Bothell council member leads a push for ‘uncommitted’ vote in primary

BOTHELL — In 2006, after three decades as a stateless Palestinian refugee, Rami Al-Kabra became a U.S. citizen.

Two years later, Al-Kabra cast his first vote, without hesitation, for Barack Obama.

Al-Kabra has only become more politically involved since then. He organized for Black Lives Matter and registered people to vote for the 2020 election.

In 2021, he was elected to the Bothell City Council. On the campaign trail, Al-Kabra sported the traditional Palestinian scarf, the keffiyeh, around his neck.

After five months of destruction, famine and death in Gaza, he is one of the voices advocating for an uncommitted vote in Washington’s presidential primary Tuesday.

Voting uncommitted allows Democratic party delegates to decide their vote for themselves at the national convention in August, while a vote for a candidate locks in delegates to vote for that person.

Al-Kabra, now 47, said the movement has several demands aimed at President Joe Biden, including:

• An immediate ceasefire;

• Holding Israel to the standards of the International Human Rights Convention;

• Stopping the sale of U.S. weapons without “checks and balances”;

• Palestinian self-determination; and

• The release of all hostages: both Israelis in Gaza and Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Voters can select uncommitted delegates on their ballot in only seven states. The highest percentage came from Hawaii, where 29% voted uncommitted. In Minnesota, 19% chose that option and in Michigan 13% of Democrats, or over 100,000 people, voted uncommitted in the state’s primary.

Washington state Democratic Party requires 15% of such votes to send a single uncommitted delegate to the Democratic National Convention at the end of the national primary process.

‘Silence was not an option’

Al-Kabra, who is Muslim, spoke to The Daily Herald two days before the start of Ramadan. During the monthlong celebration, Muslims around the world don’t eat or drink from dawn until sunset.

“The beautiful thing about Ramadan is that it reminds us that there are people who are less fortunate,” he said. “It will hit different this time. Because of the children of Gaza, we see the pictures, the starvation, the famine.”

His family lived a simple life as farmers in the village of Safed, now located in northern Israel. His father was a toddler in 1948 when the family was forced to flee.

Al-Kabra was born stateless in the Middle East, unable, like many others in the Palestinian diaspora, to live in or even visit his grandfather’s homeland.

In 1994, his parents sent him to the United States to study electrical engineering. They saw it as a “beacon of hope,” Al-Kabra said.

But Islamophobia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks pushed him toward activism.

“I didn’t want to do it, just like a lot of people who are non-citizens and new immigrants,” he said. “But silence was not an option. When you are feeling oppressed, you have to do something to push back.”

In 2002, Al-Kabra founded the Seattle chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country.

Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Al-Kabra was part of a loose group of advocates in Bothell pushing the city to establish a diversity, equity and inclusion program and budget for a full-time position. Still, Al-Kabra found there were limits to activism.

“I realized it’s more effective to have work done from inside to be at the decision-making table,” he said. “When the opportunity presented itself I couldn’t let it go.”

‘Safety, freedom and justice’

At an Oct. 17 meeting of the City Council, Bothell Mayor Mason Thompson called for a ceasefire.

“Join us in calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the violence and bloodshed, and the presence of safety, freedom and justice for all that is required to lead to peace,” Thompson said.

Despite decades of conflicts between Gaza and Israel, the death toll of the recent fighting dwarfs previous wars. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people in its Oct. 7 attack, the worst in the nation’s history. The Gaza Health Ministry says Israel has since killed over 31,000 people in response.

Hamas took around 250 hostages, dozens of whom were released during a week-long truce in November. Israel believes 99 hostages remain alive and that 31 have died. Israel holds an estimated 7,000 Palestinians in prison.

Three weeks ago, Al-Kabra met with organizers in Michigan. Before January, he didn’t know it was an option to vote uncommitted.

Al-Kabra was surprised by how quickly the campaign grew.

While the Muslim and Arab communities are smaller in the Pacific Northwest than in other regions, the coalition transcends religion and ethnicity.

“I did not anticipate so many people from various backgrounds, religious backgrounds, multicultural backgrounds, and anti-war folks,” he said. “Because this is an anti-war movement really, to come and join and jump in and want to help as much as they can.”

The campaign has the support of Jewish Voice for Peace and two major unions’ local chapters: the state’s largest, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the American Federation of Teachers.

Al-Kabra said he hasn’t experienced direct backlash. Last month, Ari Hoffman, a conservative radio host and former Seattle City Council candidate, shared Al-Kabra’s work information on X, formerly known as Twitter, accusing his employer, KUOW, of “anti-Israel bias.”

‘Now everybody wants to talk about a ceasefire’

Monica Chilton, the chair of the Snohomish County Democratic Party, said voters should be free to decide who to vote for.

“I’m not going to be telling people one way or the other,” she said.

Chilton said she didn’t think the uncommitted campaign could endanger the Democratic Party.

“Biden’s going to get the nomination,” she said.

This month, The Seattle Times ran an opinion piece from Danny Westneat headlined: “Hey, Democrats, you’re losing and can’t afford to be ‘uncommitted.’”

“I can think of few better ways of aiding Trump to win another presidency than this,” the columnist wrote.

When asked about his vote for the presidential election, Al-Kabra said he’s focused on the primary.

“Everybody says, ‘Oh, Biden’s going to win.’ Well, maybe. But you have a bunch of people saying, ‘Well, Biden, you’re gonna win (the primary), but you have to change your course, otherwise you are going to hand the election to Trump.”

He said the biggest win for the campaign is that now more and more in the Democratic Party are calling for a ceasefire.

“Now everybody wants to talk about a ceasefire,” Al-Kabra said. “Which is very attributable to the movement that we have right now.”

On Monday, together with Our Revolution, a political organizing group, Al-Bakra started doing robocalls ahead of the primary.

The full recording reads:

“Hi, this is Rami Al-Kabra, deputy mayor of Bothell, Washington. I’m also currently the only Palestinian-American elected official in our region.

“I’m teaming up with Our Revolution to activate all of their members in Washington and progressives across the state to Vote Uncommitted Delegates in the primary election on Tuesday to send a clear message to President Biden: change course on Gaza, pursue peace, save lives no matter faith or ethnicity, help us win back the trust of the voting coalition who got you to the White House in 2020.

“Voting Uncommitted Delegates will let President Biden know that our votes are not to be taken for granted.

“We need a permanent ceasefire now. We must vote Uncommitted Delegates on Tuesday to urge him to change course in order to save lives in Gaza and prevent a Trump victory in November.”

Ballots are due at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Check where you can drop them off at: sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/voter-registration/drop-box-and-voting-center-locations

Aina de Lapparent Alvarez: 425-339-3449; aina.alvarez@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @Ainadla.