Arab Americans in Dearborn gather for tense election result watch parties

Michigan is one of seven swing state and a must-win, particularly for Kamala Harris

Arab Americans gather in a restaurant for a presidential election watch party in Dearborn, Michigan. Reuters

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Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, gathered in a trendy food hall on Tuesday evening as polls closed in the swing state.

Groups of people draped in Lebanese flags and keffiyehs arrived at The Canteen, which serves Arabic food and drinks from a local Yemeni coffee chain.

A line-up of guest speakers gave speeches on a stage and large television screens broadcast the latest election results.

Khaled Beydoun, a law professor at Arizona State University who is originally from Dearborn, said he has been lobbying people to vote for third party candidates Jill Stein and Cornel West.

“Voting for Harris, given that she's tethered to the genocide [in Gaza], is unethical, and my long-term hope is that we can have a sustainable, available third party option for the long term,” Mr Beydoun told The National.

Mr Beydoun, who is Lebanese American, says the events since October 7, 2023 have left the community feeling, “invisible at best and demonised at worst”.

“We are a completely overlooked, neglected demographic where our interests mean very little,” he said.

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, which has killed more than 43,300 Palestinians, dozens of residents of Dearborn, the capital of Arab America, have lost relatives and loved ones.

Many blame the administration of President Joe Biden, whom they backed in 2020, for supporting Israel and supplying it with weapons. They say Mr Biden is now complicit in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which started early last month.

About 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7 and more than a million have been displaced.

Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is regarded as someone likely to continue the Biden administration’s policy of strong support for Israel.

Linda Sarsour, an Arab American activist from New York, said regardless of who wins, the community is going to have to lobby the new administration to be heard on the issues that matter to them.

“The community is really in an outraged place,” Ms Sarsour told The National. “We don't have good choices, and so I'm trusting the judgment of the community that at the end of the day, we're going to have to fight regardless.”

“We are between a rock and a hard place and there is a sentiment among people that they want to punish the Democrats for their complicity in genocide,” she said. “At the same time, we also understand the impact that Donald Trump had on our communities.”

When Mr Trump was president starting in 2020, he passed the so-called Muslim travel ban, enabled the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

There is concern that should he win again this time, he would enact another Muslim ban, cut US humanitarian aid to Palestinians and repress anti-war protests.

A few minutes away from The Canteen, a dozen Trump supporters gathered at a dimly lit shisha lounge.

Bishara Bahbah, chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, said the former president's outreach to the community has given many people hope that he would end the wars in the Middle East. He said Mr Trump had met with Arab and Muslim-American leaders at least a dozen times in recent months.

“The energy behind Trump, particularly among Arab and Muslim Americans, is an energy that we have not seen before,” Mr Bahbah told The National.

“He has indicated that he wants to put an end to the wars in the Middle East, and that includes Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, and that is something that resonates well with the Arab and Muslim-American communities, because they feel the pain directly,” he said.

Michigan is a swing state, and in previous elections it has paved the way for Democrats to win the White House.

Wasel Yousaf, a Syrian American community leader, said that critical to the former president’s success with Arab-American communities has been enlisting the help of Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman whose son is married to one of Mr Trump’s daughters.

“As Arabs we were previously just numbers,” Mr Yousaf told The National, “now the Republican party – thanks to Massad Boulos – we feel that we belong, we built a bridge and we have a new channel of communication with Washington.”

“We feel at ease and hope that after the election we are not neglected once again like in previous elections.”