Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 August 2024
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Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted

  • Americans with Arab ancestry in key battleground states are gravitating toward Green Party candidate Jill Stein
  • Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will need to win back voters after Joe Biden’s Gaza stance cost the party support

LONDON: Jill Stein, the US Green Party’s presidential candidate known for her vocal support of Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top choice among Arab American voters in the lead-up to the US elections on Nov. 5, according to a recently conducted poll.

Stein, running as a third-party candidate, has garnered the support of over 45 percent of Arab Americans surveyed by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American grassroots civil rights organization.

This places Stein, a physician and environmentalist, ahead of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 27.5 percent of the vote in the same poll.

The survey was conducted between July 27 and 28 through a partnership between the ADC, Molitico for data insights, and the Community Pulse, which specializes in polling solutions.

According to Abed Ayoub, ADC’s national executive director, the Arab-American voter demographic has increasingly gravitated toward Stein owing to her advocacy for Palestinian human rights and her opposition to the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza since October.

In a post on the social platform X, he said: “Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein’s strong polling at 45.3 percent, akin to the previous poll, demonstrates consistent community support, largely because of her vocal stance on Palestinian human rights.”




Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

Stein has been a favorite among Arab voters since ADC’s last opinion poll in May, where she led with 25 percent support. In comparison, President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the presidential race in July, and Republican candidate Donald Trump, polled at 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

In 2022, 2.2 million people in the US reported having Arab ancestry in that year’s Arab Community Survey. The majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and 85 percent of Arabs in the US are citizens.

While the community traces its roots to every Arab country, the majority of Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Iraq. The top four states by Arab American population size are California, Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.




Activists show people how to vote uncommitted, instead of for US President Joe Biden, outside of Maples Elementary School in Dearborn during the Michigan presidential primary election on Feb. 27, 2024. (AFP/File)

Ayoub noted in his post that Biden’s declining popularity among Arab Americans was “due to the retiring president’s staunch support for Israel’s continued actions in Gaza.”

The Israeli military launched a bombing campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages.

The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza has since surpassed 39,500, with at least 15,000 children killed and over 12,000 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities




A Democratic voter uncommitted to President Joe Biden hands out fliers to voters outside of a polling location at Maples Elementary School on February 27, 2024 in Dearborn, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)

Humanitarian organizations, rights groups, and governments worldwide have repeatedly called for a ceasefire, but Israel has continued its military operations.

Stein has consistently criticized Biden and his administration for their unwavering support for Israel, warning in an Aug. 1 post on X that the Israeli government was dragging the US “into WWIII.”

Following the suspected Mossad elimination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah figure in Beirut last week, Stein criticized Biden and Harris for their “deafening silence” on “Israel’s massive escalation toward a wider war.




Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in Dearborn, Michigan as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)

In a July 31 post on X, Stein demanded that “the US immediately cut off aid to Israel, mandate a ceasefire, and arrest war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) before he gets us all killed.”

The killing of Haniyeh on July 31 has heightened fears of an all-out, regional conflict. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge, warning Israel that it had “paved the way for your harsh punishment.”

Netanyahu’s government has neither claimed responsibility nor commented on Haniyeh’s death. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was “not aware of or involved in” the killing.

FAST FACTS

• Arab Americans live in all 50 states, but up to 95% live in metropolitan areas.

• New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis are the top 6 metropolitan areas.

• Nearly 75% of all Arab Americans live in just 12 states: California, Michigan, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

• Nearly a quarter of Arab Americans are Muslim, while the religious background of the rest are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.

However, the day before Haniyeh’s death, Israel claimed responsibility for killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut. Hezbollah has promised a “definite” response for Shukr’s killing.

Whether or not the US was involved in these escalations, Biden’s Middle East policy has faced sharp criticism since October, with human rights groups urging the US administration to halt arms transfers to Israel.




Abbas Alawieh, spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, a group who asked voters to vote uncommitted instead of for US President Joe Biden in Michigan's US Presidential primary election, during an election night watch party in Dearborn, Michigan on February 27, 2024. (AFP)

In late April, Amnesty International reported that US weapons supplied to Israel had been “used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner inconsistent with US law and policy.”

In May, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his defense minister, and three Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Chris Habiby, ADC’s national government affairs and advocacy director, says the poll revealed two key insights. “First, President Biden is deeply unpopular among Arab Americans,” he told Arab News.




Chris Habiby, national government affairs and advocacy director of ADC. (Supplied)

“Second, being anti-genocide is a winning position for our communities across the country.”

Habiby added that the poll’s results reflect “what we have been demanding for the 10 months and 300 days this genocide has been ongoing — an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo on all weapons being sent to Israel.”

Biden faced a significant defeat in the Michigan Democratic primary in February when a majority of voters in Dearborn, a city with a large Arab and Muslim population, chose to vote “uncommitted” rather than for him.




Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in Dearborn, Michigan as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly supported the “uncommitted” vote movement, citing Biden’s policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to USA Today.

In contrast, Stein has actively courted the Arab American vote in Michigan and beyond.

In an interview with Arab News in June, Stein pledged that, if elected, she would halt military support for Israel’s “apartheid government” and push for a genuine peace between Israelis and Palestinians.




Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

“Arabs and Muslims have been taken for granted in America. They are victims of racial profiling, Islamophobia and violence against Arabs in this country,” she said.

“There is an absolute violation of our constitutional rights by the government to shut down our dialogue. People are trying to grapple with this genocide we are seeing live and in real-time on our iPhones and computer screens.”

Stein stressed that it is “against US law to send weapons to Israel, which is violating humanitarian rights and interfering in the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

She added: “The people who are standing up to assert our legal values and our human values are being criminalized and charged with crimes.”




US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the 114th NAACP National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 29, 2023. (AFP/File)

Despite Stein’s growing popularity among Arab-American communities, other presidential candidates still have an opportunity to gain more support from Arab and Muslim voters before November.

ADC’s poll indicates that, in addition to the 27.5 percent of respondents who support Harris, 18 percent are undecided about their vote in November, and 6 percent said they do not plan to vote.

“With nearly 1 in 4 voters either undecided or inclined to sit out the election, there is plenty of room for Harris or any other candidate to earn more support from the community if the right positions are taken,” wrote ADC’s Ayoub on X.
 

 


Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries

Updated 4 sec ago
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Indonesia launches national Islamic finance center to boost local halal industries

  • Center to serve as platform to develop local industries, from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food
  • Indonesia ranked 3rd in 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, behind Saudi Arabia and Malaysia

JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo opened on Tuesday the Indonesia Islamic Financial Center, a new special area in Jakarta dedicated to strengthening the country’s Shariah economy and helping local industries tap into the global halal market.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, with about 87 percent of its 270 million population professing Islam. Its government has lately been working to further develop the local halal industry to harness the potential of the domestic market.

“Indonesia has a huge chance, a potential to become a global halal hub, the center of the global halal ecosystem, as long as we strengthen our Shariah economy ecosystem,” Widodo said during the opening ceremony.

“Indonesia’s Shariah banks, an important part of the Shariah economy ecosystem, must continue to grow with modern management, must be competitive (and) professional to reach the potential markets we have — our 236 million Muslim population — while also growing to become the standard of Shariah banking in Indonesia, in the ASEAN region, and in the world.”

The IIFC comprises Indonesia’s biggest Islamic bank, Bank Syariah Indonesia, and Danareksa, a state-owned holding company.

The center will serve as a platform for the development of local industries — from Muslim fashion to halal tourism and food.

“(The center) will support all aspects so we don’t lose our potential to other regions or countries,” Widodo said.

BSI’s tower at IIFC — the construction of which is to be completed next year — will be a “center for business and halal ecosystem literacy,” the bank’s director Hery Gunardi said.

“We are ready to develop and accelerate the nation’s goal of becoming a sustainable global hub and establishing an Islamic ecosystem.”

Indonesia was ranked third in the 2023 Global Islamic Economy Indicator, which measures the strength of the Islamic economy in 73 countries. It was placed just behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

“This area will become a platform to strengthen the Shariah economy ecosystem that will also boost the growth of our national economy,” State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said.

Through the halal industry, among other avenues, “Indonesia has great potential to become the largest Islamic economy country in the world,” he added.


Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip

Updated 40 min 19 sec ago
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Nigeria bus crash kills at least 25 children on religious trip

  • Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured
  • The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet

KANO, Nigeria: A bus carrying Muslim faithful celebrating the birth of Prophet Muhammad crashed in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state, killing at least 25 children, an official told AFP Tuesday.
Organizers of the religious pilgrimage gave a higher toll of 40, with 31 injured.
The accident occurred on Sunday when the speeding bus overloaded with young adherents of the Tijjaniyya Sufi order lost control and crashed into a truck in Lere district, Kabiru Nadabo, head of the local office of Nigeria’s road safety agency, FRSC, said.
“The bus was overloaded with 63 children and the driver was speeding recklessly when he lost control and rammed into an articulated truck,” Nadabo said.
“Fifteen of them died on the spot while 48 injured were taken to various hospitals, among which 10 died the following day, raising the death toll to 25,” he said.
The children were from Kwandare village and heading to the nearby town of Saminaka for the annual Maulud festivities marking the birth of the Prophet, said Nadabo.
He said the death toll could have changed since the injured were taken to hospitals in various locations and he did not get further updates.
Dikko Dahiru, one of the organizers of the trip, said 40 children were killed in the accident, while 31 were injured.
“The bus was carrying 71 passengers and 36 died instantly while four more died in hospital the next day,” said Dahiru, whose nephew was among the dead.
“Thirty-one were taken to hospitals with severe injuries, 11 of them in critical condition,” he said.
Road accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly maintained roads due largely to speeding and disregard for traffic rules.


Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car

Updated 57 min 44 sec ago
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Russia says shot dead Ukrainian agent who tried to blow up car

  • The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency
  • A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene

MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said Tuesday it shot dead a Ukrainian agent who attempted to plant explosives under the car of a senior defense industry official.
The suspect, whom it did not name, allegedly worked for Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency and targeted a “senior employee of a defense enterprise in the Sverdlovsk region,” the FSB said.
He was detained while “placing an improvised explosive device in a hiding place, put up armed resistance and was neutralized by return fire,” the FSB added.
A pistol with ammunition was found at the scene, while law enforcement seized components used for making explosives during a search of his residence, it continued.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Ukraine has often targeted Russian officials it believes are complicit in the Kremlin’s full-scale military assault on its territory, which began in 2022.
In December 2023, pro-Russian Ukrainian defector Illia Kyva was shot dead near Moscow in an attack claimed by Kyiv’s security services.


Kremlin says Russian army expansion needed to address growing threats on western flank

Updated 17 September 2024
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Kremlin says Russian army expansion needed to address growing threats on western flank

  • Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that an order by President Vladimir Putin to transform Russia’s army into the second largest in the world was needed to address growing threats on Russia’s western borders and instability to the east.
Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.
“This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken.”


Climate fund chief targets poor countries

Updated 17 September 2024
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Climate fund chief targets poor countries

  • The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
  • Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades

PARIS: Green Climate Fund chief Mafalda Duarte is on a mission to help vulnerable nations that have yet to receive a penny from the world’s largest dedicated source of climate finance.
The United Nations’ flagship organization for chanelling climate funding was set up for developing countries worst hit by climate impacts even if they are least responsible for carbon pollution that drives warming.
Money disbursed helps nations to draw down their greenhouse gas emissions, on the one hand, and adapt to storms, droughts and heatwaves made worse by climate change, along with sea level rise, on the other.
The fund, which began doling out grants a decade ago, has identified 19 climate-vulnerable nations that have received no or very limited funding.
“We are deliberately targeting those,” Duarte told AFP in an interview, taking stock of her first year in charge and outlining her ambitions.
The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
“Our goal is to equip the organization such that it becomes a partner of choice for the most vulnerable... and that it delivers where the funds are most needed,” said the Portuguese development economist.
Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades.
The GCF has pledged to invest more than $100 million over the next year to help the East African nation unlock investments and develop climate projects.
These include funding off-grid solar energy in rural communities, boosting resilience of the agricultural sector and helping with access to more money in the future.
“We need to adjust our mechanisms to be responsive to this type of country with weak institutional capacity,” she said, insisting on the need for projects to reach isolated populations despite security challenges.
The GCF was first funded by wealthy nations a decade ago as a key component in the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.
It funnels grants and loans for projects mostly in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean.
But its ambitions have been hindered by limited resources and a cumbersome bureaucracy, making it hard for some of the world’s most at-risk countries to access funding.
How to streamline the process for getting money in a timely manner will be critical issues at November’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
Duarte aims to triple the GCF’s capital to $50 billion by 2030 — an ambitious goal, but a small fraction of the trillions experts say is needed overall.
Founded in 2010, the fund today has some 250 partners implementing projects on the ground, spanning UN agencies, development banks, government ministries and agencies, the private sector and NGOs.
Another 200 have expressed interest in aligning with the fund.
“If we are able to work with this vast network of partners that are closer to the realities on the ground where investments are happening, we can make a really big difference,” she said.
As of last month, the fund has committed $15 billion to 270 projects.
In the last 12 months, the GCF approved close to $790 million for the world’s poorest countries — a fourfold increase compared to 2022.
But it remains a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed, experts say.
Currently, donor nations decide what contributions they make to the fund.
At COP29, countries are expected to set a new global climate finance goal, though divisions over its size and scope have hampered negotiations.
As discussions enter a critical phase, Duarte has a simple message for governments: “Be bold. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”