Hasheemah Afaneh
‘And stop killing Palestinians’ is the resounding message Arab Americans and their allies are firm on delivering to the candidates of the 2024 American presidential elections, including Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The party has overseen the funding of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with over $17 billion going to Israel as military aid since October 7th 2023. According to the Arab American Institute, voter turnout amongst Arab Americans has previously been around 80%; however, this year only 63% of the community are enthusiastic about voting. It’s unsurprising then that 80% of Arab Americans say the genocide in Gaza is one of the most important factors in determining their vote on November 5th 2024.
Last year, on November 4th people took to the streets for a National March on Washington to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. One of the chants during this protest included Come November, we’ll remember. The message was clear: Palestinian-Americans and their allies would remember the stance the Biden Administration took when it came to an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and genocide in Gaza, and if the administration did not shift its policy and call for a ceasefire to end the assault on Gaza Strip, this would be an unforgotten stain in the party’s history.
Mohammad Alkurd, a Palestinian content creator based in New Orleans, will be voting in U.S. presidential elections for the first time, and has decided he’ll be voting for the Green Party. “Democratic and Republican candidates are pro-genocide,” Alkurd noted. Alkurd’s family is Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, and Israel’s assault on Gaza hits especially home for him. Within ten days of the genocide, Alkurd lost nineteen family members when an Israeli airstrike hit their home. By day 16, Alkurd had lost 99 family members.
A year on, and the war on Gaza persists and has expanded to include Lebanon. Arab Americans, namely Palestinians and Lebanese, continue to witness the bombardments of their homes and people. American citizens have also been killed, and the government is yet to hold Israel accountable. Palestinian-Americans continue to be censored both online and offline, as they were recently during the Democratic National Convention, where Palestinian-Americans were denied an opportunity to speak, despite Israeli Americans being given the platform to do so.
Majida Halaweh, who is half-Palestinian and based in New Orleans, has decided to abstain from voting in this election. “I have no interest in voting for a candidate that supports the murder of any people - let alone my people. We are constantly told to pick the lesser of two evils, but evil is still evil and I have no interest in endorsing evil. When the only two options are evil, then isn’t this an indication something is wrong with the system that enables only evil to be an option?”
As a first generation Lebanese American, Zahara Dimassi shares similar sentiments with Halaweh. Dimassi has voted since she was eighteen years of age, but this election, she won’t be voting for any party.
“Why is my choice evil? Why is that what I'm settling for? I don't want evil for myself or this world. We need to hold our representatives accountable, and if evil is our bare minimum, what are we saying we, as a people, are worth? I know my worth and it's more than to be represented by evil,” says Dimassi. Dimassi still has family living in Sidon, Lebanon, where her father hails from, which has been impacted by recent bombardments by Israel.
Samira Bechara is a Lebanese American graduate student at UC Berkeley, who still has family in Lebanon and an aunt in the city of Jenin in the West Bank, which has witnessed increased attacks by Israel in the past several months. She has participated in U.S. elections for close to two decades, and is still undecided on how she might vote this year. “[I’m voting for] either [a] third party or withholding. I have [in other elections] chosen to withhold voting rather than cast one for a candidate I did not believe in.”
There is a clear consensus from Arab Americans that what is happening in the Middle East should be a primary concern for everyone going to the polls, and an issue that concerns each and every one of us. “The issue of Palestine is one that does affect and will continue to affect and will continue to affect not just everyone in the Middle East and the US but around the world. A foundational part of our modern global political system, the United Nations, was created the same year as the Nakba, with the Palestine question at the forefront of this creation,” say Bechara.
Military aid sent to Israel a few weeks ago, for instance, could have been used for Hurricane Helene and Milton response. This is vital given that it’s been suggested that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had a funding shortfall to address recent hurricanes.
“You dont have to have a direct connection to Palestine to see the effects that the US funding of genocide is having. Why aren’t your taxes being used to fix the country's dilapidated infrastructure, decrease healthcare costs, or fund education? That’s your money that was supposed to be to help run the U.S. government and its respective agencies, but instead, U.S. citizens live with underfunded social services and pothole-ridden infrastructure,” says Halaweh.
Instead, vital services could be invested into, addressing key gaps in healthcare, education and housing. “Invest in the people of this country. ALL the people of this country; including the Arab Americans,” says Dimassi.
But most of all, the inhumanity of the violence in Gaza and now Lebanon is what Arab Americans want politicians to finally address, and end the siege once and for all. “Stop the genocide. Stop acting like U.S. security is based on the extermination of a people. [Politicians] active complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people makes [them] evil, despicable and a stain on the human race. The right thing to do is obvious. Stop the genocide.” says Halaweh.
Thanks for reading our article! We know young people’s opinions matter and really appreciate everyone who reads us.
Give us a follow on Instagram and TikTok to stay up to date with what young people think.