Dearborn, Michigan – On a sunny but frigid afternoon, dozens of protesters stood on a corner in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn and chanted slogans against Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump.

“Trump and Harris, you can’t hide, don’t vote for genocide,” a young woman dressed in a keffiyeh chanted into a megaphone. The small but lively crowd echoed his words.

If not Trump or Harris the next president of the United States, who?

The Abandon Harris campaign that organized the protest endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein, demonstrating the growing disconnect many Arabs and Muslims feel with the two major parties over their support for Israel.

Stein has been gaining popularity in Arab and Muslim communities amid Israel’s brutal war against Gaza and Lebanon, according to public opinion. center show.

While the Green Party candidate is highly unlikely to win the presidency, her supporters see voting for her as a principled choice that can lay the groundwork for greater viability of third-party candidates in the future.

Hassan Abdel Salam, co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, said more and more voters are adopting the group’s position of ditching the two leading candidates and backing Stein.

“She is the best example of our position against genocide,” Abdel Salam said of the Green Party candidate, who has expressed support for Palestinian rights.

the strategy

Abandon Harris has been urging voters not to support the vice president over her promise to continue arming Israel amid the US ally’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, which have killed more than 46,000 people.

Abdel Salam praised Stein for his bravery and willingness to stand up to both major parties despite recent attacks, especially from Democrats.

For the Abandon Harris campaign, backing Stein isn’t just about principle; It is part of a broader strategy.

“Our goal is to punish the vice president for the genocide, to then take the blame for her defeat and send a signal to the political landscape that they should never have ignored us,” Abdel Salam told Al Jazeera.

In addition to the endorsement of the Abandon Harris campaign, Stein earned the endorsement of the American Arab and Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), a political group based in Dearborn.

“After extensive dialogue with the Harris and Trump campaigns, we found no commitment to address the pressing concerns of our community, particularly the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon,” the group said in a statement last month. past.

“The need for a ceasefire remains paramount to Muslim and Arab American voters, but neither campaign has offered a viable solution.”

AMPAC added that it supports Stein “based on his strong commitment to peace, justice and a call for an immediate ceasefire in conflict zones.”

With support for Stein rising in the Arab and Muslim communities of Michigan, where President Joe Biden won in a landslide in 2020, Democrats are taking notice and fighting back.

Democrats target Stein

Harris’ campaign ran an ad targeting Arab Americans in southeast Michigan that attacked third-party candidates.

In the commercial, Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe says Harris would help end the war in the Middle East as the camera zooms in on a cedar tree, the national symbol of Lebanon, hanging from her necklace.

Turfe warns voters in the video that Trump would bring more chaos and suffering if elected. “We also know that voting for a third party is voting for Trump,” he says.

Stein’s supporters, however, categorically reject that argument.

Palestinian comedian and activist Amer Zahr, who is running for a school board seat in Dearborn, argued that Democrats should be grateful that Stein is on the ballot and criticized the argument that a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump as “paternalistic”.

“The assumption is that if Stein wasn’t there, we would be voting for you,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.

“If they really were two parties and there were no other parties, I think the majority of Arab Americans who vote for Stein would not vote for either of them. And in fact, if there were really only two options, many of the people who are voting for Stein right now out of anger at the Democratic Party might opt ​​for Trump.”

Zahr, who was on a short list of candidates Stein considered for his vice presidential election, also dismissed the argument that a vote for the Green Party would be “wasted” because it is unlikely to win.

“I’m talking about breaking news: voters vote for people who talk about their problems,” he told Al Jazeera, praising Stein for standing up to Israel and presenting himself as an “openly antigenocide” candidate.

“For me, Jill Stein is a noble vehicle to express our deep anger and the mistrust and betrayal we feel at the polls.”

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) ran a separate ad last month also proclaiming that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.”

Stein has responded to that claim, criticizing Democrats’ attacks as a “campaign of fear and smear.”

Last week she told Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast that the Democratic Party is coming after her instead of “addressing issues like genocide, which has lost Kamala Harris so many voters.”

“I’m fed up with the two-party system”

While foreign policy may not be a priority for the average American voter, numerous Arab and Muslim Americans interviewed by Al Jazeera over the past week said Israel’s attack on Lebanon and Gaza is their number one issue.

And so, with presidential candidates from both major parties expressing unconditional support for Israel, some voters hope Stein will break away from the two parties and forge a new path.

“I’m fed up with the two-party system and its power-play politics, where both sides unanimously agree on this bipartisan issue that they support Israel,” said Haneen Mahbuba, an Iraqi-American voter.

Wearing a keffiyeh-print scarf that says “Gaza” in Arabic around her neck, the bespectacled 30-year-old mother raised her voice in anger as she described the violence Israel is committing in Gaza and Lebanon with the support of the United States.

Mahbuba told Al Jazeera that she feels “empowered” by voting for Stein because she does not give in to “scaremongering” about the need to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” He added that it is Harris voters who are wasting their votes.

“They are giving away their vote when they vote for the Democratic Party that has continually dismissed us, ignored us, silenced us and seen us as less important,” Mahbuba said.

‘Indistinguishable’

Stein ran for president in 2012, 2016 and 2020, but failed to make much of an impression in the election.

However, Stein’s Arab and Muslim supporters say the Green Party can make a dent in the results this year to show the power of voters who prioritize Palestinian human rights.

Wissam Charafeddine, a Detroit-area activist, said backing Stein is the right choice both morally and strategically.

“I am the type of voter who believes that voting should be based on values ​​and not politics. “This is the core of democracy,” he said.

Charafeddine, who voted for Stein in the past, added that Arab Americans are lucky to be concentrated in a swing state where their votes are amplified.

“When we vote for Dr. Jill Stein, we are not only voting for the correct moral platform that is actually more aligned with our values, interests, desires and priorities, but she also represents the Palestinian vote and the anti-Israel vote. vote of genocide,” Charafeddine told Al Jazeera.

In short, advocates say the growing support for Stein shows that many Arab and Muslim voters have reached a tipping point with both major parties’ support for Israel.

“Harris and Trump are simply indistinguishable to us because they crossed a certain threshold that we can never accept in the logic of the lesser evil,” Abdel Salam told Al Jazeera.

“These are two genocidal parties and we cannot confront either of them.”