CHICAGO — The former coach turned candidate delivered a rousing “speech” full of sports metaphors as he accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination Wednesday night: fourth quarter, down a field goal but possession, blocking and tackling. Meanwhile, just outside the doors of the United Center, another sports metaphor was playing out — what’s called an “unforced error” in tennis or an “own goal” in soccer.

Delegates representing the 700,000 primary voters who had cast “unaffiliated” ballots in protest against the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza had begun a sit-in with a simple demand: that a Palestinian American join the crowd speaking on the convention’s main stage, something that had, astonishingly, been considered taboo until now.

The Uncommitted movement has also called on Vice President Kamala Harris to support its call for an arms embargo on Israel, which is – and should be – a lost cause. But for the Democratic National Committee and Harris’ campaign team, this should have been a no-brainer:

Of course, the Convention and the country should hear from a Palestinian this week, just as they heard so urgently on Wednesday evening from the Parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polinone of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Denying the demand of the “undecided” movement contradicts the Democrats’ claim that they are the party of inclusivity. It runs counter to the “freedom” message proclaimed from the podium at the United Center, because freedom includes freedom of speech.

It also contradicts what Harris herself said to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, just days after President Joe Biden stepped out and, as our gold-medal-winning relay runners do, handed her the baton.

“We cannot look away from these tragedies,” Harris said, referring to the “deaths of far too many innocent civilians” in Gaza. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not remain silent.”

So why don’t you and your team let the Palestinians have their say in Chicago?

I don’t know, since DNC and campaign spokespeople did not respond to my request for comment Thursday.

Waleed Shahid of the Uncommitted National Movement said party and campaign officials were on site from the start of the sit-in at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday until nearly 3 a.m. Thursday, trying to negotiate a solution with opposition delegates. They offered meetings with junior Democratic staffers, Shahid said, and then with more experienced staffers.

What they did not offer was a place on tonight’s program, which will culminate in Harris’ most important speech of her life.

“It was so painful to see their reactions,” Shahid added, tears in his eyes. “Not being given two, three or four minutes of speaking time on the stage of a party that stands for equal rights for all.”

Shahid said his group has been asking for a Palestinian-American speaker at the DNC for about two months and has submitted “countless names” as possibilities, including those of state lawmakers from Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Virginia. Mother Jones The magazine published a Draft of what one of these legislators, MP Ruwa RommanI wanted to say.

Shahid, the Uncommitted spokesman, said the movement “fully supports” the decision to have Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel and Jon, speak at the convention, but “doing so to the exclusion of the Palestinian-American experience does not seem to be in keeping with the values ​​of the party.”

After months of hand-wringing over the danger that disputes over Israel and Gaza could divide Democrats, the war was largely absent from negotiations here this week. A pro-Palestinian protest on Monday attracted only a few thousand peoplea fraction of what organizers had predicted. Only a handful of speakers on the main stage mentioned the issue, mostly calling for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in the same breath. Pollsters and experts say the war is unlikely to play a role in November.

I agree that this election is by no means a referendum on Israel and Gaza, as some activists claim. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. And as Harris told Netanyahu, that means we can’t ignore any aspect of it.

Democratic voters and all Americans — and especially American Jews — can and should hear the testimony of Hersh’s parents and also of Palestinians whose relatives were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. We can weep for them and with them. That is the Jewish — and human — behavior.

Too many people on all sides of this conflict have tried over the last year to portray it as a sports game in which there will be a clear winner and a loser and observers must pick a team. This includes anti-Zionist activists who tried to delete Jewish authorsand twisted college Administrators banned students from decorating their dorm doors. This includes Jewish leaders who say we are “unsafe,” when in reality we are just uncomfortable.

Neither the Democratic nor the Republican party should participate in this. (No, there were no Palestinian speakers at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last month, so this is another chance for Harris to differentiate herself from her opponent.)

On Thursday, the United Auto Workers union supported the Uncommited delegates’ demand to provide a platform for a Palestinian speaker, and a group called Muslim Women for Harris disbanded about the Democrats’ refusal to do so.

Tweets in support of the sit-in were also Alana Zeitchikan Israeli-American citizen who had several family members among the 240 hostages kidnapped on October 7 – one of whom is still in captivity – and who last week appeared on the program “Jewish Women for Kamala“Zoom call.

“Rachel and Jon deserve every second on that stage,” Zeitchik wrote. “I also believe that a Palestinian-American voice deserves to be heard on that stage.”

The Goldberg-Polins were among about 40 speakers Wednesday night, more than 100 since the convention began. We heard from actors and activists, relatives of the candidates, first responders and content creators, former presidents (and their wives), even two lead pipe removal activists and a basketball coach.

It’s not too late to add a Palestinian American to tonight’s list.