Key Democrat stronghold rallies against US support for Israel
The rapidly escalating war in the Middle East has heightened anger at Democrats from within Michigan’s Arab-American community, a month before a presidential election in which Vice President Kamala Harris is counting on support from within a key party constituency.
About 1,000 people attended a rally on Wednesday organised by some of the top leaders in Dearborn, Michigan, a hub of the nation’s largest Arab community, to protest an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, in which nearly 700 people have been killed so far.
Many speakers blamed Harris and President Joe Biden for US arms shipments to Israel, which has launched a second major attack while still fighting Hamas in Gaza in a conflict that’s killed more than 41,500 people, mostly women and children.
“We cannot condone any president that uplifts any administration that bombs every school, decimating children to smithereens. That is the message we have and those are values we will take with us to November,” Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told the crowd.
Hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian flags are flown throughout a crowd in Dearborn
Demonstrators in New York City protest PM Netanyahu’s wars
Among the speakers at the protest were families of Israeli captives held in Gaza
A large antiwar protest is expected on Manhattan’s East Side
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also faces an imminent warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court
‘A nightmare’: Lebanese Americans angry as Israel attacks homeland
Israel’s large-scale bombing campaign in Lebanon has hit close to home for Ali Dabaja, a Detroit-area physician. His cousin was killed along with her husband and three children in an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon.
“There is disbelief. There is anger and there is the feeling of loss – tremendous loss,” Dabaja told Al Jazeera.
He is not alone. As the war in Lebanon intensifies, Lebanese Americans say they are feeling anxiety and sorrow for their loved ones back home – and outrage at the US government for continuing to arm and support Israel.
Arab Americans hold a vigil for victims of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon in Dearborn, Michigan
