DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Bowls of labneh and platters of za’atar bread covered the tables at a Lebanese restaurant near Detroit, but no one seemed to have much of an appetite.
On one side were Kamala Harris’ top emissaries to the Arab American community. On the other hand, local leaders explained – once again – why many in the community could not vote for vice president because of the war in Gaza.
“I love this country, but I tell you, we have never been more disappointed in this country than we are now,” said Nabih H. Ayad, president of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “We wanted to give the Democratic Party a chance to do something, and they didn’t do that.”
“The only line we cannot cross,” Ayad said, “is genocide.”
Nasrina Bargzie and Brenda Abdelal, hired by Harris’ campaign to spearhead Arab and Muslim outreach, listened intently but barely responded.
If Harris loses Michigan and the presidential election next week, conversations like this could explain why. The Detroit area has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and Democrats fear Harris will pay a bulky political price for U.S. support for Israel, which rejects allegations that its military operations in Gaza amounted to genocide.
Community members who normally support Democrats said they were faced with an impossible decision. Either they punish Harris for his complicity in the deaths of at least 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, or they endure the return of Donald Trump to the White House, which they fear would lead to renewed discrimination against their community.
A reminder of the complexity of the situation came Monday night in Ann Arbor when Harris held a campaign rally. Assad Turfe, one of the few Arab-American elected officials in Michigan supporting the vice president, said his community needs someone “who sees us, who understands us and who gives voice to our pain,” adding that “without Doubt Kamala. “Harris is that leader.”
But as Harris began her remarks, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted her with chants: “Israel is bombing, Kamala is paying, how many children did you kill today?” Harris replied: “Hey guys, I hear you” and “we all want to “That this war ends as quickly as possible.”
It’s unclear how many skeptics Harris can win over, especially since she hasn’t proposed any concrete changes to U.S. policy toward Israel or the war in Gaza. Four years ago, Joe Biden won by a 3-1 margin in Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent. Now Democrats fear that some of those voters will choose Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein.
“They are divided. There are those who will vote for Harris because they realize they could get a seat at the table,” said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who called the recent meeting at his Lebanese restaurant to support. “But there is a part that will vote for Stein or stay home. Then there is a minority that will vote for Trump.”
Trump has received a range of endorsements from Muslims in the region, including from two Democratic mayors who represent Muslim-majority cities outside Detroit. He brought several Muslims to the stage at a rally in the Detroit area on Saturday.
He argues he will “put an end to endless wars” and points to the Abraham Accords that Israel signed with several Arab nations during his presidency. He also mocked Harris’ embrace of former Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican whose father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was a key force behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Harris is running a campaign alongside Liz Cheney to turn moderate Republicans in Michigan and elsewhere away from Trump.
But many senior Arab American leaders — even those who did not support Harris — are still deeply hostile to Trump, saying his support does not reflect the majority of the community. They also recall his call for a “total and complete ban” on Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. And some point out that Trump has hinted that he would give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.
Harris convinces someone who supports the “Uncommitted” movement
Turfe, a Lebanese American and Wayne County deputy executive, is among the few Arab American leaders in Michigan who have endorsed Harris. He says it’s about ensuring the community doesn’t return to a Trump presidency that has “opened old wounds for the generation that lived through the years after 9/11.”
Turfe said he was woken up by immigration officials in 2005 when they tried to arrest his wife, who had come to the country when she was two years aged and did not know she was not a legal citizen.
“They took her and tore my family apart,” he said.
Then, in 2006, Turfe’s two grandmothers were killed in Lebanon as Israel fought with Hezbollah in a war supported by President George W. Bush.
Turfe said his community was primarily Republican until those years. But during Barack Obama’s presidency, members turned to Democrats and then helped Biden beat Trump in 2020.
These political ties are now torn.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping more than 200 hostages. Shortly thereafter, Israel launched its offensive with military and diplomatic support from the Biden administration.
As civilian casualties mounted in Gaza, antiwar Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere launched a protest voting movement in the Democratic primary. They received over 100,000 “non-binding” votes, with the majority coming from Muslim-majority cities in the state such as Dearborn.
Turfe was part of the “Uncommitted” movement when Biden was running for re-election, but he said he changed his mind when Harris became the nominee. He endorsed her in August and met her before a rally near Detroit in October.
He said he told Harris about his grandmother’s death nearly two decades ago and “I felt her compassion.”
“She felt my pain,” Turfe said.
Turfe’s support has sparked a backlash. Photoshopped images on social media accuse him of supporting atrocities in Gaza. He has also received text messages calling him a traitor. Long-standing relationships in his hometown of Dearborn are strained.
Dearborn resident Suehaila Amen is used to her community being in the national spotlight, having starred in the 2012 TLC reality series “All-American Muslim.” Amen, a lifelong Democrat, said she would not vote for Harris.
“They want to send their people to see how we feel because now they are afraid that they will lose a swing state,” said Amen, who lived in Lebanon from 2017 to 2021. But you know, if she loses, it will be her own fault, her own hand, and she will deserve it.”
Amen said she doesn’t want Trump to win, but “at the end of the day, I have to sleep at night.”
Harris makes her closing argument to Arab Americans
Harris made a scarce mention of Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent speech in Oakland County, outside Detroit.
“This year has been very difficult given the level of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon,” she said. The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, she said, “can and must be a turning point.”
Harris also said she was “very proud to have the support” of Turfe and other Muslim leaders.
But Harris has not called for a reduction in the flow of U.S. arms to Israel, and her campaign did not allow any pro-Palestinian speaker to take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in August, a key demand of the “non-binding” movement.
Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, has been in close contact with Arab American leaders in the Detroit area for months and received the Arab American Civil Rights League’s Profile in Courage award this summer. Khanna is Hindu, but said his family’s background gave him shared experiences with Arab Americans.
During the Oct. 26 meeting with Arab American leaders, Khanna sat next to Harris’ Arab and Muslim outreach directors and acknowledged that Harris had “not done enough” to assist end the Israel-Hamas war.
“If Trump is elected, people like me will not be in any of the rooms,” Khanna said. “Harris gives people like us a seat at the table to advocate on your behalf.”
It’s the kind of message that resonates with Mike Musheinesh, a Palestinian American who runs his own auto parts business and attended the meeting. He said the community should vote for Harris “even if we have to hold our noses.”
“If we want a seat at the table, we have to help her across the finish line,” he said.
___ Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
