‘We warned you,’ Arab Americans in Michigan tell Kamala Harris

Dearborn, Michigan – When Fox News called Pennsylvania for Donald Trump successful the aboriginal hours of Wednesday, each but confirming that helium volition beryllium the adjacent president of the United States, determination were a fistful of Arab activists near astatine a ticker enactment successful Dearborn, Michigan.

“Genocide is atrocious politics,” said 1 attendee astatine the event, which had Palestinian and Lebanese flags hanging extracurricular its doors.

And arsenic the world of different Trump presidency acceptable disconnected choler and sorrow from galore Democratic commentators, astatine the Arab American gathering determination was a consciousness of indifference, if not vindication.

Democratic campaigner Kamala Harris had ignored the community’s calls for reconsidering the unconditional US enactment for Israel. The vice president besides continued to asseverate what she calls “Israel’s close to support itself” contempt the brutal atrocities successful Gaza and Lebanon.

Activist Adam Abusalah said portion of the crushed wherefore Harris mislaid was her determination to broadside with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu astatine the disbursal of alienating the Democratic basal — Arab and Muslim Americans arsenic good arsenic young radical and progressives.

“It’s not our fault. They cannot vilify our community,” Abusalah said.

“We’ve been informing the Democrats for implicit a twelvemonth now, and the Democrats proceed to downplay what’s going on.”

He added that Harris’s main connection to the Arab assemblage was to pass of the dangers of a Trump presidency — a maneuver that did not enactment arsenic voters successful the country were laser-focused connected the ongoing warfare successful the Middle East that affected galore of them personally.

Dearborn shift

In the Arab-majority suburb of Dearborn, choler implicit Israel’s US-backed battle connected Gaza and Lebanon was tangible astatine the ballot box.

Harris mislaid the metropolis to Trump by much than 2,600 votes. President Joe Biden bushed Trump by much than 17,400 votes — that is much than a 20,000-vote plaything that helped the Republican erstwhile president reclaim Michigan.

Candidate Jill Stein, who centred absorption to the warfare successful her platform, besides performed comparatively good successful the city, increasing the Green Party’s enactment from 207 votes successful 2020 to much than 7,600 this year.

Hussein Dabajeh, a Lebanese American governmental advisor successful the Detroit area, noted that Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, importantly outperformed Harris successful Dearborn, receiving much than 9,600 votes than the vice president.

“The Arab assemblage said we’re anti-genocide. We supported the candidates that supported the assemblage and we stood against the candidates that stood against the community,” Dabajeh told Al Jazeera.

It is unclear what a Trump presidency would mean for Arab and Muslim Americans and the state astatine large.

“I anticipation it’s thing good. I anticipation the state comes together. I anticipation the Democrats are brought to their senses,” Dabajeh said.

While the erstwhile president has a agelong past of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant statements and policies, helium has promised to bring “peace” to the region.

Trump besides softened his antagonistic code towards Arabs and Muslims arsenic helium courted their communities successful Michigan.

He brought Arab and Muslim officials and imams to the signifier during his rallies and called them “great people”.

Trump besides visited Dearborn and listened first-hand to demands to extremity the warfare — thing that Harris failed to do.

‘It doesn’t halt here’

Ali Alfarjalla, a 32-year-old Iraqi American existent property cause successful Dearborn, said that for each his flaws, Trump represents a alteration from the Biden-Harris medication that has been unflinchingly supporting the Israeli battle connected Gaza and Lebanon.

He stressed that the predetermination is not the extremity of governmental engagement, saying that the assemblage volition property Trump to present connected his committedness of bringing bid to the region.

“It doesn’t halt here,” Alfarjalla told Al Jazeera.

“We person to enactment much to marque definite our issues are heard — to halt the genocide successful Gaza, halt the penetration of South Lebanon, and fto Palestine person its ain state. We’re hopeful astir that. That’s our fig 1 precedence for this community.”

He besides said that Harris supporters’ “lesser of 2 evils” transportation to the assemblage backfired due to the fact that galore voters could not spot a worse evil than the medication providing the bombs sidesplitting their families and destroying their hometowns.

While some large candidates backmost Israel, the Harris run committed a bid of unforced errors that further alienated the assemblage successful Michigan and beyond, Arab American advocates person told Al Jazeera.

At the Democratic National Convention successful Chicago successful August, the Harris run rejected demands to let a code by a Palestinian speaker.

The Democratic campaigner besides turned down a petition for a gathering by the Uncommitted Movement that was founded during the Democratic Primary process to unit Biden implicit his unconditional enactment for Israel.

Unlike Trump, Harris has not visited Dearborn, the de-facto spot of Arab American governmental and fiscal power, during this campaign.

Instead, Harris met with handpicked Arab and Muslim “leaders” successful Flint, astir an hr northbound of Detroit, past month.

Moreover, Harris has campaigned with Liz Cheney successful Michigan and welcomed the endorsement of her father, erstwhile President Dick Cheney — an designer of the alleged “War connected Terror” that devastated the Middle East.

Numerous Arab American activists invoked Harris’s clasp of the Cheneys erstwhile underscoring her evident disregard to their communities.

“We had Harris endorsed by neoconservatives similar Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, and she’s openly campaigning with them and talking astir however large they are,” Dearborn councilman Mustapha Hammoud told al Jazeera connected Tuesday nighttime arsenic the results trickled in.

“You cognize what? I don’t deliberation radical are consenting to ballot for George W Bush, truthful you weren’t going to spot radical ballot for Harris, either.”

Voters enactment up to formed their ballots successful Hamtramck, Michigan, November 5 [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]

‘I grin and laughter astatine it’

Speaking nether the Harris run motion past week, erstwhile President Bill Clinton claimed that Hamas “forces” Israel to termination Palestinian civilians and suggested that Zionism pre-dates Islam.

The campaign’s behaviour led immoderate advocates to question whether the Democratic campaigner has fixed up connected the Arab community.

“Vice President Harris has shown implicit and implicit again that she really doesn’t privation our vote,” Uncommitted Movement person Layla Elabed told Al Jazeera past week.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud besides noted that the Harris run was hesitant to prosecute Arab Americans directly.

“They don’t privation the heckling to occur. They don’t privation to sound connected the doors wherever they deliberation the conversations are going to drag, and the votes mightiness not beryllium there,” the politician told Al Jazeera earlier the elections.

On the argumentation front, Harris has not made immoderate factual promises to the assemblage — adjacent wrong the acceptable realm of mainstream authorities — similar reopening the Palestinian diplomatic ngo successful Washington, DC, oregon resuming backing for the UN bureau for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

In contrast, Biden released platforms for Arab and Muslim Americans successful 2020, promising home and overseas argumentation moves sought by the assemblage — galore of which went unfulfilled.

Bottom line, galore Arab Americans accidental they already survived 4 years of Trump portion galore of their relatives successful Palestine and Lebanon did not past the Biden-Harris presidency.

They accidental they volition proceed to propulsion for change, nary substance who is successful power.

Asked astir immoderate wide societal media users attacking Arab Americans and blaming them for Harris’s defeat, Alfarjalla said galore radical successful the assemblage person survived warfare and adversity, truthful they are not acrophobic with what others say.

“I grin and laughter astatine it,” helium said.