Michigan primary: Thousands of Arab Americans vote 'uncommitted' over Biden's Gaza policy

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Wearing a keffiyeh and a sweatshirt with a watermelon – a fruit that has re-emerged as a popular symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause – Mohammad Qazzaz makes his way to the booth to cast his vote in Michigan's primary election.

On his Democratic ballot is President Joe Biden and two other candidates who have little chance of winning this year's party nomination. Mr Qazzaz fills in the fourth bubble, “uncommitted”.

“I voted uncommitted to send a message to Biden: don't take our vote for granted,” Mr Qazzaz told The National.

“There's a genocide happening in front of the whole world and the United States is supporting most of the weapons. How is he allowing this to happen?”

More than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted Democratic ballots - far exceeding organisers' target.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump won the state's Republican primary by a large margin over rival Nikki Haley who come in a distant second.

Four years ago, Mr Qazzaz, like many Arab Americans in Dearborn, the capital of Arab America, came out overwhelmingly in support of Mr Biden, helping him to clinch victory in a must-win state and denying Mr Trump a second term in office.

Residents of Michigan, home to about 500,000 Arab Americans, say they feel betrayed by Mr Biden over his support for Israel since October 7, when the country launched a punishing military campaign on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

“The word you often hear is betrayal,” Dearborn's Democratic Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told The National after casting his own uncommitted vote.

“We were promised a president in 2020 who wanted to bring back decency, who wanted to lead with humanity – that's not what we currently have in the White House.

“For us, this is a protest vote to demonstrate that [Mr Biden] has to change course or he risks losing the election in November.”

Voters check in at a polling booth in Dearborn, Michigan. AFP

Since the war started more than four months ago, more than 29,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to local health authorities.

But Mr Biden has expressed his solid support for Israel and bypassed Congress twice to approve emergency weapons sales to the country.

He has also questioned the number of Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza and his administration has vetoed three resolutions at the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The goal of Listen to Michigan, organisers said, was to get more than 10,000 uncommitted votes – the margin of votes that Mr Trump won in the state back in 2016.

In 2020, Mr Biden won Michigan by about 154,000 votes.

For most Arab Americans, voting for Mr Trump is not an option, as he has promised to reintroduce and expand a ban on the entry of citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, and increase surveillance of Muslim Americans.

“I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic ballot and vote uncommitted,” Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American Democratic Congresswoman from Michigan, said in a video released by the Listen to Michigan campaign on Tuesday.

Fatima Alsoufi, 19, went with her parents to vote. All three of them filled in the “uncommitted” bubble.

“I don’t usually vote,” Ms Alsoufi, a Yemeni American, told The National.

“But since I saw what’s happening in Palestine it hurts.

“If I vote uncommitted, President Biden will see that our votes matter and hopefully this genocide will stop.”

The White House has so far not commented directly on the uncommitted campaign, but on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the Biden administration is willing to adjust their approach to the conflict.

“We take these conversations very seriously,” Mr Kirby told journalists.

“And without getting into specific details or disclosing some of the things that we've been hearing, we are taking them on board and we are willing to adjust the way we're approaching the conflict and the way we're talking about it to reflect those concerns.”

On Monday, Mr Biden said he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza would be announced by Monday, but warned that it is not yet a done deal.

A pause in the fighting would allow for more hostages to be released and more aid to be taken into the besieged enclave.

Dozens of Palestinian-American residents of Dearborn have lost loved ones in Israeli strikes. Dozens more had relatives or were themselves trapped in Gaza when the war erupted and had to be evacuated by the State Department.

But support for a ceasefire and discontent over Mr Biden's handling of the Israel-Gaza war extends beyond Muslim and Arab Americans, and beyond Michigan.

“We want to stop all the senseless killing in Gaza,” said Jamel Ridgenal, a black American who flew from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to support the campaign.

“I'm a religious and spiritual guy, and I don't believe in senseless killing.”

Some residents of Dearborn said they would never vote for Mr Biden, no matter what happens between now and November.

“I voted uncommitted because what is happening in Palestine is really sad – I don't want to vote for someone with blood on their hands,” Hassan Balhas, a Lebanese American, told The National.

“I always voted Democrat but I am done.”

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home

Michigan primary: Thousands of Arab Americans vote 'uncommitted' over Biden's Gaza policy

'I always voted Democrat but I am done,' says one resident of Dearborn

The bio