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CHELSEA — What will Kamala Harris do about the Gaza war if she is elected president? For some Californians watching the situation, her current actions may be the best indicator.

The vice president has appeared to take a stronger stance on Israel’s military response since the October 7 Hamas attack – she called for a ceasefire before President Joe Biden did so and skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in July. After meeting with him, she said she urged him to call for a ceasefire and promised not to remain silent on the humanitarian crisis.

But then she excluded pro-Palestinian protesters at a campaign rally in Michigan this month. And, perhaps most importantly, she refused to support an arms embargo on weapons sold to Israel.

The conflicting messages have drawn mixed reactions from antiwar protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, with California delegates and protesters seeking different avenues to pressure the party to push for change.

In the congress hall, some delegates want the party’s program to include an arms embargo, although this is not included in the version approved by vote on Monday.

Joseph Salas, a delegate from California, said he wanted a stronger stance from Harris and wanted the party to acknowledge Palestinian land loss in its platform. “We need to hold our elected officials accountable for the platform we write,” he said.

Hundreds of protesters marched in the streets outside the United Center on Monday to send a message to Democratic leaders.

Among the protesters was Wassim Hage, a community leader with the San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center, who traveled to Chicago not for the convention but to participate in the march on the DNC organized by a coalition that included labor, gender justice and other groups.

Hage said he sees an opportunity in activism inside and outside the party: “We are watching cracks appear in the Democratic Party establishment, and I think our goal is to put pressure on those cracks to make sure that support for Israel, support for Zionism, either in the short term or in the long term, is not sustainable for American politicians.”

While ceasefire talks continue, the Israeli military has already killed 40,000 people this week, a quarter of whom are said to have been children, according to the Associated Press.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States has allocated at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel since October and has tentatively agreed to provide Israel with $3.8 billion annually through 2028. Since October, the United States had pledged $674 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinians (as of June).

For many convention attendees, choosing between Harris and former President Donald Trump is an obvious choice – and they are excited about it, wearing Harris-print shirts and other fashion accessories.

But for others for whom the conflict is of central importance, the question of what the way forward should look like is difficult to answer.

Sabrene Odeh, an unaffiliated delegate from Washington state, said she wanted to see tangible progress on the Gaza issue in order to vote for Harris.

“Many people have spoken about compassionate words, feelings and vibrations,” said Odeh, who is Palestinian. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t save lives, and we need to save lives now.”

Although the convention adopted the party platform, Liano Sharon, a delegate from Michigan, said some still wanted to push for language that would include an arms embargo in addition to a ceasefire, a major point of contention during the public drafting phase, the Washington Post reported.

The current program states that the Democrats’ “commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military superiority, its right to self-defense and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding is unshakable.”

The program also states that the party recognizes the value of every innocent life, “whether Israeli or Palestinian.”

Separately from the campaign, delegates from across the U.S. are collecting signatures on a letter calling on Harris to “put an end to President Biden’s Gaza policy.” One delegate who signed the letter on Sunday said there were already about 150 signatures at that point.

In his speech at the convention on Monday evening, Biden said he was working “around the clock” to end the suffering of civilians, “finally reach a ceasefire and end this war.” He also said the protesters in the streets “have a point. There are many innocent people being killed on both sides.”

But the delegates are not the only ones active this week.

Kitzia Esteva, an organizer with the San Francisco-based Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, said they flew to Chicago because the Palestinian plight is connected to many important movements.

“The funds that go into these things are directly related to the funds we are not receiving for our communities, such as health care, access to reproductive care or child care,” they said.

“And yet we see billions and billions of dollars being spent on killing and literally destroying the Palestinians’ infrastructure,” they said.

Esteva said Harris had been repeatedly pushed in the past to support more progressive policies, including on climate issues: “I think all of this happened not because she had a good heart or because she had political views, but because we constantly intervened and really pushed her to the right side of history.”

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, chair of the California Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus, told CalMatters last week that she was an early supporter of Harris and Vice President Tim Walz, despite her concerns about their stance on Gaza.

Under Harris and Walz, she said, “many vulnerable communities will retain their rights or have more rights.”