Mondoweiss: “‘We have the right to demand better’: Arab Americans wrestle with the 2024 presidential election”

A photo of a campaign rally for Kamala Harris published on her official social media account on August 4, 2024 (Photo: Twitter/@KamalaHarris)

Arab Americans are viewing the U.S. presidential race with anger and disillusionment. “I just feel like our voices aren’t being heard,” says Palestinian American Mervat Saudi. Both parties “are not in the best interest for my own people.”

Since the American-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza began, Arab Americans have grown more disillusioned with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and the lack of change in policy toward sending more weapons to Israel. Despite Op-Eds and social media buzz about how the new Democratic pick for president Kamala Harris will be different, many Arab Americans have already been disappointed.

In a press conference after meeting with accused war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Harris doubled down on her “unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel” and said she would “always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself.” As for Gaza, she briefly touched on “the death of far too many innocent civilians.” A few weeks before Biden officially dropped out of the race, former president Donald Trump used the Palestinian identity as a slur of sorts. “He’s a very bad Palestinian,” Trump said of Biden, who he accused of not wanting to help Israel “finish the job.” 

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Arab Americans have already been expressing their frustration with the election for months, but it has reached a boiling point in the last few weeks — they feel unheard, disappointed, and most of all, angry with the current two-party system. 

Mervat Saudi, a Palestinian-American mother who lived in Palestine for ten years, says she will “not be voting at all” this November. 

“Everything that’s been happening, it hits a little too close to home for me,” she says. “I just feel like our voices aren’t being heard, and both parties, whether Democratic or Republican, are not in the best interest for my own people.”

Saudi, who is registered to vote in Michigan, says she did consider voting for a third-party candidate at one point, but cannot bring herself to the ballot box at all this year. The first time she ever voted was in 2020 for Biden because she didn’t want Trump’s Islamophobic policies to continue. Now, she says, “I don’t know if I’ll ever vote again.”

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Read the full article on Mondoweiss.