Democratic National Convention 2024 updates: Kamala Harris addresses Gaza

This live page is now closed. We appreciate you joining us for the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention, which saw Vice President Kamala Harris officially accept the party nomination for the presidency.

To get an overview of the day’s events, check out our five quick and easy takeaways. And learn more about how Harris is courting progressive voters here.

You can also get a look at the protests unfolding around the convention, as demonstrators seek to draw attention to the human toll of Israel’s war in Gaza – and the US role in the conflict.

Explore the sit-in that protesters led, as they pushed for a Palestinian American speaker during the convention, despite opposition from Democratic leaders.

And meet some of the delegates representing the hundreds of thousands of Democratic primary voters who voted “uncommitted” in protest of the party’s stance on Israel.

We hope to see you again soon!

It all ended with a speech. Kamala Harris stepped onto the stage of Chicago’s United Center arena to accept the Democratic nomination for the presidency, marking the conclusion of the party’s four-day-long political convention.

Take a look at the final moments of this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Even as the hubbub at the United Center dies down, the protests continue outside.

The convention was leading up to one moment: when Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage to accept her party’s nomination for the White House.

But the final day of the convention was filled with a diversity of speakers and issues, well before Harris arrived in the spotlight.

Here are the updates from the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention.

• Harris accepted the Democratic nomination with a soaring speech that offered a glimpse into her upbringing and her plans for the White House.
• “Uncommitted” delegates decried the refusal of convention organisers to allow a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage, in order to represent the suffering in Gaza.
• Harris’s pledge to continue arming Israel rubbed further salt into the wound, pro-Palestinian protesters said.
• The convention was met with a fourth night of protests over issues including the Biden administration’s Gaza policy.
• On the main stage at Chicago’s United Center, speakers appealed to voters to support Harris with patriotic-themed speeches. As former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger put it in his speech: “The Democrats are as patriotic as us.”
• Gun violence survivors, abortion-rights advocates and the Central Park Five took the stage as well to speak to the threats they saw in the Republican presidential ticket.

As the balloons flooded the arena at the end of Harris’s speech, Asma Mohammed says all she could think about is the bombs falling on Palestinians in Gaza.

“There are balloons raining down on the Democrats in our party, and there are bombs raining down on children and families and people I love,” Mohammed told Al Jazeera with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“That’s what I was thinking.”

While festivities wind down inside Chicago’s United Center, outside, protesters are continuing to face off with police.

Reporters on the scene have said the demonstrators have been blocked from continuing to march in some areas. The protests have largely taken place between Chicago’s Union Park and Park 578, only blocks from United Center, the main venue for the convention.

Those interactions with police have led to some tense moments in the largely peaceful protests.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Democratic strategist Joi Chaney argued that Harris “hit it out of the park” with her closing speech at the national convention.

Chaney said Harris struck the right balance of building on the Biden administration’s legacy while “laying out the groundwork for the future under a Kamala Harris and Tim Walz administration”.

“You got her vision around the economy. You got her vision around healthcare, women’s healthcare, freedom and some foreign policy issues tonight,” she said.

Royce Mann, a content creator from Georgia who wore a keffiyeh-patterned scarf, says Harris should stand with the majority of Democratic voters in backing an arms embargo against Israel.

“That is the easiest way to achieve an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza],” he told Al Jazeera.

“If they are serious about getting a ceasefire, they need to leverage the power that we have as the main supplier of Israeli weapons,” he said, referencing the US role in the conflict.

Another attendee at the convention, Amatullah Contractor, said it was disappointing that Harris was “definitive” in her acceptance speech that the US would continue to arm Israel.

“At the same time, we have to continue pushing,” she told Al Jazeera. “The pressure is on. We just can’t afford another Trump presidency.”

Harris has completed her DNC address. Here what she said:

• Harris began by stressing her roots in the East Bay of California, stressing her mother’s immigrant journey and the working-class community where she grew up.
• She accepted the party’s nomination “on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America”.
• She said that Trump would have “no guardrails” if re-elected, after a recent Supreme Court case that gave broad immunity to “official” presidential actions.
• She addressed the war in Gaza, pledging to “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” and “always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself”.
• Then, she referred to Palestinians, saying she is working so “Palestinian suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination”.
• She ended with an appeal to “write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told”.

Red, white and blue balloons have begun to fall from the ceiling of the United Center in Chicago, as Harris finishes her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

“Fellow Americans, I love our country with all my heart,” she said.

She added that her love of country is bolstered “everywhere I go, in everyone I meet, [in] a nation that is ready to move forward, ready for the next step in the incredible journey that is America”.

She concluded with a sweeping appeal to American ideals.

“Let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities,” she continued. “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

“Let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there. Let’s vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

“I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un who are rooting for Trump,” Harris said in her keynote speech.

“Because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favours,” she continued.

“They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself.”

As Harris was pledging support for Israel, several attendees in various parts of the arena shouted: “Free Palestine”.

Their chants were ultimately drowned out by the cheers of supporters.

Harris has now turned to Palestinians.

“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” she said.

“So many innocent lives lost, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” she said.

“President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is secure. The hostages are released. The suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self determination,” she said.

Harris is addressing the war in Gaza.

“With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done,” she said.

“And let me be clear. I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself because the people of Israel must never again face the war that a terrorist organisation called Hamas caused on October 7,” she said.

Harris has pledged to sign a law protecting abortion rights at the federal level, warning that Republicans would further roll back access to the procedure if they win back the White House.

She also pledged to pass a comprehensive reform on voting rights, which has long languished in Congress. The bill she referenced is called the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Finally, she told the crowd she would be sure to sign the border legislation that was introduced in the US Congress this year.

Critics said the legislation showed a rightward shift for Democrats, but media reports indicated Trump attempted to scuttle the bill, lest it weaken his presidential campaign.

The campaign has so far sent at least six email blasts since Harris started speaking.

In one, they attacked her “liberal” record as a prosecutor.

Others decried economic “failure” during the Biden-Harris administration and a “border invasion” under their leadership.

Harris is underlining Democrats’ main theme of the convention: that they have a vision for the future and Republicans are focused on the past.

“We are not going back. We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools,” she said.

“We are charting a new way forward, forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class, because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success.”

“Building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she said, reiterating her economic plan outlined last week.

After opening with her personal story and her official acceptance of the party’s nomination, Harris pivoted to familiar themes: party unity and the fight for the future of the US.

“Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward,” she said, pledging to be a president for all Americans, regardless of party.

She then turned to Trump.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

“Consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution,” she added. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”

Harris has officially accepted the party’s nomination.

“On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks …

“On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey …

“On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another …

“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America,” she said.

Harris is focusing on her formative years, painting a picture of community and hard work.

Her mother “rented a small apartment in the East Bay” in San Francisco.

“In the Bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands. We lived in the flats, a beautiful working class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers,” she said.

“Family who loved us, believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything,” she said.