DEARBORN, Michigan. – Community leaders and Palestinian Americans share what happened in private meetings Thursday with top White House advisers in Dear born.
“There’s no doubt it was emotional,” Abbas Alawieh said. “There were tears, there were screams.”
Biden sent his advisers to speak with community members and leaders amid backlash over the administration’s handling of the Hamas-Israel conflict.
Abbas Alawieh of Listen to Michigan met with senior White House advisors for an hour and a half on Thursday, February 8.
Also present at the meeting were local Palestinian-Americans, such as Dr. Yamaan Saadeh, who pleaded for his family to be evacuated from Gaza.
“It was more of a listening meeting, they didn’t propose actions to be taken on what was going to change or be done differently,” Saadeh said.
Alawieh was blunt when speaking with senior advisers.
“I looked them all in the eye and said, ‘Will you go back to President Biden and advise him to immediately call for a ceasefire and stop funding genocide,’” Alawieh said.
“None of them were able to make that commitment to me, but I hope that when they return to Washington, they will realize that it is the right thing to do to advise President Biden to stop the killings .”
If an immediate ceasefire is not called for, Alawieh and other members of the Arab American and Muslim communities say they will not support Biden in the next election.
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