Arab American voters make their choice – Harris, Trump or none – in the final days of the election.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Bowls of labneh and plates of za’atar bread sat on tables at a Lebanese restaurant near Detroit, but no one seemed to have much of an appetite.

On the one hand there were Kamala Harris ‘senior emissaries of the Arab-American community. On the other hand, there were local leaders who explained: again — why many community members were unable to vote for a vice president because of the war in Gaza.

“I love this country, but I will tell you, we have never been more disappointed in this country than we are now,” said Nabih H. Ayad, chairman of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “We wanted to give the Democratic Party an opportunity to do something, but they didn’t do it.”

“The only line we cannot cross,” Ayyad said, “is genocide.”

Nasrina Bargzi and Brenda Abdelal, who had been hired by the Harris campaign to lead the outreach to Arabs and Muslims, listened intently but said little in response.

If Harris loses Michigan and the presidential election next week, it will be conversations like this that may explain why. The Detroit area has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country. Democrats are afraid that Harris will pay a heavy political price for U.S. support for Israel, which denies accusations that its military operations in the Gaza Strip constitute genocide.

Community members who typically support Democrats said they were faced with an impossible decision. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, they will either punish Harris for what they consider complicity in the deaths of at least 43,000 Palestinians, or they will tolerate Donald Trump a return to the White House that they fear will reignite discrimination against their community.

A reminder of the complexity of the situation came in Ann Arbor on Monday evening when Harris held a campaign rally. Assad Turf, one of the few Arab American elected officials in Michigan to support the vice president, said his community needs someone “who sees us, who understands us and who will give voice to our pain,” adding that “without a doubt Kamala Harris is that leader.”

But as Harris began her speech, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted her with chants of “Israel bombs, Kamala pays, how many children have you killed today?” Harris responded, “Hey guys, I hear you” and “we all want this war to end as soon as possible.”

It’s unclear how many skeptics Harris will be able to win over, especially since she has not proposed any specific changes to U.S. policy toward Israel or the Gaza war. Four years ago, Joe Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin in Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent. Now Democrats are concerned that some of those voters will switch to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein.

“They are separated. There are those who will vote for Harris recognizing that they can get a seat at the table,” said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who convened a recent meeting at a Lebanese restaurant in his efforts to help Harris’ campaign. . “But there is a part that will vote for Stein or stay home. Then there is a minority that will vote for Trump.”

Trump achieved number of approvals from Muslims in the area, including two Democratic mayors who represent Muslim-majority cities outside of Detroit. On Saturday, he brought several Muslims on stage at a rally in metro Detroit.

He claims to “end endless wars” and notes the Abraham Accords, which Israel signed with several Arab countries 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 campaigning with Liz Cheney to try to unseat moderate Republicans spurned by Trump in Michigan and elsewhere.

But many senior Arab American leaders – even those who did not support Harris – remain deeply negative towards Trump and say his support does not reflect the views of the majority of the community. They also remember his call for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. Some have noted that Trump has suggested he will give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.

Harris defeats man who supported the ‘non-alignment’ movement

Turf, a Lebanese-American and Wayne County deputy executive, is among the few Arab American leaders in Michigan to endorse Harris. He said this is necessary to prevent the community from returning to the Trump presidency, which “opened old wounds for the post-9/11 generation.”

Turf said he was awakened by immigration agents in 2005 when they came to detain his wife, who came to the country when she was two years old and didn’t know she didn’t have legal citizenship.

“They came for her and destroyed my family,” he said.

Then, in 2006, two of Terfa’s grandmothers were killed in Lebanon as Israel fought Hezbollah in a war backed by President George W. Bush.

Turf said his community was predominantly Republican until those years. But members switched to Democrats during Barack Obama’s presidency and then helped Biden defeat Trump in 2020.

These political ties are now severed.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping more than 200 hostages. Soon after, Israel launched an offensive with military and diplomatic support from the Biden administration.

As civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip mounted, anti-war Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere began a protest movement in the Democratic primaries. They collected over 100,000 “unrecorded” voiceswith most coming from Muslim-majority cities in the state such as Dearborn.

Turf was part of the “non-aligned” movement when Biden was running for re-election, but he said that changed my mind when Harris became a candidate. He endorsed her in August and met with 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,” Turf said.

Turf’s support sparked a backlash. On social media, photoshopped images accuse him of endorsing atrocities in the Gaza Strip. He also received text messages calling him a traitor. Long-standing relationships in his hometown of Dearborn have become 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 Muslims.” A lifelong Democrat, Amen said she would not vote for Harris.

“They want to send their people to come and see how we are doing because now they are afraid that they will lose the fluctuating fortune,” said Amen, who lived in Lebanon from 2017 to 2021. But, you know, if she loses, it’s her own fault, her own hand, and she deserves it.

Amen said she doesn’t want Trump to win, but “eventually I’ll have to sleep at night.”

Harris makes his closing argument to Arab Americans

Harris made a rare reference to Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah during a recent speech in Oakland County, near Detroit.

“This year has been very difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip, as well as civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon,” she said. Death Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar“It could and should be a turning point,” she said.

Harris also said she was “very proud of the support” of Turf and other Muslim leaders.

But Harris has not called for any reduction in the flow of American arms to Israel, and her campaign prevented a pro-Palestinian speaker from taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention in August, a key demand of the “non-alignment” movement.

Hanna, a progressive Democrat from California, has been in close contact with Arab American leaders in metro Detroit for months and this summer received a Profile in Courage award from the Arab American Civil Rights League. Khanna is Indian, but said his family’s background gave him the opportunity to share experiences with Arab Americans.

During an October 26 meeting with American Arab leaders, Hanna sat next to Harris’s Arab and Muslim outreach directors, acknowledging that Harris had not done “enough” to help end the war between Israel and Hamas.

“If Trump is elected, people like me won’t be in any room,” Khanna said. “Harris gives people like us a seat at the table to advocate for you.”

That’s the message that resonates with Mike Mushanesh, a Palestinian-American who owns his own auto parts store and attended the meeting. He said the community should vote for Harris “even if we have to hold our nose.”

“If we want a seat at the table, we need to help her cross the finish line,” he said.

___ Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.