By Romana Rubeo

The voting patterns of Muslim Arabs and their allies suggest that Gaza played an important role in decisive votes in some American states.

George Helmy, a Democratic senator and member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday that the war in Gaza contributed to Kamala Harris’ loss of the state of Michigan.

Previously, official results from the state, home to hundreds of thousands of Arab-Americans, indicated that approximately 110,000 votes went to candidates other than Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The voting patterns of Muslim Arabs and their allies suggest that Gaza played an important role in decisive votes in some American states.

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The Michigan case

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris lost Michigan, a crucial swing state where the votes of Arab and Muslim communities proved influential.

Republican candidate Donald Trump claimed Michigan’s 15 electoral votes. Many American Muslims in the state expressed frustration with the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel amid the current crisis in Gaza.

According to the Associated Press, with 99% of precincts reporting, Trump won 49.8% of the vote in the key state, while Harris received 48.3%. Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein won 0.8%, absorbing some of the discontent among Arab communities.

For example, in the city of Dearborn, considered the capital of the Arab American community, Jill Stein obtained an impressive 18.37%.

In addition to her support for Israel, the Harris campaign seemed to be struggling with other options.

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Last August, for example, she refused have a Muslim or Arab speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

Last week, the Democratic Party sent former US President Bill Clinton to drum up support for Harris. However, Clinton faced widespread criticism for her comments justifying Palestinian civilian casualties, claiming that Hamas “forced” Israel to take such actions.

“I understand why young Palestinians and Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died. I get it,” Clinton said, addressing Arab-American voters.

“But if you lived in one of those kibbutzim in Israel right next to Gaza, where the people there were the most pro-Palestine friendship, the most pro-two-state solution of all the Israeli communities, they were the ones right next to Gaza side. Loop. And Hamas massacred them,” he continued.

In an attempt to dialogue with “leaders of the Arab-American community,” Harris herself headed to Michigan and promised to do “everything in her power to end the war.”

However, voters were skeptical about his commitment. While acknowledging the “suffering in Gaza,” he reiterated, once again, that he must “ensure that Israel is safe.”

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Rejected claims

American voters who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza openly stated that they would not support the Democratic Party or the outgoing administration, which provided Israel with a record $17.9 billion in military aid during the first year of the war, according to a Costs of War report from Brown University. Project.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Arab-American activist Adam Abusalah claimed that the Harris campaign ignored warnings from the community.

“We’ve been warning Democrats for over a year and Democrats continue to downplay what’s going on,” he said.

A few days before election day, a report published In The Intercept he noted that “after months of street protests and organizing within the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris’ campaign has shown no signs that it will deviate from the Biden administration’s steadfast support for Israel amid its genocidal war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.

The Intercept interviewed “voters who are horrified by the United States’ continued support for Israel’s war” and found that “every voter (…) had demanded from Biden, and now Harris, an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the end of the US policy of unconditional military aid to Israel.”

“The rejection of such demands has left voters uneasy about their options,” the report states.

The exception: Rashida Tlaib

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib won re-election in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, securing her fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US House of Representatives.

The Associated Press declared victory early, with only 18 percent of precincts reporting. Tlaib won a remarkable 77 percent of the vote, while her Republican rival, James Hooper, only received 19 percent.

It should be noted that Tlaib was the only member of the so-called ‘Squad’ who did not support the Democratic candidate.

Tlaib has been an outspoken critic of the Democratic Party’s stance on the ongoing genocide, stating that it was “hard not to feel invisible” when the party decided not to include a Palestinian-American speaker at its convention.

“Our trauma and pain seem invisible and ignored by both sides,” he said in an interview with former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan at the time. “One party uses our identity as an insult and the other refuses to hear from us. Where is the shared humanity? “Ignoring us will not stop the genocide.”

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‘Learn a lesson’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, issued a statement Wednesday calling on Democratic leaders to “learn lessons from Vice President Harris’ loss of support among Muslims.” and other anti-Gaza voters.” genocide.”

“It is important for Democratic and other elected officials to recognize that the sharp drop in support for Vice President Harris in key states compared to President Biden’s victory in 2020 was due, in part, to the deep frustration and disillusionment that many young people “Muslims, Arabs, Blacks, and other voters sit with the Biden-Harris administration because of its strong financial and military support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the statement said.

“Instead of listening to the clear majority of Americans who support both a ceasefire and an arms suspension to Israel, Vice President Harris only adopted a slightly more sympathetic tone toward the Palestinians, while sticking to the substance of the disastrous stance by President Biden,” he added.

“This led to an unprecedented shift in support from Muslim, Arab and other communities that traditionally vote for Democratic presidents,” the statement concluded.

(The Palestinian Chronicle)

– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and editor-in-chief of The Palestine Chronicle. His articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She has a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages ​​and Literatures and is specialized in audiovisual and journalistic translation.