Uncommitted voters who protested Biden over Gaza ‘need to see action’ from Harris

The protest movement that sought to use the Democratic primaries to pressure Joe Biden to shift his policy on Israel and Gaza breathed a sigh of relief when he ended his bid for re-election. But they’re not ready to promise they’ll support Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

More than 700,000 Americans voted “uncommitted”, or its equivalent, in state primaries as a message to Biden that he risked losing significant support in November if he did not shift away from his support for Israel. As next month’s Democratic national convention inches closer, the movement has turned its sights to pressuring Harris to shape a new course on Gaza policy. Its demands of Harris include an arms embargo on Israel and support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, according to health officials.

Related: Kamala Harris says ‘I will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza after Netanyahu talks

Uncommitted voters say that their message to the White House is clear: stop funding Israel’s war, or lose our votes.

“[Harris] could get my vote, but it’s going to be a difficult journey. We actually need to see action,” said Fadel Nabilsi, a Palestinian American attorney who voted uncommitted in Michigan’s Democratic primary. Biden won the swing state, where 278,000 Arab Americans live, by just 154,000 votes in 2020. “You need to get on the same page with all of us,” Nabilsi said, “if you’d like to get our support and our backing.”

Harris has spoken more forcefully about Palestinian suffering than her boss, and in remarks on Thursday after meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, she used sharp terms to call for a ceasefire and the protection of Palestinian civilians.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”

She acknowledged that “Israel has a right to defend itself” and denounced Hamas, but also added: “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies [in Gaza]. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

But despite a difference in tone, she has not signaled how or whether her politics on the region would break from Biden’s – the departure that uncommitted activists are looking for.

“The White House’s policy to continue to supply American bombs to Netanyahu is like a bartender serving drinks to an alcoholic while repeatedly urging them to stay sober,” Waleed Shahid, a progressive Democratic strategist and an adviser to the Uncommitted National Movement, said after Harris spoke on Thursday. “Empathy for Palestinians from the vice-president is a step in the right direction but people just want a policy change to stop the supply of American bombs to Israel’s war.”

Related: Kamala Harris says ‘I will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza after Netanyahu talks

The uncommitted movement gained ground in March following a campaign called Listen to Michigan, which succeeded in persuading more than 100,000 voters to mark their ballots “uncommitted” during the state’s Democratic primary in February. The grassroots effort spread to more than two dozen states, ultimately earning the movement 30 delegates who will travel to the Democratic national convention next month.

The movement is urging delegates outside of the uncommitted camp to support their policy demands during the convention. Harris delegates “can help push for an arms embargo”, said Shahid. “They don’t need to become uncommitted delegates.”

Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan, said that people close to the Harris campaign have reached out to uncommitted activists in recent days, but declined to share specifics.

“We need her to meet with members of our community. We need her to meet with uncommitted delegates,” Alawieh said. “We need to hear from her and her team how she will embrace an approach that prioritizes and values Palestinian lives and the lives of every civilian.”

More than 600 people joined an uncommitted national organizing call on Monday night for the movement’s recently launched Not Another Bomb campaign, which urges US leaders to end financial and military support for Israel’s war.

Related: US medics who volunteered in Gaza demand arms embargo over ‘unbearable cruelty’ inflicted by Israel

Chloe Lundine, a Detroit, Michigan, resident and uncommitted voter, joined a protest near the Capitol building in Washington DC during Netanyahu’s visit. Earlier this week, she said, she was pressured to resign from her position as an analyst at Wayne State University after posting pro-Palestinian art outside her office. While she was “cautiously optimistic” that Harris would change course on Gaza policy, she added that she’d “love to see her speak with Netanyahu and plainly say that she supports a permanent ceasefire at the very minimum”.

Uncommitted voters are torn on whether they’ll vote for the Democratic candidate if their demands aren’t met – they recognize that Donald Trump is not likely to bring peace to Gaza but are resistant to pressure from Democrats to vote against their conscience. Some said they would be dissatisfied if Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, were picked as Harris’s running mate, citing his efforts to quash pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

For Ghada Elnajjar, a Palestinian American organizer based in Georgia, the decision of whether to vote for Harris or a candidate like the Green party’s Jill Stein keeps her up at night.

“On the one hand, I do consider that it is time for this country to break shackles from a two-party system and introduce a third party,” said Elnajjar. “On the other hand, I understand there’s so many other policies that we need to support: the economy, education, the environment.”

‘This could look two ways’

A separate anti-war movement has also started mobilizing. On Thursday, Pennsylvania activists launched a campaign to collect pledges from voters refusing to vote for Harris unless she breaks more sharply from Biden policies.

“President Biden lost the support of hundreds of thousands of voters because he refused to stop funding genocide in Gaza,” said Reem Abuelhaj, an organizer with the No Ceasefire No Vote campaign. “Vice-president Harris now has a unique opportunity to win back those votes. But that will only happen if she does everything in her power to bring about a ceasefire.”

Other activists may not be pressuring people to withhold their votes, but they warn that Harris shouldn’t take their support for granted.

“Instead of trying to stop support for Harris, our strategy is going to focus on holding her accountable to values and demands of the majority of the Democratic party base and electorate, which includes a lasting and permanent ceasefire via an arms embargo on Israel,” said Lexis Zeidan, a Palestinian American activist with the uncommitted movement from Dearborn, Michigan.

A recent Gallup poll found that more Americans oppose Israel’s war on Gaza than support it: 48% compared with 42%. Just 23% of Democrats said they approve of Israel’s military campaign.

“This could look two ways,” said Shahid, the Democratic strategist. “Either the 700,000 uncommitted voters could actively mobilize for vice-president Harris, if they felt like she had shifted significantly on Gaza from Biden.

“If she doesn’t shift on Gaza, I think people will be much more reserved about their enthusiasm, in terms of knocking on doors, donating, telling their friends and family and their community to vote for Harris, even if they don’t like Trump.”