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With the death toll in Gaza rising and Israel's invasion of Lebanon intensifying, it was not a difficult decision for the Abandon Harris movement to endorse Green Party presidential candidate Dr Jill Stein.
“Again and again, there has been silence from the Biden administration,” Hassan Abdel Salam, the director and co-founder of Abandon Harris, told a recent press conference in Dearborn as he introduced Dr Stein. “We have with us a leader, a person of truth, a partner in truth and conscience.”
The move could have a significant impact on the US presidential election. It’s here in Dearborn, and in other Michigan cities – home to more than 300,000 Arab Americans – where the presidential election could be won or lost. President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by 155,000 votes in 2020 with a significant number of those coming from Arab and Muslim Americans.
In Dearborn, the 2020 Biden-Harris ticket beat Trump by 17,500 votes. In Hamtramck, a city of 28,000 people of whom around 60 per cent are Muslim or Arab Americans, Mr Biden won 86 per cent of the vote four years ago. That city's Muslim mayor has now endorsed Mr Trump.
Further north of Detroit, in Oakland county, where around 65,000 Arab Americans live, Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by more than 100,000 votes in 2020.
While most national polls show around one per cent of voters likely to back Dr Stein, in Michigan that number doubles. The difference may appear negligible but in a state where only a few thousand votes could decide the winner, it poses a serious problem for the Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We have a whole campaign of flyering, door knocking and phone banking, and we’re targeting people (across the state),” Mr Salam said. “We feel if we get 70,000 voters to vote against the Vice President, we will definitely be victorious in Michigan.”
The endorsement is a significant boost for Dr Stein.
“You serve as the conscience of the nation, demanding an end to genocide in Gaza being perpetrated in our name with our tax dollars,” she told the audience. “Abandon Harris is a moral compass for a nation that is lost at sea. You have given new life to our ailing democracy.”
For Huda Al Qouqa, whose family were displaced from Silat Ad Dhahr in what is now the occupied West Bank during the Nakba in 1948, last week's press conference was the first time she felt the need to attend an Abandon Harris event.
She said her son-in-law’s family is all in Gaza. “His cousins, his uncles all died. It doesn’t matter who you are – doctors, reporters; it’s really devastating,” she said.
The Dearborn resident said that seeing the news headlines focus on hurricanes while dozens of people were being killed in Gaza and Lebanon prompted her to get out and take part in the Abandon Harris protests.
“We need to encourage the third party more,” she said. “In the end, this is our country.”
Mr Abdel Salam said part of his motivation for advocating against Ms Harris springs from seeing first-hand how Palestinians are treated by Israel. He was detained and interrogated by Israeli police following his involvement in a pro-Palestine protest in Jerusalem in 2022.
Asked whether the Abandon Harris campaign may end up handing the White House to Mr Trump, who has claimed to be one of Israel’s biggest supporters and under whose previous administration restricted travel for several Muslim-majority countries in 2017, Mr Abdel Salam said there is a big difference between preventing people from travelling on one hand, and killing them on the other.
“Mr Trump … is a despicable candidate, an insurrectionist, a racist who spews perpetual racism,” he said. “But a lot of folks in the community now are completely persuaded that this is the only option.”
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
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5. Sorghum
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2pm Handicap (TB) 68,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner Miracle Maker, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
2.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Mazagran, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
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Winner Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
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4pm Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Hurry Up, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
