Many Seattleites have had enough. Every day, they see new dreadful stories, statistics and images of the more than 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military. The war, which now enters its sixth month, has spawned the city’s largest protest movement since the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising.
In response to the U.S.’s full-throated backing of Israel, community members are finding creative ways to express their dissent, both at the ballot box and in the workplace. They hope to prove that collective power can be found not just in streets but in all aspects of public life.
Making an unopposed primary competitive
With the U.S. presidential election fast approaching, both major parties have begun their arcane, multistate primary processes. Ordinarily, this would be a high stakes affair, with incredibly competitive contests in at least one of the two major parties. However, for the first time in a generation, the final nominees have seemed all but guaranteed: incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democrats and, across the aisle, former president Donald Trump — an exact rerun of the 2020 presidential election.
For many in the Republican Party, Trump is the heir apparent who was robbed of his crown in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic and unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud. He easily fended off the token resistance from his challengers, including former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump refused to debate his opponents and won the overwhelming majority of primary contests. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party canceled the debates altogether and closed ranks around its incumbent. Biden faced long-shot challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips and influencer Marianne Williamson, who have failed to earn any delegates so far.
However, there is one nascent campaign that poses a significant threat to Biden’s reelection chances: the Uncommitted campaign.
In many states, including Washington, the presidential primary ballot allows voters to select an option for “uncommitted delegates” or “no preference.” This presented the perfect opportunity for frustrated constituents to protest Biden’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza. At the start of February, members of Michigan’s large Arab and Muslim community launched the effort, winning more than 100,000 uncommitted votes, comprising 13% of the vote and securing two delegates. In 2016, Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes, while in 2020 Biden won it by about 150,000.
Since then, similar efforts in Minnesota and Hawaii have respectively netted 19% and 29% of the vote and added 18 more uncommitted delegates. Those delegates will show up to the Chicago Democratic National Convention and could use their platform to show solidarity with Palestine. Biden is at no risk of losing the nomination, as he’s earned 1,611 delegates. The real threat is that if enough uncommitted voters fail to show up and support Biden in the general election, a few key swing states could tip to Trump.
On March 4, a handful of local community leaders and progressive politicians gathered outside the Seattle federal building to launch the Uncommitted Washington campaign ahead of the March 12 primary. Organizers said that Biden must change course or else risk alienating members of his own base, including Arabs, Muslims, young people, progressives and other people of color.
Bothell City Councilmember and Deputy Mayor Rami Al-Kabra, who is currently the only Palestinian American elected official serving in the Pacific Northwest, said that voting uncommitted could help put pressure on Biden to call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
“We have made endless phone calls,” Al-Kabra said. “Many of us have even spoken to our representatives in person. Yet still they are not listening to us. Today, we say enough is enough.”
Uncommitted Washington has also been endorsed by Tacoma City Councilmember Olgy Diaz, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda and state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma). A number of progressive advocacy groups have also joined the effort, organizing last-minute phone banking and canvassing sessions.
Serene Salam, a Palestinian American college student from Bellingham, said she refused to stand idly by as the war on Gaza rages.
“I am voting uncommitted as I refuse to be committed to a president or government that is complicit in the genocide of my people,” Salam said. “In school, we are taught to learn history so it does not repeat itself. But 75 years later, it seems the U.S. government has not learned.”
Notably, the campaign is also endorsed by the 53,000-member-strong United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000. Its secretary-treasurer Joe Mizrahi said the labor movement must align itself with Palestinians and anyone who is oppressed.
“Anywhere there are workers or people who are in trauma, who are being murdered and being denied humanitarian aid, food and shelter, the labor movement absolutely has a responsibility to be standing with those people,” Mizrahi said.
Artists endorse boycott
Aside from the organized labor movement, independent workers are also taking steps to show material support for Palestinians. On Feb. 27, a group of Seattle-based theater workers launched an open letter endorsing the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). It has since gotten more than 282 signatures from artists and cultural workers throughout Washington and across mediums. The letter is modeled after a similar document circulated in the Bay Area late last year.
Started in 2004, PACBI calls on artists and academics to sever ties with Israeli institutions and refuse performances at Israeli venues in order to put pressure on the country to end its occupation of Palestine.
Signatories of the artists’ open letter pledged to refuse cooperation with Israeli state-aligned organizations as well as with Amazon and Boeing, two companies who have been accused of complicity with the Israeli military.
Antonieta Carpio, one of the letter writers and a theater industry freelancer, said Boeing-made bombs have been used in Israel’s assault on Gaza, while Amazon is fulfilling a contract to upgrade Israeli cyber agencies’ cloud computing capabilities.
“Amazon and Boeing are in our backyard,” Carpio said. “So we really felt like it was very important to include the divestment principles with those specific organizations.”
Emily Stone, a drama instructor and actor who also helped write the letter, said it was important for her to advocate for Palestine as a worker. She said that, as cultural workers, artists can help transform public opinion about the war.
“I hope that this is another very important kind of activism that I see as getting a lot more specific and personal,” Stone said. “So where we work, where we put our energy, who we spend most of our time with.”
Professors petition Congress
On March 1, about a dozen professors from the University of Washington (UW) delivered an open letter to staff of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
Amy Hagopian, a professor emeritus of public health at UW who helped organize the letter campaign, said it was important for professors to speak out about the injustices Palestinians face.
The letter, which borrows language from a similar New England faculty petition, has now garnered more than 400 faculty signatures from academics across the state. Hagopian said elected officials should listen to the expertise of scholars and researchers.
“We’re voices of people who have studied some of these issues and bring some expertise to the conversation,” Hagopian said. “So when we put on webinars, we actually have experience in the region — people who have experience in bringing humanitarian aid to [conflict] situations who have done research and scholarship in my area. We think that lends some gravitas.”
The group hopes to leverage university professors’ cultural capital to increase pressure on Congress and the Biden administration to bring an end to the violence.
Hagopian said she has seen public opinion shift to become more sympathetic toward Palestinians since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I’ve been doing this work on Palestine for many, many years,” Hagopian said. “And in previous years, I’ve had a lot of backlash, lots of hostility. And I actually find the backlash is less now than I am used to.” n
Guy Oron is the staff reporter for Real Change. He handles coverage of our weekly news stories. Find them on Twitter, @GuyOron.
Read more of the March 13–19, 2024 issue.