Arab Americans are angry.
And they let President Joe Biden know that when he avoided his campaign manager, who visited Michigan this week for community outreach.
Many elected Arab American officials, including local government leaders and state legislators, have argued that they will not discuss elections as long as mass killings are occurring in Gaza, and that Julie Chavez. He refused to meet with Rodriguez.
Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, said: “It's unbelievable at this point that we're trying to discuss electoral politics while a massacre is unfolding.”
“Now is not the time to talk about politics. Now is the time for our humanity to be recognized and for us to sit down with our policymakers and decision-makers and talk about redirecting what is happening overseas. And elections. That doesn’t happen to a staff officer.”
Arab-American local officials in southeastern Michigan told Al Jazeera that voters are angry and dissatisfied with Biden's Gaza policy, and that anger could negatively impact the president's re-election chances. He said there is.
Home to large communities of Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemenis, and Iraqis, Dearborn is known as the capital of Arab America. Hammoud noted that all four countries have been hit by airstrikes by the United States and its Israeli allies.
The mayor added that Arab Americans and Dearborn's broader community feel “betrayed” by Biden's unwavering support for Israel.
“There is a resident who had to dig her grandmother out from under the rubble after Israeli warplanes bombed her home,” Hammoud told Al Jazeera.
“There are people from Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem who are undergoing ethnic cleansing. What should we say to them? What is our message to them?”
The importance of Michigan
A planned meeting between the Arab-American leader and Chavez Rodriguez was canceled following community backlash, multiple officials told Al Jazeera.
Arab Americans living in Dearborn and other cities in Michigan could play a major role in the U.S. presidential election, where the system is based on winning each state.
Michigan, with a population of more than 10 million people, is a key “battleground” state where votes for either Republicans or Democrats are not guaranteed, and victories are often narrow.
In 2016, former President Donald Trump defeated Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton in the Midwest state by less than 11,000 votes. As a result, the estimated hundreds of thousands of Arab Americans living in Michigan could determine the outcome of the election.
In recent election cycles, presidential candidates, especially Democrats, have begun to recognize the importance of the Arab vote, running ads in Arabic, meeting with community advocates, and addressing concerns specific to Arab Americans. It became so.
In 2020, Biden announced a platform for the Arab American community, pledging to recognize equality between Palestinians and Israelis and protect civil rights at home. He also sent his wife, Jill Biden, and running mate, Kamala Harris, to Dearborn to reach out to the local Arab community.
Despite complaints about his staunch support for Israel, Arab voters appear to overwhelmingly support Biden. For example, in the Arab-majority Dearborn polling place, Mr. Biden won more than 80 percent of the vote, city data shows. With this support, he was able to win back Michigan for the Democratic Party.
But Biden's popularity among Arab Americans is waning ahead of the 2024 election in November, which is likely to be a rematch between Biden and Trump..
According to an October poll by the Arab American Institute, support for Biden among Arab Americans has plummeted to 17% since the war, and some activists suspect support has fallen further since then. Be suspicious of.
Arab American advocates stress their community is not driven by a single issue, but consider the scale of the massacre in Gaza and Biden's uncompromising role there. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, to support the 81-year-old president again, they argue.
“Arab Americans are not going to vote for Joe Biden no matter what. That's it. We're done with Biden,” said Wayne County Commissioner Sam Beydoun, also with Chavez Rodriguez. He told Al Jazeera that he had refused to meet with him.
“That's the bottom line: Joe Biden will not be able to regain the trust of the Arab American community.”
Biden's support for Israel
Mr. Biden has provided unconditional political and financial support to Israel since it began its war in Gaza on October 7. The president has requested more than $14 billion in additional aid to U.S. allies, and the White House is still working with Congress to secure funding.
Furthermore, Palestinian rights advocates have accused him of contributing to the dehumanization of Palestinians. In October, Biden described the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza as “the cost of waging war.”
In a statement marking the 100th day of the conflict earlier this month, the US president focused on Israeli prisoners of war in the Gaza Strip and made no mention of Palestinians.
The Biden administration also vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions calling for de-escalation in the Gaza Strip, where more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The Biden administration announced this week that funding for the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) would be reduced based on unconfirmed Israeli claims that some of its staff took part in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel. The provision has also been stopped.
At the same time, the US government has categorically ruled out suspending or conditioning aid to Israel, even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected a two-state solution to Biden.
Still, the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to minimize civilian casualties and seeking to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where human rights groups say the population is on the brink of starvation. claims.
Michigan House Majority Leader Abraham Ayyash dismissed Washington's claims that it was trying to save Gazans.
“The 'attempt' resulted in nearly 30,000 deaths in Israel, massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the creation of an even more emboldened far-right fascist government. So if the US 'attempts' Then I would be afraid of what would happen if the US did not try,” Ayyash, who is of Yemeni descent, told Al Jazeera.
The Biden campaign did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment at the time of publication.
'war criminal'
Osama Shibulani, Dearborn-based publisher arab american newshe said he met with Chavez Rodriguez this week and delivered a poignant message to his face.
“Biden told Israel, 'Here's the money. Here's the ammunition. Here's the political power. Whatever you need is here, go and kill it.' Those are war criminals. That's how we see it. '' Siblani reportedly told his campaign manager.
He added that he had received dozens of calls asking him to cancel the meeting, but felt he needed to confront the Biden campaign.
“I said I wanted to meet her, but I wanted to send a very strong message. If this man wants our vote, he has done more than Jesus Christ. We need to bring more dead people back to life.' He has the blood of thousands of people on his hands,'' Shiblani told Al Jazeera.
Siblani said that beyond the Gaza crisis, Biden has not fulfilled broader promises to Arab communities.
In his 2020 platform, the US president said he would reopen the consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinians. That's not happening.
He also pledged to protect free speech despite his opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. But his administration has done little to address the state-level crackdown on Palestinian rights supporters.
Siblani said Arab Americans have also been promised a seat at the table, but they have been largely ignored by the administration. “This is exactly why people are angry. They're angry because he didn't respect our votes. He didn't care. He still doesn't care.”
Ayyash, one of the country's top Arab-Muslim government officials, said neither the White House nor Democrats have consulted him since the war began.
He called the White House's disregard for those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza “reckless” and “disrespectful.”
“This is shocking to me, given how important Michigan is and how much effort the Arab and Muslim communities put into ensuring President Biden’s victory in 2020,” Ayyash said. he told Al Jazeera.
What about Trump?
Asked about the Arab and Muslim vote, Mr. Biden and his aides undermined Mr. Trump's chances of returning to the White House, making him more likely to become the U.S. president than his predecessor, who imposed travel bans on several Arabs and Muslims. suggested that it is still a much better option. majority of countries. They also claimed that Gaza could cease to be a major issue by November.
Biden explained his rationale earlier this month, saying, “The former president wants to ban Arabs from entering the country. We're going to make sure we understand who has the Arab people's interests first.” Second, we have a long way to go in terms of resolving the situation in Gaza.”
County Commissioner Beydoun rejected both claims. “We will not forget. This is genocide,” he said. “We can no longer accept the lesser of two evils.”
Mainstream Democrats, including liberal commentators, members of Congress and governors, have emphasized the need to vote for Biden to stop Trump from being a threat to democracy.
“Donald Trump is a threat to democracy,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told CNN earlier this month. “That's why we need to re-elect Joe Biden, and that's exactly what we're going to do,” he added.
But Mayor Hammoud said questions about preserving democracy against President Trump should be raised with the White House, not with those opposed to the war in Gaza.
“Some people ask, 'Why aren't Arabs voting for Biden?' Trump holds the ticket,” Hammoud said. “But my question is, if American democracy is threatened by Trump's re-election, why is the alliance between the United States and Benjamin Netanyahu worth threatening American democracy? ”
Ayyash echoed that assertion, stressing that a large portion of the Democratic base, including not only Arabs and Muslims, but also young voters and people who value human rights, are dissatisfied with Biden's position on Gaza. .
“If democracy is so important, and I believe it is, then why is this government putting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's extremist ideology and genocidal army ahead of protecting democracy and preserving our republic?” Will you allow it?”
