A week after Michigan’s Arab American and Muslim leaders refused to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign officials over the White House’s continued support for Israeli bombing of GazaSeveral community representatives met with a group of senior Biden aides on Thursday, but left unconvinced that the administration understands the issues surrounding its failure to listen to ceasefire demands.
“If President Biden wants to have a chance here in Michigan, he’s going to have to do something different,” Abbas Alawieh, a senior Democratic strategist and spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, a group that urges ceasefire supporters -fire in the state to vote. not engaged” in the February 27 primary elections saidHuffPost.
Alawieh’s comments came after he, state Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-4), Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe and others met with officials of administration.
Alawieh told the outlet that the meeting was “very tense,” with participants briefing U.S. Agency for International Development Director Samantha Power and Senior Presidential Advisor Tom Perez, among other officials, about specific requests.
The group reiterated its call for Biden to directly demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a permanent ceasefire and that the United States immediately restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency United for Refugees. Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA).
THE suspension of UNRWA funds left the agency risking “complete collapse” of its humanitarian response in Gaza, where at least 27,947 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces since October 7. More than a million displaced Palestinians have found refuge in UNRWA shelters, where aid workers are struggling to provide food, medical care and clean water in the face of a near-total blockade imposed by Israel.
Hammoud said on social media after the meeting that the views of Arab Americans and the majority of Democratic voters who support a cease-fire and increased aid to civilians “have not been accurately captured by the mainstream media and have failed to reach the highest offices of our country.” government” in recent months.
“This meeting was organized to ensure that the White House and those with the ability to change the course of the genocide taking place in Gaza hear and understand the demands of our community very clearly, directly from us,” Hammoud said.
At the meeting, the mayor said, local and state leaders “remained uncompromising on our values and our demands.”
“As citizens of the United States of America and representatives of the City of Dearborn, we have done our duty; it is now up to the President to do the same,” he added. said Hammoud.
But the meeting was adjourned without assurances from White House aides that Biden would do so, even though a growing number of state leaders — both within and outside the Arab American and Muslim communities – signed the Listen to Michigan campaign. .
By voting “no strings attached” in the primary, supporters hope to send an urgent message to Biden: his refusal to respond to community demands – and 7 Democrats out of 10 in an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released last week — could be a serious miscalculation and cost him crucial votes in the November general election.
Shadb Singh, an organizer with Listen to Michigan, reported Wednesday that the campaign appears to be taking off with voters thanks to participation in a mass mobilization call.
Biden won Michigan, a key state, in only 154,000 votes in 2020, and the state’s Muslim population includes 200,000 registered voters.
Last month, before Hammoud and other leaders refused to engage with Biden during his election campaign, the president rejected a reporter’s question about his tenure. crater stand among Arab Americans amid his support for Israel.
“We understand who cares about the Arab population,” he said. saidcomparing himself to former President Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who has so far easily won several primaries.
Alawieh said White House officials had “the chance to hear expertise from people harmed by the very policies the Biden administration is championing,” but attendees were skeptical that the president’s team understood the risk that Biden is running assuming he has the support of Arab countries. Americans.
“It was about ensuring that the administration saw the real impact of its policies, not only on foreign soil but right here, affecting our people, our families,” Turfe said. HuffPost. “We have made clear that any future engagement with the administration is conditional on real action. Developments in Gaza will serve as a benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of the administration’s actions. The Biden administration must act quickly and decisively to put an end to this violence, honoring the principles of justice and human rights.
