As Israel expands its military campaign in southern Lebanon amid escalating conflict in the Middle East, a Lebanese American community in a key swing state could leave its mark on this year’s US election.
Michigan—where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are polling neck and neck—is home to more than 82,000 Lebanese Americans, including nearly 23,000 in the city of Dearborn. Most have roots in Lebanon’s south, and they are no strangers to conflict: Some are the children of parents who immigrated to Michigan after Israel’s invasion and occupation in 1982, while others fled the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War.
Lebanese Americans in Dearborn say that this latest round of conflict is different. There has never been an active interstate war involving Lebanon during a US presidential election, and their fear and anger about the situation will shape their decisions when they vote on 5 November. This month, large demonstrations in support of Lebanon and against US military aid to Israel took place in Dearborn. Protesters carried signs criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Harris and US President Joe Biden.
In August, Arab Americans in Michigan told Foreign Policy that they did not see a difference between Harris and Trump on the issue of Palestine; they now echo a similar sentiment regarding the crisis in Lebanon. Democratic Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, 34, whose family hails from southern Lebanon, said that Israel’s recent campaign has affected much of the community personally—including his own family. “People in our community ask themselves, ‘Who in our family has been killed today?’” Hammoud said in early October.
“People in the city are attending funerals (to honour people who died in Lebanon) daily now. Lebanese American families are being carpet-bombed and killed by Israeli forces indiscriminately. All this stems from the fact that our government refuses to put its foot down and end this war, which would end tomorrow with a phone call,” Hammoud said.
Arab Americans in Michigan have broadly shifted away from the Democratic Party this year, driven by what they see as US complicity in the suffering of Palestinian, and now Lebanese, civilians. During the Michigan Democratic primary, more than 100,000 people voted uncommitted in protest of the Biden administration’s unwavering commitment to Israel. In the months since, the Uncommitted Movement has remained steadfast in advocating for an arms embargo on Israel and a seat at the table with the Democrats.
Neither effort has borne any fruit: The Democratic National Convention declined to put a Palestinian American speaker on stage in August, and the Harris campaign did not meet the Uncommitted Movement’s demand for an in-person meeting with its leaders before 15 September.
As a result, the Uncommitted Movement has refused to endorse Harris, Trump, or a third-party candidate. “Harris’s unwillingness to shift to a conditional weapons policy or to even make a clear statement in support of upholding existing US and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” said Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted Movement leader and Michigan electoral delegate. He emphasized that the movement did not recommend voting for a third-party candidate and thus likely delivering Trump a victory in Michigan.
The Abandon Harris movement (formerly Abandon Biden) has taken a different approach, explicitly endorsing Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. According to a survey conducted in late August by the Council on American Islamic Relations, Stein is polling at 40% among Arab Americans in Michigan, followed by Trump at 18% and Harris at 12%.
