts to see what they are doing in my country, with my taxes. They treat us like we are animals,” she insisted.

The Democrats presented their electoral programme for the next four years yesterday, which reiterates the party’s traditional position of supporting Israel, while backing “an immediate and lasting ceasefire agreement” for the Gaza Strip that would allow the release of Israeli hostages and address the “displacement and death of so many innocent people” in the Palestinian enclave.

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