Pro-Palestinian protesters march on Democratic National Convention in Chicago

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are seeking to disrupt the Democratic Convention in an attempt to pressure Kamala Harris to take a tougher line on support for Israel.

A few thousand pro-Palestine protesters marched on the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago on Monday (Tuesday AEST) a few hours before Joe Biden was due to formally pass the party’s leadership torch to vice president Kamala Harris, as she seeks to prevent Donald Trump reclaiming the White House.

Around 200 activist groups and their supporters, across the full spectrum of far-left causes, sought to disrupt Ms Harris’s coronation as the party’s electoral saviour, reflecting a simmering split in the party over support for Israel that could cost Ms Harris critical votes in battleground states with large Arabic populations.

“One of the comments she makes is ‘I’m speaking’, well if she wants to beat Trump she needs to listen to us, not we listen to her,” full time political science student Violet Powless told The Australian at Union Park, where protesters gathered ahead of their advertised “March on the DNC”, which was kicking off about a kilometre away.

Fury at America’s military and financial support for Israel, which has enraged a minority of Democrat voters who say the democracy has killed too many Palestinians, was the overwhelming motivating factor for the bulk of protesters, who nevertheless failed to turn out in numbers anywhere approaching initial forecasts of up to 20,000.

A protester wearing a mask of the Palestinian flag near the Democratic National Convention. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

“As a native American, genocide is in my past and so I’m against our tax money being spent on genocide,” Powless said, repeating a common criticism of Israel’s military response to Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, a charge vehemently denied by Israel.

“Biden won the primary, Kamala didn’t, we didn’t vote for her to be our top representative,” Powless added, in remarks that would worry Democrat party strategists after the party faced criticism for not conducting a ‘mini primary’ after Joe Biden abandoned his campaign amid questions about his cognitive state.

More than 600,000 Democrats voted ‘uncommitted’ during the party’s primaries held in the first half of the year, including over 100,000 in Michigan, voters who Democrats strategists fear might not vote for Ms Harris in November. a state considered a must-win by Republicans and Democrats,

“Genocide is just a step too far,” said music teacher Matthew Waterman, adding that for the first time he won’t be voting Democrat this November.

Since replacing Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic Party ticket on July 21, Kamala Harris has expressed greater sympathy for the plight of Palestinians in public than Joe Biden, while echoing his call for a ceasefire in war that Gaza authorities say has killed around 40,000 people.

Under a sunny Chicago day and a police helicopter hovering above, protesters waived colourful placards large and small, including giant unflattering caricatures of Harris, Biden and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid a sea of Palestinian flags.

Samir Qaisar, 36, who was manning thee Revolutionary Communists of America stall, said the Democrats were now “the party of the wealthy” and hadn’t been the party of the working class for decades.

“Our position is class war 2024, there’s no real candidate that can make any real difference for the working class in this election cycle”.

Donald Trump, he said, was probably “worst for the capitalists” because he was “wild and unpredictable … he doesn’t really carry out capitalism in a stable disciplined way,” he added.

Samir Qaisar (C) manning the communist stall outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The crowd heaved forward as if to better hear Cornel West, a veteran black rights campaigner and Christian socialist academic, as he climbed onto the stage to address the crowd in his trademark, gospel preacher style.

“A black face in a high place … does not move us,” he told the crowd, which cheered in agreement.

“It’s not a function of your skin pigmentation, not a function of your gender, not function of your sexuality orientation … it’s about what kind of moral substance you have,” he said, skewering the excitement over Ms Harris’s being the first female African-American leader of one of the major US political parties.

By early afternoon local time the protesters’ chants had become clearly audible within the United Centre compound where they briefly breached a security fence

But they were no match for the thousands of local and state police and federal secret service agents on hand to keep the convention perimeter secure.

“Biden, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” the marchers chanted, while the president was inside the convention centre inspecting the stage as part of a ‘walk around’ with his wife Jill, who was also due to speak on Monday night.

Police looked set to avoid a repeat of the infamous 1968 riots at that year’s Democratic Party convention in Chicago, where protesters were similarly seeking to put pressure on the party oppose totally US involvement in Vietnam.