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In a backstage waiting room at Friday’s campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, Arab American advocates urged Vice President Kamala Harris to break away from President Joe Biden’s Israel policy and work toward ending the war in Gaza. He called for more forceful promotion.
The conversation was scheduled to last 10 minutes but ended up lasting 20 minutes, said Wael Al-Zayat, CEO of Emgage Action, a group that aims to encourage Muslim-Americans to vote. It is said that Harris did not make any promises, but told her that “she too wants to end the war and will do everything in her power to do so.”
“She (said) that she was committed to working with our community, to including our community, and that she completely understood what we were saying. She said that if she wins, I hope that I will be able to achieve all of these things once I become president,” Al-Zayat told CNN.
Emgage Action leaders said they had been in contact with other Arab American leaders who were present and had been invited within the past 48 hours. Their message to Harris was simple, he says. She needed to “put some distance between how she governs on this issue and the current administration’s policies with which we disagree.”
The meeting comes amid growing dissatisfaction with Harris’ response to Israel’s recent escalation in Lebanon and concerns that her campaign is unwilling to listen to critical voices. Harris’s impasse is partly due to her position that the vice president does not decide America’s foreign policy. But as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war expands into a multi-pronged conflict involving Iran, which fired missiles into Israel this week, and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen, prominent Arab American groups We are looking for more additions.
Michigan, which Biden narrowly won in 2020, has a large Arab-American population and will once again be a key battleground state this November. Emgage Action endorsed Harris last month, although it acknowledged “deep disappointment” with the Biden administration’s stance on Gaza.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez were among the prominent Democrats at Friday’s meeting, including local elected officials and former U.S. ambassador to Morocco and current U.S. ambassador to Morocco, Al-Zayat reported. Edward Gabriel, who runs the nonprofit American Task, was among those in attendance. Add military force to Lebanon.
“We want her to push the president to end the war. We want her to commit to ending the war when she becomes president. We want our communities to speak directly about their pain and suffering,” Al-Zayat and other outside supporters said they told the vice president. “We want her and we want the government to do a better job of assisting Americans trapped in Lebanon.”
CNN has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on the meeting.
According to a joint report from Friday’s rally, Harris said, “We are committed to fighting the war in Gaza so that Israel’s safety can be ensured, the hostages can be freed, the suffering in Gaza can end, and the Palestinian people can realize their mission.” We discussed efforts to end this.” The right to dignity, freedom and self-determination. ”
“Regarding Lebanon, the vice president expressed concern about civilian casualties and displacement, ultimately reiterating the administration’s position that a diplomatic solution is the best path to achieving stability and protecting civilians. The vice president also discussed efforts to prevent regional wars,” the official said.
Missing from Friday’s guest list were leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement, which rose up during this year’s Democratic primaries to oppose the Biden administration’s policies on the Gaza war. Harris mingled with the group’s leaders during a photo shoot at the Detroit airport in early August.
The group asked the vice president to discuss the effects of the war after his campaign and the national Democratic Party rejected the group’s previous request for a Palestinian American to speak at this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. They are requesting that a meeting be held with the families of those affected.
Dedicated leaders have since announced that their group will not support Harris, but will also not vote for Donald Trump or any third-party candidate in any state where he could appear on the ballot. I warned you.
Dedicated Movement co-founder and former Capitol Hill staffer Abbas Allawi acknowledged Friday that his group was not invited to meet with Harris.
“We are happy that our pressure is helping to generate more engagement,” Allawi said in a social media post. What we need now is for the vice president to specifically say that as president he will respect international humanitarian law and U.S. law and stop sending Israeli weapons to commit war crimes. ”
James Zogby, co-founder of the Arab American Association and a member of the Democratic National Committee for more than 30 years, who took up the Uncommitment movement at the Chicago convention, told CNN he extended an invitation to speak with Harris on Friday. He said he refused. He cited growing dissatisfaction with the campaign, which he said was more focused on optics than addressing the anger and anxieties of Arab American voters.
Zogby participated in Wednesday’s phone call with Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, which the White House described as “a meeting with leaders of the Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American communities.” ”, he said, explaining that it was a virtual gathering to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East.
“There was no ground breaking. I wasn’t really sure what their intentions were other than they met with the leaders. There were no leaders,” Zogby said of Wednesday’s conversation.
That call and other communications with the Harris campaign, as well as Mr. Biden’s earlier communications, irritated longtime Democratic pollsters. And Israel’s escalation in Lebanon is intensifying in states such as Michigan, where Lebanese Americans make up a large part of the Democratic coalition.
“They have a bigger job to do now that Lebanon is on fire, and I don’t think they’re ready to deal with it,” Zogby said of the Harris campaign. “It’s like trying to sell a car to someone with terminal cancer. ‘What are you talking about?’ I’m thinking about something bigger right now.” ”
Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said there were “many meetings with both the campaign and the administration.” They know our concerns and requests. ”
“Our positions and efforts are focused on bringing about an immediate ceasefire and ending the genocide in Palestine and the war with Lebanon,” said Ayoub, who added that the group has 7,500 members in Michigan. He pointed out that nearly 130,000 valid voters, including 130,000 people, are registered as members.
This week, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, pitched his campaign at Emgage Action’s “One Million Muslim Vote: A Path Forward” summit.
“I know the pain in this community is deep. Our hearts are broken. The concerns of the Vice President, Harris, and I are on our minds every day. The scale is staggering and devastating. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed and their families flee for safety, time and time again,” Walz said at the virtual event. .
Harris has at times been disrupted at her campaign rallies by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. At the time, the vice president spoke about the devastation in the Gaza Strip and emphasized that his administration is working towards a ceasefire agreement.
Mr. Zogby said Friday that he “sincerely” wants Ms. Harris to win, but has concerns about the campaign’s efforts to incrementally manage the issue.
“They have to say something about this issue that people care about, and they just don’t seem to want to talk about it,” Zogby said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Brian Rokus contributed to this report.
