LONDON: Jill Stein, the US Green Party presidential candidate known for her vocal advocacy of Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top candidate among Arab-American voters ahead of the November 5 US election, according to a recent poll.
Stein, who is running as a third-party candidate, won the support of over 45 percent of Arab Americans in a poll conducted by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American civil rights organization.
This puts Stein, a doctor and environmentalist, ahead of the likely Democratic presidential candidate, 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 as part of a partnership between ADC, Molitico for data insights and Community Pulse, a company specializing in survey solutions.
According to Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC, Arab-American voters are increasingly leaning toward Stein because of her commitment to Palestinian human rights and her opposition to Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip since October.
In a post on social media platform X, he said: “Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein's strong 45.3 percent polling, similar to the previous poll, shows consistent support in the community, especially given her vocal stance on Palestinian human rights.”
Stein has been the favorite among Arab voters since the last ADC poll in May, when she led with 25 percent support. By comparison, President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race in July, and Republican candidate Donald Trump were at 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
In 2022, 2.2 million people in the United States reported Arab ancestry in the Arab Community Survey. The majority of Arab Americans were born in the country, and 85 percent of Arabs in the United States are citizens.
While the community has its roots in every Arab country, the majority of Arab Americans' ancestry comes from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. The four states with the highest Arab American populations are California, Florida, Minnesota, and Michigan.
Ayoub noted in his post that Biden's declining popularity among Arab Americans was “due to the outgoing president's staunch support for Israel's continued actions in Gaza.”
In retaliation for Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages, the Israeli military launched a bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The death toll among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has now exceeded 39,500, with at least 15,000 children killed and over 12,000 others injured, according to Gaza health authorities.
Humanitarian organizations, human rights groups and governments around the world have repeatedly called for a ceasefire, but Israel has continued its military operations.
Stein has repeatedly criticized Biden and his administration for their unwavering support of Israel, warning in an August 1 post on X that the Israeli government is dragging the United States “into World War III.”
Following the Mossad's alleged elimination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah member in Beirut last week, Stein criticized Biden and Harris for their “deafening silence” on “Israel's massive escalation toward a larger war.”
In a July 31 post on X, Stein demanded that “the United States immediately end its aid to Israel, declare a ceasefire, and arrest the war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) before he has us all killed.”
Haniya's killing on July 31 has heightened fears of a wider regional conflict. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge and warned Israel that it had “paved the way for your harsh punishment.”
Netanyahu's government has neither claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death nor commented on it. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had “no knowledge of or involvement 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 DC and Minneapolis are the six largest metropolitan areas.
• Nearly 75% of all Arab people in America live in just 12 states: California, Michigan, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
• Almost a quarter of Arabs in America are Muslims, the rest are Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant.
However, a day before Haniyeh's death, Israel claimed responsibility for the death of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on a building in south Beirut. Hezbollah has promised a “definitive” response to Shukr's killing.
Regardless of whether the US was involved in this escalation or not, Biden's Middle East policy has been subject to sharp criticism since October, with human rights groups calling on the US government to stop arms deliveries to Israel.
At the end of April, Amnesty International reported that US weapons supplied to Israel had been used “in serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights and in a manner inconsistent with US law and policy”.
In May, International Criminal Court 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, director of national government affairs and advocacy at the ADC, said the poll revealed two important findings. “First, President Biden is deeply unpopular among Arab Americans,” he told Arab News.
“Secondly, the anti-genocide stance is a winning position for our communities across the country.”
Habiby added that the survey results reflected “what we have been demanding for the 10 months and 300 days that this genocide has been going on: an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo on all arms shipments to Israel.”
Biden suffered a decisive defeat in the Democratic primary in Michigan in February when a majority of voters in Dearborn, a city with a large Arab and Muslim population, chose to vote “undecided” rather than for him.
According to USA Today, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly supported the movement of “undecided” voters, citing Biden’s policies on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
In contrast, Stein has actively sought the vote of Arab-Americans in Michigan and elsewhere.
In an interview with Arab News in June, Stein promised that if elected, she would end military support for Israel's “apartheid government” and work for genuine peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Arabs and Muslims are taken for granted in America. They are victims of racism, Islamophobia and violence against Arabs in this country,” she said.
“The government's attempt to shut down our dialogue is an absolute violation of our constitutional rights as people try to cope with this genocide that we are witnessing live and in real time on our iPhones and computer screens.”
Stein stressed that “it is against American law to supply weapons to Israel. It violates humanitarian rights and hinders the delivery of humanitarian aid.”
She added: “The people who stand up for the enforcement of our legal values and our human values are being criminalized and accused of crimes.”
Despite Stein's growing popularity in the Arab-American community, other presidential candidates still have an opportunity to gain more support among Arab and Muslim voters before November.
ADC's poll shows that in addition to the 27.5 percent of respondents who support Harris, 18 percent are still undecided about their vote in November and 6 percent said they do not plan to vote.
“With nearly one in four voters still undecided or leaning toward staying away from the polls, there is plenty of opportunity for Harris or any other candidate to gain more popular support if they take the right positions,” ADC's Ayoub wrote on X.
