As a Palestinian American, I've watched with growing apprehension the recent rebranding and memeification of Kamala Harris... For me to lean into the powerful marketing of the current vice president as a bastion of hope requires enormous amnesia not only of this administration's complicit funding of Palestinian slaughter but also of Ms. Harris's track record on criminal reform, immigration and law enforcement.
Palestinian Americans and their allies are bringing a context to this election. They carry a hope for ending Palestinian oppression that feels almost futile, but irresponsible to abandon, and a memory that extends past a few glitzy weeks.
The Democratic National Convention was a visually and sonically arresting display, full of bright-eyed, stirring speeches on race, identity, democracy including a moving speech by the parents of an Israeli hostage... yet the word Palestine was only held, briefly, in the mouths of non-Palestinians.
Mentions of a cease-fire in Gaza were urgent but vague, as though one would be midwifed via fervent prayer rather than the sober reconsideration of our nation's active participation and funding of the current onslaught.
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