CHICAGO Critics of President Joe Bidens role in the war in Gaza said Wednesday night they had lost a high-profile battle to secure a speaking spot during the Democratic National Convention and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats 2024 presidential nominee.

Abbas Alawieh, a DNC delegate from Michigan who lived through U.S.-backed Israeli bombardment in Lebanon when he was young, said outside the convention that Vice President Harris, unfortunately, has made the decision that the child in me, the American child in me, who was certain my own government was going to kill me, is not going to get to be heard at this convention.

Alawieh announced Wednesday evening that he was launching a sit-in outside the convention unless there is a shift in policy from the DNC, despite risking arrest.