Leaders of the movement that protested Biden on Israel express some hope on Harris

Hundreds of thousands of voters cast ballots marked “uncommitted” in Democratic presidential primaries this year in opposition to President Biden’s policy toward Israel’s war in Gaza.

Now that Vice President Harris has replaced Biden at the top of the ticket, organizers behind the movement are expressing cautious optimism about their ability to engage with Harris.

Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the uncommitted movement, said at a news conference in recent days, “There are early indications that there is an openness to engaging with our movement that feels like a shift from how our requests were being treated previously.

“And so I'm choosing to remain hopeful that the vice president won't miss the opportunity to unite our party."

Layla Elabed is another co-founder of the uncommitted movement, and said Harris’ candidacy provides a window of opportunity.

“VP Harris has shown that she is a little more empathetic to our movement. She spoke of Palestinian right to self-determination. She spoke about the suffering that Palestinians are experiencing right now,” Elabed said in an interview. “And so it's a slightly different shift in language than what we've seen from President Biden and his administration.”

Elabed and other leaders cited the vice president’s comments after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his trip to Washington in late July, just days after Biden ended his candidacy.

Harris asserted Israel’s right to defend itself, but added, “how it does so matters.”

“The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to