AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

A Democratic National Committee panel has rejected a resolution calling for an arms embargo against Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza. The vote came during a DNC meeting Tuesday in Minneapolis. This is Allison Minnerly, a DNC member from Florida, sponsor of the arms embargo resolution.

ALLISON MINNERLY: This resolution is straightforward and enforceable. It calls for the end of supplying weapons and military aid as we see the war ongoing and raging in Gaza. Seven percent of Democrats support the party’s current position in this conflict and in this crisis.

AMY GOODMAN: In a minute, we’ll be joined by Allison Minnerly. A second resolution on Israel was initially approved, but then the author of the resolution, DNC Chair Ken Martin, withdrew it. Martin called for a task force to be formed to help build party unity on the issue.

KEVIN MARTIN: I am going to appoint a committee or a task force, comprised of stakeholders on all sides of this, to continue to have the conversation to work through this and bring solutions back to our party. And so, with that, I would ask this committee to withdraw my resolution so we can move forward united today.

AMY GOODMAN: Recent polls show only a small percentage of Democratic voters here in the United States support Israel’s war on Gaza.

We go now to Minneapolis, where we’re joined by Allison Minnerly. She’s 26 years old, a DNC member from Florida, sponsor of the Israel arms embargo resolution that was rejected.

Allison, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you explain what happened to yours? What was the vote on the panel? And then, Ken Martin had a resolution calling for a ceasefire, but then withdrew it after yours was defeated. Explain.

ALLISON MINNERLY: Yeah, so, earlier this month, I filed a resolution relating to Gaza, calling for the arms embargo and the end of military aid to Israel as an official position of the Democratic Party. And what you saw yesterday is that the chair, Ken Martin, also filed a resolution. And his resolution specifically did not call for some of these more actionable items. While it did call for a ceasefire, it didn’t go far enough in addressing the humanitarian crisis that we’re seeing, and did not really align us with our base of voters. And so, really, the intention in filing my resolution was to make sure that, as a party, we’re having the conversation, but also that we are meeting our voters, because it’s so important.

And so, what you’ll see yesterday is that once we — once we got to the floor and once we had a vote, unfortunately, the resolution, resolution number 18, that I filed, did not pass and did not make it through the committee, but Chair Martin’s did. But, ultimately, Chair Martin decided to pull his resolution, as well, and decided, you know, upon request of the co-sponsors of my resolution, we were able to get him to commit to creating this task force and continuing the conversation, because we think it’s too important to ignore.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Could you talk about the fault lines in the DNC, in the Democratic Party leadership, on Gaza? Is this largely a generational divide, or what — how do you see it?

ALLISON MINNERLY: What’s interesting is that I don’t think it’s necessarily generational. While I think a lot of young voters care about this, in particular, I think that there are so many people, either members, people at home, even just everyday organizers, that come from different backgrounds, different perspectives, and it’s so widely and broadly supported. Like you already mentioned, the percentage really is so slim of Democrats that do support the current position. It’s around 7%. So, even within that number, it’s very — a wide representation of just the base at large.

AMY GOODMAN: So —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And —

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, go ahead, Juan.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah. And could you tell us also why you — you’re relatively new to the Democratic National Committee. Why did you decide to join? And there are obviously many young people who think at this point neither the Republicans nor the Democrats answer the needs of the country.

ALLISON MINNERLY: Absolutely. So, earlier this year, everything — I would like to break down this process, because I think it is something that not everybody knows about, which is that every year — right? — you know, the DNC meets several times a year. And in these committee meetings, in these, you know, general body meetings, there are decisions like this that are made. And I think that what’s really important to know is that anybody that’s watching at home, if you get involved in your local state party, your local chapter, things like that, there’s an opportunity for you to become a state committee person, who then becomes eligible to be a DNC member, which is exactly what I did.

And so, while my win and, you know, path to becoming a DNC member was unexpected, the youth coalition in Florida, the same young people that organized March for Our Lives, that led the “Don’t Say Gay” walkouts at their schools, we have a really strong history of youth organizing. And when we realized that the DNC slate, the people that were running to be our DNC members, didn’t fully represent us or our values, we knew that we needed young people to step up and lead. And I was happy to heed that call and to take that action, and to really just use my voice as an extension of them, because this is really our seat as youth organizers in Florida.

AMY GOODMAN: Part of your resolution — part of your resolution, Allison, calls for Congress to recognize Palestine as a state. Was there discussion about this? And talk about how big the DNC is, the Democratic National Committee. I don’t think people realize we’re talking about hundreds of people.

ALLISON MINNERLY: Yes, absolutely. So, the DNC itself is roughly over 430 members. This is allocated proportionally based on the state. So, as an example, I come from the state of Florida, where we have 11 members. There are also at-large appointments that the chair can make, as well. So, it’s a generally, you know, decent-sized body. And what I think is really interesting is just that, you know, from all the different states, there’s so many different people with different perspectives, different backgrounds, and, overall, when we think about that big membership that comes together, there’s a lot of different conversations that happen.

But I will say, when you talk specifically about, you know, calling for a Palestinian state, I think that you can’t have a conversation about a two-state solution when you’re not recognizing Palestine. And I really wanted to highlight that there is a need for that, and that also this is not necessarily out of the norm. We’re seeing so many other nations make this decision, make this call to really recognize Palestinian dignity. And I think that, as Democrats, the party that has traditionally been for international law and human rights, this would be a step in the right direction. And I was proud to add that to the resolution.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, we just —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And —

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead, Juan.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah. And what do you see as happening next, now that there’s this joint group that Martin has called for, to meet on Gaza?

ALLISON MINNERLY: Yeah, so, we don’t have next steps just yet. As we mentioned, this was a conversation that happened yesterday kind of right after the committee vote. And so, I am really looking forward to how those conversations will go. I think that the conversation is too important to ignore.

Something that I mentioned yesterday is that it feels like the DNC is putting a comma in a conversation where voters have put a period, right? When we think about only 7% of Democrats supporting the current position, I don’t think this conversation needed to be prolonged. However, we made a clear ask to Chair Martin, as a coalition of co-sponsors, that there can’t be an end to that conversation today. So, even by him pulling his resolution, by our resolution not proceeding forward, we thought that there was a clear, you know, call to action there that we need to continue this conversation.

And I will add, too, something that will be happening today is that we are going to put this resolution for a vote on the full floor today by calling it into question yet again. And so, I think that this just shows that task force committee we’re going to keep continuing, because Palestinian rights and dignity are just too important to ignore at a time like this, and we want the war in Gaza to end.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you for being with us. We’ll continue to follow these developments, Allison Minnerly, DNC member from Florida. Again, she proposed a resolution at the summer meeting calling for an arms embargo on Israel. Today, the White House is holding a meeting on Gaza.

Next up, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook says she’ll file a lawsuit against President Trump’s attempts to fire her. She’s the first Black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Hi-Fly” by the late, legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston. To see our conversation and hear more of his music, go to democracynow.org.