(Photo provided to Drop Site News)
Esam Boraey, a delegate from Connecticut, had his first run-in with Democratic National Convention security on Sunday, when his bag was searched at the DNC reception. A security guard found a Palestinian flag, he said, and forced him to leave the floor with it. “Immediately supervisors were called on me, and then the supervisor called four DNC members who rushed in and cornered me,” he told Drop Site on Monday. “They held my bag all the time and refused to give my bag back until I left the floor.” He described it as a “small example” of the barriers Muslim delegates face in trying to get their message across.
But on Monday night, a few minutes after President Joe Biden took the podium in Chicago’s United Center, several DNC members, Boraey among them, unfurled a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” in the colors of the Palestinian flag. Their aim, they said, was to disrupt and confront the party with what it was trying to ignore: the ongoing genocide in Israel, funded and armed by the U.S.
I was a few feet away when the banner went up and witnessed a surreal scene, as delegates around them tried to block it with “We <3 Joe” and “USA” signs. Some delegates tried to rip the banner away from the protesting DNC members, but they held on tight as others intervened, urging the crowd to raise their signs as high as possible but not cause a violent scene. Several of them began using signs to block my camera and that of a Democracy Now reporter, who was on the scene with — of course! — Amy Goodman, who couldn’t be kept away from a protest like that.
One delegate followed me through the crowd relentlessly — with frankly impressive determination — putting his “USA” sign in front of my phone as I worked to avoid him. The protest starts nearly eight minutes into the video we’re posting below, but the early part is interesting, too, to get a sense of the intense energy in the arena.
Read/watch Ryan's full report here
