Rep. Ro Khanna criticizes DNC for not inviting Palestinian speaker

CHICAGO − Congressman Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a rising progressive star and an adviser to Kamala Harris, said the Democratic National Convention made a mistake by not allowing a Palestinian American to deliver a speech this week.

“I think it would have been a small but meaningful gesture,” he said in an interview with USA TODAY.

A controversy over the lack of a Palestinian voice on the convention stage was a rare source of strife in a convention week that was big on joy and unity themes. After the family of an Israeli hostage delivered a convention speech, people pushing to end the war in Gaza complained that their perspective, from a Palestinian, was not represented.

Democrats denied speaker requests from the uncommitted movement this week, spurring a sit-in demonstration Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to pressure party officials to allow a representative of the movement to speak.

Khanna referred to a published speech of one of these suggested speakers, Palestinian American Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Georgia, hoped to deliver, published Thursday by Mother Jones. He called the speech “innocuous,” containing “nothing controversial.”

“It would have shown that the Palestinian American community, the Muslim American community, the Arab American community, was heard,” he said to USA TODAY. “So it was a missed opportunity.”

Khanna said the campaign will “have other opportunities” to make sure those communities feel heard, and expects Harris to lay out her policies on the Israel-Hamas war and a cease-fire deal in the coming weeks.

“I would like to hear a new start and a new direction,” Khanna said when asked what he would like to hear from Harris. “Something about at least enforcing our international laws” so that aid isn’t “being used in a violation of human rights. And, our plans on how she’s going to get the cease-fire that she’s advocated for in a release of those hostages.”

Yet the criticism comes at a particularly tense time for the Harris-Walz campaign in its relationship with Muslim Americans and pro-Palestinian groups.

The group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz announced it is disbanding after the campaign refused a request from the uncommitted movement to give a Palestinian American a speaking slot at the convention.

“We cannot in good conscience continue Muslim Women for Harris-Walz, in light of this new information from the uncommitted movement, that VP Harris’ team declined their request to have a Palestinian American speaker take the stage at the DNC,” the group said in a statement following Wednesday night’s convention program.  

The uncommitted movement has for months pushed Democratic leaders to implement an arms embargo on Israel and work toward a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. The group formed during the Democratic primaries earlier this year, urging progressives to vote “uncommitted” to deny then-Democratic candidate President Joe Biden their support. 

U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, who have long supported the uncommitted movement, also pushed back against the Harris’ campaign’s decision.

USA TODAY’s Karissa Waddick and Todd Spangler contributed to this report.