A pro-Palestine elected member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from Florida, Nadia Ahmad, was hit in the head repeatedly with vertical signs that read “We love Joe” by a group of DNC guests when she disrupted President Joe Biden’s speech on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Ahmad, who unfurled a large banner saying “Stop Arming Israel,” along with three fellow delegates as soon as Biden began speaking at the convention, has filed a complaint with the Chicago police following the assault.
Ahmad and three other delegates who took part in this action had named their small group “Delegates Against Genocide” for the purpose of initiating such disruptions at the convention. According to Ahmad, the area behind her, where a group of men was seen leaning over to attack her and the banner, was designated for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA). The Union’s General President, Brent Booker, whom Ahmad claims was among the five men who attacked her, had addressed the convention earlier that day. “Three of them were hitting me in the head while two others ripped the banner away from my hands,” she told Dissent Today.
Ahmad had managed to get the sign past security by sneaking it under her clothing, but it quickly caught the attention of the delegates when it was unfurled. Other members of the Florida delegation also tried to stop the action, but the group was determined to display the banner. “We had instructed each other not to give up the banner at any cost,” she said. But when Ahmad fell forward after being hit by the men sitting behind her, the disruption had to come to an end.
Ahmad has made a formal complaint to the DNC regarding the incident, naming the attackers and urging the chair to take action. However, the DNC has yet to release any statement concerning the matter. Ahmad told Dissent Today that Roger Lau, the Deputy Executive Director of the DNC, reached out to her about the assault but indicated that the situation would be managed by law enforcement rather than the DNC.
Allegations of Islamophobia
Videos from the convention appear to show Booker and his colleagues forcibly removing the “Stop Arming Israel” banner from the hands of Ahmad and other members of the pro-Palestine group. Although other delegates involved in this protest were equally engaged, Ahmad, who is Muslim, is the only one who was assaulted, leading her to characterize the incident as an Islamophobic attack.
Liano Sharon, a Jewish delegate from Michigan who held the banner alongside Ahmad, agreed that the fact that she wears a hijab and is visibly Muslim may have been the reason why the attackers targeted her in particular. “What the LIUNA members did was a clear violation of the union’s code of conduct and should be grounds for action against them,” he told Dissent Today, emphasizing that the Democratic Party needs to develop strict codes of conduct to address incidents like this.
LiUNA and the Executive Director of the Florida Democratic Party did not immediately respond to Dissent Today‘s request for comment.
Meanwhile, the Uncommitted Movement, which staged a sit-in outside the venue on the third night of the convention to protest the DNC’s rejection of their request for a Palestinian-American to speak on stage, chose not to participate in this action during Biden’s speech, as they did not support disrupting the convention. Ahmad told Dissent Today that “Delegates Against Genocide” and the Uncommitted Movement employed different strategies to draw attention to Gaza and did not coordinate their efforts.
Discussing their plan to disrupt the President’s speech, Ahmad revealed that many delegates who had intended to protest ultimately decided against it, fearing the revocation of their credentials. However, Ahmad and her informal group—whom she likens to a “secret society” because many members were working behind the scenes—chose to proceed with the protest. “We didn’t care about the credentials,” Ahmad stated, adding that their intention was to “set the tone” for the rest of the convention and encourage others to speak out against the violence in Gaza.
As she had anticipated, Ahmad was denied her credentials the next day by the Florida Democratic Party without explanation. After much ado, she managed to obtain a guest pass on the third day of the convention. “I had to go back and forth, trying to get my credentials back while my head throbbed from all the hitting,” she says. Ahmad suspects that the party wanted to keep her away from the convention after the incident so she would not be able to identify the attackers. However, since the group had informed the press about their plans to disrupt Biden’s speech, the attackers were caught on camera, and she did not have to worry about identifying them.
In July, following a shooting incident at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, President Biden warned of the dangers of political violence in the U.S. In a prime-time address from the Oval Office, Biden stated that political violence must not be normalized, declaring, “There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period.”
Ahmad finds it ironic that she was struck in the head with “We love Joe” signs during the DNC convention, given Biden’s warnings about the threat political violence poses to the nation. “It’s truly astounding that during a time when President Biden is addressing political violence and the events of January 6, they chose to hit me with a ‘We love Joe’ sign simply because I was holding a sign that said ‘Stop Arming Israel.'”
Despite facing violence, Ahmad says she will continue protesting the Biden administration’s role in enabling Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza. “We are here, and we will not stop speaking out,” she asserted.
The writer is a Pakistani journalist based in New York. She covers politics, human rights, and religious extremism. She tweets at @AiliaZehra.
