‘We are not OK:’ Arab Americans, feeling ignored, organize for the long haul

There were fits of crying, screaming matches, thoughtful strategizing sessions and joyful rallies.

And there was consensus around one thing: Staying home Nov. 5 is not an option.

Engage. Speak up. Vote — at least in local elections, if not in the presidential race. Those were the primary messages conveyed at ArabCon, a tearful, four-day national gathering of about 1,000 Arab Americans that concluded Sunday in Dearborn.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee typically holds its annual convention in the Washington D.C. area. This year, it needed to be in Dearborn.

It needed to be here because the loudest and most concentrated Arab American communities reside here. And it was here where activists launched a boisterous, nationwide movement to use their collective voting power to pressure the Democratic Party to alter the way it approaches U.S. foreign policy in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, where a brutal, ongoing military campaign — that started after a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 Israelis — has killed more than 40,000 in Gaza and more than 600 in the West Bank over the last year, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Attendees were split on who they will support in the presidential election, but united in resolve to redouble long-term organizing efforts, having fallen short this time around, at the most pivotal of moments, to gain mainstream acceptance and influence in American politics.

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Still hoping for change

From the perspective of anguished Arab Americans who’ve waited in vain for a cease-fire and a sign of change from the Democratic presidential campaign, that movement, at least in the short term, appears to have failed, in spite of tireless efforts by Arab Americans in influential positions.

Many in this community say they'll vote for third-party presidential candidates, like Green Party nominee Jill Stein and independent Cornel West, who joined the Dearborn gathering. Both will be on the Nov. 5 ballot in Michigan, and both have long spoken out against brutal conditions for Palestinians.

Still, some attendees said fear of another Donald Trump presidency, and the Supreme Court appointments that could result, will ultimately lead them to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

That sentiment was often met with fierce derision by others at the convention, who feel voting out of fear compromises the basic dignity of a community whose concerns have been dismissed at every turn.

“We’re pushing for everyone to not allow the top of the ticket, the presidential race, to dictate whether or not you’re going to vote,” said Abed Ayoub, national director of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, who grew up in Dearborn.

“We have a lot of down-ballot races, and a lot of races that have local impact that we need to voice our opinion on. We know the challenges that are out there. We know there’s voter apathy, that people don’t believe in either candidate. We know that the Democratic Party has its challenges, and the Republican Party, of course, recently hasn’t been a place for Arab Americans to call home."

The political parties, Ayoub said, should consider why Arab Americans feel alienated from them, and work to earn, not just demand, the community's votes.

"What we’re telling our community members is: ‘Respect your vote. Respect your voice. Make them earn it. Vote your conscience,'" he said. "… And if that means ‘I’m going to walk into that booth and only vote for my local voices and skip the top of the ticket,’ that’s their choice."

But influence starts in the voting booth, said New York activist Linda Sarsour, co-founder of the Women’s March on Washington, chiding the Dearborn crowd about historically disappointing voter turnout.

“The Arab American community has been in Dearborn for at least 100 years. It took you about 100 years to get an Arab American mayor in Dearborn,” she said forcefully, referring to Mayor Abdullah Hammoud’s election in 2021.

She urged focus on long-term, consistent political organizing, regardless of the results of the November election.

It was a refrain revisited often, between gut-wrenching discussions on conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, and frustrating accounts of Arab Americans in powerful positions appealing in vain to the White House for a change in its approach to unconditional support for a right-wing Israeli government.

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'Not OK'

A group of physicians at the convention provided eye-witness accounts from the remaining hospitals in Gaza, where thousands seek treatment and shelter in facilities meant for hundreds, without access to clean water or basic supplies.

Student activists and elected officials from around the country spoke of their efforts to raise awareness in universities and local governments, vowing to continue pushing through exhaustion, backlash and bigotry.

And a group of former Biden Administration officials, who resigned in protest of the bombardment and starvation of Gaza, offered insider accounts of their efforts to influence the White House.

Tariq Habash, a U.S. Department of Education appointee who wrote policy for the office of planning, evaluation and policy development, resigned in January.

“I took an oath to ensure that I was working in the interests of Americans,” said Habash, a Palestinian American. “And what I saw was completely disconnected from reality … We were going out of our way to make other people around the world, my people, less safe, with our tax dollars.”

Habash spoke up to his bosses, loudly, and said he was often asked, “How’s your family? Is everyone OK?’”

“No! They’re not OK. We are not OK. Arabs are not OK. Palestinians are not OK. We have to do something,” he said. "We are the United States government. How can we be here and still feel this helpless?"

He quit after deciding he could not reconcile the White House response to events in Gaza with the values at the core of being American: "That we care about human rights, that we care about equal rights, that we care about justice and democracy.”

Lily Greenberg Call, who was special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior, lost loved ones in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. She quit in May, citing in her resignation letter “disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

“Everything that I have been taught about what it means to be Jewish has been about fighting injustice, because of what we have been through,” she said. “… It was important to be very explicit in how I felt about Palestinian rights to people in the administration, given those parts of my identity ... I did not feel that the retaliation and the massacre of Palestinians would keep my community safe, would keep me safe, was the right thing to do, that anything about the status quo keeps any of us safe."

Laying a foundation

Hasan Newash, 83, of Detroit, was forced out of his childhood home in the village of Ein Karem, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, as Israel was being established in 1948.

He immigrated to the U.S. in 1960, and has since been active in local Arab American political organizing.

He's seen decades of ups and downs, progress in community engagement, failures of political influence, spirited rallies, solemn conventions and disappointing presidential debates.

Asked if he believes he'll live to see meaningful change in the U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Newash responded without hesitation: Yes.

And even if not, he's proud of the foundation he helped lay, as an activist who survived the initial displacement and has spent a lifetime calling attention to his experience and bloodshed.

"I learned a long time ago not to attach myself to the results," he said. "I attach myself to the process."

Building upon the foundation that Newash and others have laid to affirm the basic humanity and equal rights of Arabs everywhere will require long-term commitment to the most fundamental act involved in building anything meaningful in the U.S.: voting.

Newash said he learned that from his father, a stonemason. That's how he built homes. One layer at a time.

Khalil AlHajal is deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: [email protected]. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: At Arabcon, anguished community rallies, works on political strategy