Israel's war in Gaza divides Arab American Democrats in Michigan over whether to vote for Harris

Michigan, a key swing state, is home to the nation’s largest Arab American population. At a meeting of community leaders in Dearborn last month, a dozen men gathered around a conference table, sipping Turkish tea and nibbling on savory sambusas and Yemeni sweets.

These leaders are from groups like the American Human Rights Council and Doctors Against Genocide. They say they’re frustrated that Vice President Kamala Harris has not made an immediate ceasefire in Gaza nor an arms embargo part of her campaign platform. These long-time Democrats feel ignored by her campaign and say they’re strategizing the defeat of their party’s nominee.

The deep discontent began in the weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks when Israel’s retaliatory strikes into Gaza had a direct impact on their community and loved ones in the region. One man at the table, Dr Alaa Ali, says he has lost more than 100 relatives in Gaza. He has spent many days on Capitol Hill trying to meet with elected representatives and officials in the Biden Administration,

“We are blocked in so many meetings,” Ali says. “They express sympathy, but they don’t express a path out of this.”

Many in the Dearborn community have suffered losses and are reeling from the hardships their relatives are facing in Gaza.

“This is incredibly personal for me,” says independent journalist Abdelhalim Abdelrahman. “I have family members who have reached out to me and said the Israelis were holding a megaphone and pointing their assault rifles at prayer goers saying, ‘if you speak out of what's happening in Gaza, we'll find you and we'll destroy your homes.’”

In the 2016 election, Abdelrahman wrote in the Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson for president. He says he thought former President Donald Trump was a terrible president, so he voted for Biden in 2020. This year, he is angry with the Democrats over their handling of the war in Gaza.

“I don't think I could ever vote Democrat again for the foreseeable future,” he says. “This is not an endorsement of Mr. Trump, but the Democrats are the practitioners of this genocide. 40,000 people have died. Over 20,000 of them, women or children.”

When asked why he uses the term genocide, he cited the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court's findings.

“If you look at the legal standard for what a genocide is, it's being deliberate to exterminate and harm,” he says.

While the ICC has issued arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders for allegedly committing war crimes, it has not said anything about genocide. The ICJ has found that it is plausible that Israel has violated the convention against genocide.

Abdelrahman is frustrated with the two-party system, particularly with the Democrats.

“This is not a party for us,” he says. “I'd probably vote for Cornel West if you're making me vote, right? Maybe I’ll write in ‘uncommitted’ or something else.”

In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost Michigan to Trump by about 10,000 votes. In 2020, Biden flipped the state, getting 154,000 more votes than Trump. This year some Michiganders who voted for Biden in 2020 are angry.

“As an Arab, we just cannot be complicit and stand still and watch our brothers and sisters getting killed in the region in the Middle East, especially Gaza Strip,” says Mohammad Al Mawri, a medical technician in Dearborn. “That kind of just atrocities and the death toll and the videos we were watching that got us all traumatized.”

Al Mawri has been to many protests calling for an immediate ceasefire and an arms embargo, often carrying a long pole with the Palestinian flag, to which he recently added the Lebanese flag. He says the Democratic Party’s support of marginalized peoples was why he used to support it.

“It seems like they're not holding these values anymore. It seems like they're moving more of the spectrum toward the right. So we made a shift to take different paths, which is either third party, some switching to Republican,” Al Mawri says. He’s advocating for people to vote for a third party. “We are actually targeting and we want to punish the current administration, which is the Democrats, for their just ongoing support of the genocide.”

Under Trump’s administration, he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, issued a ban on travel from six majority-Muslim countries, and, more recently, said Israel should finish the job in Gaza.

When asked about how third-party votes could siphon votes away from Harris and even lead to another Trump Presidency, some Dearborn residents said their goals are more long term.

“It's a long marathon run that we're doing for the Green Party, which we can build together the next election and after and after. It's a long-term strategy,” Al Mawri, says, admitting that the long-term plan comes with short-term pain, but he’s focused on putting dents in the Democratic Party.

Arika Lycan works for the University of Michigan and was raised in Reform Judaism.

“I feel like a big strong part of my Hebrew school, my Sunday school, all the things you do as a Jewish kid, a big part of it was learning about the Holocaust,” Lycan says, “and  the concept of ‘never again.’”

Earlier this year, they found that they were at odds with others in their circles.

“Based on the very pro-Israel narrative that I saw from Jewish folks on social media, that I'm friends with, people I know in real life, my family and friends that are Jewish, that was troubling to me,” they say. “Not troubling by itself, but in response to the continued escalation of the Israeli government against Palestine and to see people continue just to propagate this pro-Israel narrative without any mention of Palestine, Palestinians, dead children”

Lycan heard about the Gaza protest movement last year during primary voting season. They joined, and voted uncommitted to send a message to President Biden that he needed to do more to stop Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. They were surprised by how many others voted uncommitted too. It inspired them to attend some Palestinian solidarity protests. They now are conflicted about how to vote in November.

“As a queer trans person, I have a deep fear of Trump being elected. It seems like our choices are conservative Democrat who's supporting genocide or deranged Republican with no moral compass,” Lycan says. “To me, a third-party option sounds really good right now.”

Is that how they'll vote in November?

“Today, maybe. Tomorrow may be different,” they say. “Every day, I sway, to be honest.”

Lycan was hoping there would be an endorsement by the leaders of the uncommitted movement to help guide their vote, leaders like Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder, who lives in Dearborn. Many of his Arab American neighbors, childhood friends and community members have been waiting for Harris to signal that she hears them, that she understands their pain.

“In this moment when Vice President Harris is running and saying that she respects the rule of law and wants to turn a new page for our country, we think that part of that new page needs to be her reiterating her support for implementing U.S. and international law as it relates to weapons transfers to militaries that are using those weapons to harm and kill civilians. The Israeli military being one of them,” Alawieh says. “That feels like a really urgent demand. It also to us feels like a very reasonable demand. We were just asking that you stop sending weapons to kill civilians. We also offered other opportunities for engagement. We asked her to meet with a Palestinian American family who has family in Gaza. And unfortunately, what we received back was a canned response about [how] the vice president tries to prioritize engagement across the board.”

Some major Arab and Muslim groups and community leaders have endorsed Harris, like Emgage Action and a coalition of Imams, but some Democratic community leaders in Michigan, like the mayor of the small city of Hamtramck, have endorsed Trump.

Abbas and the other leaders of the uncommitted movement decided not to endorse any candidate. He says that personally, he cannot vote for a third party knowing that might end up electing Trump.

“I see a binary choice. It's Trump or Harris,” he says. “And personally, speaking in my own personal capacity, I'll vote anti-Trump, for Harris, so that our movement can continue organizing, and so that we can compel her to change her stance on this.”

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman says the Palestinian American community must create their own powerful lobby group, similar to the Pro-Israel AIPAC, and force politicians to take them seriously.

“The Palestinian diaspora is incredibly successful. Everywhere we've gone, we've been successful. I mean, the UN says we have a 99.8% literacy rate. Here in the United States, you have Palestinian entrepreneurs, businessmen, lawyers, doctors,” he says. “I mean, that is staggering for a people who are stateless, we have found a way to overcome astounding odds and barriers to be successful.”

This election likely won’t bring the outcome many in Dearborn desperately want, but it also might be the dawn of a new political movement, one that both the major parties will have to take seriously.

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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated Arika Lycan's pronouns. We regret the error. 

Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Ahmad Damen. Corcoran adapted it for the web.