Pro-Palestinian activists who refused to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November because of the policies of President Joe Biden's administration are going into 2025 facing the prospect things will likely take a turn for the worse for their cause with Donald Trump in power.
According to a report from Politico's Irie Senter, the political director for Jewish Voice for Peace Action, Beth Miller, admitted, "“The Palestinian rights movement is very clear-eyed in understanding that it is very likely that this Trump administration will mean that things get much worse for Palestinians,” and then added, "This administration will likely be coming very quickly to try to take down the Palestinian rights movement."
As Senter explained, "The movement has tended to focus its efforts on who controls the White House and Democrats, whom its leaders view as more persuadable to soften support for Israel. But 15 months into the war in the Middle East, as the GOP trifecta prepares to control the White House and Congress, leaders in the movement find themselves with far less leverage — and much more to lose."
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Noting that the president-elect is a staunch defender of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one of his key donors is Israeli billionaire Miriam Adelson, the report adds he likely will side with Israel in every dispute.
According to Arab American Institute and DNC veteran James Zogby, the leadership of the "Uncommitted" movement that refused to endorse Harris put themselves in the place they find themselves now.
“Some self-criticism is due in the pro-Palestinian movement because they boxed themselves into a corner following the convention by not enabling themselves to support Harris,” Zogby explained.
According to Uncommitted National Movement co-founder Layla Elabed, sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), "Harris didn’t lose just because of Uncommitted or because she was unwilling to shift on Biden’s Gaza policy. But she could have really possibly won if she had turned the page away from Biden’s policy and brought in those voters, especially young voters, who were withholding their vote, or decided to do a protest vote in the general election because of that policy.”
The report adds the pro-Palestinian movement will now move on to "more local political tactics, including economic pressure campaigns like boycotts, supporting protests and community organizing."
You can read the Politico report here.
