LONDON: Jill Stein, the US Green Party presidential candidate known for her vocal support for Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top choice among Arab-American voters ahead of the November 5 US election, according to a recent poll. .
Stein, running as a third-party candidate, received the support of more than 45 percent of Arab Americans in a poll by the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab American civil rights organization.
That put Stein, a physician and environmentalist, ahead of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, 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 through a partnership between ADC, Molitico for data analytics and Community Pulse, which specializes in survey solutions.
According to Abed Ayoub, ADC's national executive director, the Arab-American voter demographic is increasingly gravitating toward Stein because of her advocacy for Palestinian human rights and her opposition to the Israeli military's actions in Gaza since October.
In a post on the social platform, X said: “Strong poll of Green Party candidate Dr. At 45.3 percent, similar to the previous poll, Jill Stein demonstrates consistent community support, primarily because of her vocal stance on Palestinian human rights.”
Stein has been popular among Arab voters since the last ADC poll in May, where she led with 25 percent support. By comparison, President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race in July, and Republican nominee Donald Trump polled 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
In 2022, 2.2 million people in the US reported having Arab ancestry in that year's Arab Community Survey. Most Arabs are native-born Americans, and 85 percent of Arabs in the US are citizens.
While the community has its roots in every Arab country, most Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. The top four states by Arab population size are California, Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.
In his post, Ayoub noted that Biden's declining popularity among Arab Americans was “due to the outgoing president's persistent support for Israel's continued actions in Gaza.”
The Israeli military launched a bombing campaign in Gaza in retaliation for a deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages.
The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has since exceeded 39,500, with at least 15,000 children killed and more than 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 consistently criticized Biden and his administration for their unwavering support for Israel, warning in an Aug. 1 post on X that the Israeli government was dragging the U.S. “into World War 3.”
After Mossad's alleged removal of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut last week, Stein criticized Biden and Harris for their “deafening silence” on Israel's “massive escalation toward a wider war.”
In a July 31 post on X, Stein demanded that “the US immediately cut off aid to Israel, order a cease-fire, and arrest the war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) before he kills us all.
The killing of Haniyeh on July 31 raised fears of an all-out regional conflict. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge, warning Israel that he had “paved the way for your harsh punishment”.
Netanyahu's government has not claimed responsibility or commented on Haniya's death. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was “neither informed nor involved” in the killings.
QUICK 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 6 most important metropolitan areas.
• Almost 75% of all Arabs live in just 12 states: California, Michigan, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
• Nearly a quarter of Arab Americans are Muslim, while the rest's religious background is Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.
However, a day before Haniyeh's death, Israel claimed responsibility for killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut. Hezbollah promised a “definitive” response to Shukra's killing.
Regardless of whether or not the US was involved in these escalations, Biden's Middle East policy has faced sharp criticism since October, with rights groups urging the US administration to halt arms transfers to Israel.
At the end of April, Amnesty International reported that US weapons supplied to Israel were “used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law 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, ADC's director of national government affairs and advocacy, says the survey revealed two key findings. “First of all, President Biden is deeply unpopular among Arab Americans,” he told Arab News.
“Secondly, being anti-genocide is a winning position for our communities across the country.”
Habiby added that the survey results reflect “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 weapons sent to Israel”.
Biden faced a resounding defeat in February's Democratic primary in Michigan when a majority of voters in Dearborn, a city with a large Arab and Muslim population, chose to vote “not committed” rather than for him.
According to USA Today, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly endorsed the movement “tentatively,” referring to Biden's policies on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
In contrast, Stein actively courted the Arab-American vote in Michigan and beyond.
In an interview with Arab News in June, Stein promised that if elected, she would end military support for Israel's “apartheid government” and push for real peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Arabs and Muslims were taken for granted in America. They are victims of racial profiling, Islamophobia and anti-Arab violence in this country,” she said.
“There has been an absolute violation of our constitutional rights by the government to end our dialogue. People are struggling to deal with this genocide that we see live and in real time on our iPhones and computer screens.
Stein emphasized that he is “against the US law to send weapons to Israel, which violates humanitarian rights and interferes with the delivery of humanitarian aid.”
She added: “People who uphold our legal and human values are being criminalized and charged with crimes.
Despite Stein's growing popularity among Arab-American communities, other presidential candidates still have an opportunity to win more support from Arab and Muslim voters before November.
The ADC poll shows that in addition to the 27.5 percent who support Harris, 18 percent are undecided about their vote in November and 6 percent say they don't plan to vote.
“With nearly 1 in 4 voters either undecided or leaning toward sitting out, there's plenty of room for Harris or any other candidate to gain more support from the community if they take the right positions,” wrote ADC's Ayoub on X.
