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Major Arab, Muslim, Palestinian American groups say they were excluded from Harris’ Middle East outreach 

washington — Major Muslim and Arab American organizations and pro-Palestinian activist groups say they were excluded from Vice President Kamala Harris’ office’s outreach to community leaders on the administration’s efforts to contain the widening conflict in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Phil Gordon, Harris’ national security adviser, met virtually with “Muslim, Arab and Palestinian American community leaders from across the United States” to discuss the administration’s efforts to end the war in Gaza.

In a statement, the White House said Gordon “expressed concern for civilians in Lebanon” and about Israeli “actions that undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

The meeting appeared to be an attempt to repair ties with Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities who are outraged about the administration’s continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and left a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

However, none of the major community groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, were invited. Neither were the Uncommitted National Movement and Abandon Harris, the two pro-Palestinian activist groups that have been pushing for change in the administration’s policies on Gaza.

Community leaders of prominent groups in the Washington area, including MakeSpace, the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center and the Mustafa Center, were also not invited.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, participated in the eight-person engagement with Gordon. He said the meeting was “irritating,” as it did not include representatives of the community.

“We were told an Arab American meeting. We were told a Muslim meeting. It was none of the above,” Zogby told VOA. “There were no Palestinian leaders. There were some Palestinian Americans, but there were no organizations representing Palestinian Americans.”

The White House, the vice president’s office and the Harris campaign did not respond to VOA’s queries.

Zogby said he felt “blindsided” by the event, characterizing it as a “check the box” engagement with the community. He said the administration missed an opportunity by not inviting the list of people the community had recommended to be included.

“There were only two of us out of the eight who headed any organization at all,” he said.

Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said that the VP’s office has engaged him in “nearly a dozen” meetings, including the one with Gordon this week.

“Our meetings continue to be positive,” he wrote to VOA. “We have expressed to the vice president and her team the importance of now providing our community with a clear message on the need for ending this war and helping those Lebanese citizens most affected by the conflict.”

In the past two weeks, Israel’s military campaign targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million people. The victims included Kamel Ahmad Jawad, an American from Dearborn, Michigan.

Gabriel said Biden’s stance on the widening of Israel’s campaign to Lebanon to date “has not been well received by the Lebanese American community, as there was no sense of compassion expressed for the loss of life of innocent citizens, especially women and children.”

Virtually tied

Harris’ outreach efforts come as a new poll showed that Arab American support for the Democratic presidential nominee is virtually tied with that for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The Arab American Institute on Wednesday released a nationwide poll of 500 Arab American registered voters that showed support for Trump stood at 42%. For Harris, it was 41%.

Among those who said they were very likely to vote, Trump led Harris 46% to 42%.

The poll suggested the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has eroded the community’s support for Democrats, whom it traditionally backs. Arab Americans were evenly divided between the two parties, with 38% for each.

The U.S. is home to roughly 3.5 million Arab Americans, according to the latest census. The U.S. Census Bureau does not count population based on religious beliefs, but various sources show an estimated 4 million to 6 million Muslim Americans.

That’s a very small percentage of the 337 million total U.S. population. However, since Arab Americans are concentrated in a few states such as California and Michigan, they may play an outsized role in next month’s election.

This may be seen especially in Michigan, a battleground state with the largest percentage of Arab Americans. Biden won the state in 2020 with only 154,000 votes more than Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton by just under 11,000 votes.

More than 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military campaign — votes that could be up for grabs for Trump.

Trump courting community

Trump has been courting Arab and Muslim voters and has won the support of Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. The city is home to 30,000 people, almost half of them Muslim, and is the only city in the country to have an all-Muslim city council.

“Endorsing President Trump was a combination of disappointment and hope,” Ghalib told VOA. “Disappointed at the current administration’s policies domestically and internationally, and in hope that President Trump will come to fix things up, end the chaos in the Middle East and restore peace everywhere, as well as preventing our economy from further deterioration.”

Ghalib’s endorsement came last month following his meeting with Trump, who held a campaign event in the nearby city of Flint.

On cultural issues such as LGBTQ rights and the right to abortion, Ghalib and many of his constituents are more aligned with the Republican Party. He has supported conservative measures taken by his city council, including a 2023 ban on Pride flags on city property — a move that angered members and allies of the LGBTQ community.

“The cultural issues are important to some,” Zogby said. Wanting to “punish Democrats” over Gaza is another motivator for the community, he added.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone actually very seriously considering that Donald Trump is better than Kamala Harris on the Middle East,” he said. “It’s a question of, they might be both terrible. That’s, I think, the more prevalent view.”

VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and reporter Sayed Aziz Rahman contributed to this report.
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