As Trump and Harris court Arab Americans, Michigan mayor prepares to increase pressure | US Election News 2024

Dearborn, Michigan Abdullah Hammoud was walking through his office, having a heated telephone conversation about former President Bill Clinton's assertion that Hamas would force Israel to kill Palestinian civilians.

By the time the mayor of Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, sat down for an interview, he had shaken off his anger, at least on the surface.

Hammoud, 34, seemed clear-eyed about the future of the city known as the capital of Arab America and the path forward for its grieving community amid Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon.

There's a veil of grief that has just covered this community, and people are just trying to get by, obviously, in the middle of the whole presidential election against the backdrop of genocide, the war in Lebanon, the bombings in Yemen , etc., Hammoud told Al Jazeera.

Hammoud, one of the most prominent Arab American elected officials in the United States who served in the state Legislature as a Democrat, did not support either candidate, urging residents to vote their conscience.

In a tight race, the tens of thousands of Arab voters in Dearborn, a city of 110,000, and across Michigan, could prove crucial to the election outcome in the state and perhaps the country.

This was not lost on the candidates: On Friday, Trump is expected to visit Dearborn, and Harris has already met with Hammoud during the campaign, but not in Dearborn.

Hammoud stressed the need to vote for the community to make its voice heard.

Right now, what is more important than anything else is to stand firm in our values ​​and principles and stand in solidarity with each other in the city, he said.

But for Hammoud, the fight to end Israel's killing machine in Gaza and Lebanon, the ancestral homeland of thousands of Dearborn residents, including the mayor himself, will not end at the fence elections on November 5 and the election of a new president.

Whoever takes on the role will be willing to hold their feet to the fire and hold them accountable, he said. Everyone is promising a ceasefire, but no one is saying how they will implement it.

The pressure will increase

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has said she will push for an end to the war and her Republican rival Donald Trump has promised peace in the Middle East.

But the vice president and former president resolutely support Israel.

Hammoud noted that both candidates have not explained how they would deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly pledged to continue the carnage until total victory.

But the pressure will increase on our side. And we must build on the broader anti-war coalition that has been built by our union leaders, all of whom have come forward and called not only for a ceasefire, but also for an arms embargo against Israel , declared the mayor.

Hell, even at this point I'll lean on the young Republicans who favor an arms embargo.

For Hammoud, change is possible whatever the outcome of the elections. The politics is there. Americans, by the millions, support the proposal, he said.

And what you won't see is 50 or 100 million Americans acting on their values ​​and principles. I think it's possible for us to believe that millions of Americans can move just one person in the White House on this issue.

Wearing a blue blazer over a white shirt, Hammoud criticized the two leading candidates for their stance on the Middle East as well as their approach to Michigan's Arab community.

In his office hung a map of Lebanon on a Yemeni dagger, a firefighter's helmet, an American football with the Detroit Lions logo, the city seal representing an old car due to the manufacturing history of the city. city ​​as the birthplace of industrial pioneer Henry Ford as well as other items representing the history of Dearborn and various communities.

Political outcomes are no different

Hammoud listed some of Trump's anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting off humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and recognizing Israel's claimed sovereignty over the Golan Heights. occupied by Syria.

He also cited Trump's ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, as well as recent comments from the former president's surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, who proclaimed that the Palestinians are learning to kill us at home. age of two years.

But I think the difficulty is you want to counter Trump with something that seems more welcoming, Hammoud said.

So when you see former President Bill Clinton's remarks, talking about how Israel is forced to kill civilians and how Israeli governments claim these lands before Islam existed, it becomes extremely frustrating.

Clinton was speaking to Arab American voters at an official Harris campaign event in Michigan when he made the comments this week.

Earlier this month, Harris also campaigned in Michigan with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq and the so-called war on terrorism.

When you have surrogates like Liz Cheney campaigning all over the state of Michigan talking about how even Dick Cheney, the war criminal, supports Vice President Harris, is that supposed to be a welcome message to this community? » asked Hammoud.

He also noted that the Biden-Harris administration has not reversed Trump's pro-Israel policies.

Yes, the narrative can be different, he said, referring to the approach of Harris and Trump. Sometimes the political outcomes are no different, and I think that has been a source of frustration for many.

Hope exists

As the race in Michigan heats up, attention turns to Dearborn, the nation's first majority-Arab city.

Campaign billboards can be seen throughout the city. Residents receive tons of advertisements in their mailboxes daily, focusing on Arab issues and the Israeli war against Gaza and Lebanon.

But locals don't seem to share the enthusiasm for the campaign. The city's Arab-American community, particularly its large Lebanese-American population, faces the anguish of watching from afar the war that is destroying their homeland.

The conflict is deeply personal to them. Their families are displaced, their villages of origin decimated and their loved ones killed by bombs supplied mainly by the United States. The community lost a respected leader, Kamel Jawad, killed in an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon on October 1.

We attend funerals much more frequently than celebratory events, Hammoud said.

Across the city, Lebanese and Palestinian flags and yard signs for school board candidates far outnumber those for Trump and Harris.

Despite voter frustration and a growing sense of disenchantment with the political system, Hammoud warned against disengagement from the political process, calling it a great fear.

The mayor stressed the importance of elections, particularly at the local level. He cited the election of officials like him and other representatives, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who have amplified community demands around the conflict.

He said that even as people struggle with the presidential question, there is hope on the ground.

There are rallies all over the world, and the center of America has shifted to Israel-Palestine, and the center of the world has shifted, he said.

I think we are a generation away from having a generation of elected leaders who will more closely reflect the policy positions, values ​​and principles of the broader electorate.

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