In a side room backstage at a Friday campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, Arab American advocates asked Vice President Kamala Harris to break from President Joe Biden’s Israel policy and push harder for an end to the war in Gaza.
The conversation, scheduled to last 10 minutes, ended up lasting for 20, according to Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Emgage Action, a group aimed at boosting the Muslim American vote. Harris did not make any promises, he said, but told them “that she also wants the war to end and that she will do all she can to work in this regard.”
“She pledged to work with our community, include our community, and (said) that she completely understands what we’re saying. She is hopeful that if she wins, she’ll be able to deliver on all of this once she’s president,” Alzayat told CNN.
The Emgage Action leader said he and other Arab American leaders in the room had been contacted and invited within the previous 48 hours. Their message to Harris was simple, he said. She needed “to show distance between how she would govern on this matter with the current administration policies, which we don’t agree with.”
Further context: The meeting came amid increasing frustration over Harris’ response to Israel’s recent escalations in Lebanon and concerns that her campaign was not willing to hear from critical voices. Harris is hamstrung, in part, because of her position: Vice presidents do not set US foreign policy.
But as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has expanded to a multifront conflict involving Iran, which launched missiles at Israel this week, and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen, prominent Arab American groups have been pushing for more.