Arab American and Muslim American leaders are blasting President Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza, warning that it’s antithetical to their beliefs and amounts to ethnic cleansing.
The backlash comes after Trump made significant inroads among these groups’ voters in the November election, peeling them away from the Democratic Party, which has been their home for decades, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
But while these leaders have no kind words for Trump’s plans, they’re also pointing blame at both former President Biden and former Vice President Harris for allowing the conflict to continue and not taking the opportunity to convince voters that they were a better alternative.
“You got to remember that Donald Trump today is talking about moving Palestinians out of Gaza because they have no homes,” said Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Palestine/Israel program and a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC. “They have no homes because of Joe Biden’s policy. And this is less a shift from one administration to the next than a continuation.”
Considered a solid part of the Democratic coalition throughout much of the 21st century, Muslim and Arab American voters seem to be without a clear political home in the aftermath of the 2024 race. Polling from the Arab American Institute and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) showed a clear drop in support among members of these communities for Harris during her presidential bid, considerably lower than had been for other recent Democratic tickets.
While Harris softened some of Biden’s stances on the war and expressed more solidarity for the plight of Palestinians, she avoided promises to place conditions on aid to Israel, a top demand for her detractors.
And an exit poll from CAIR released just after Election Day found 53 percent of American Muslims nationally voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, while 21 percent voted for Trump and 20 percent voted for Harris.
Notably, Harris lost the first majority Arab American city in the U.S., Dearborn, Mich., by 6 points to Trump after Biden overwhelmingly won the city in 2020. Every Democrat had won the city since 2004.
The ongoing conflict, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, yielded two major efforts within the Democratic Party hesitant to back the party’s ticket: the Abandon movement and the Uncommitted movement.
The Abandon group endorsed Stein, while the Uncommitted group avoided endorsing Harris but also vocally opposed Trump.
Leaders within both groups slammed Trump’s calls as illegal and constituting ethnic cleansing, though they also turned blame to Biden and Harris for not offering a clear enough alternative.
Hudhayfah Ahmad, who served as a spokesperson for the Abandon movement, called Trump’s comments “inflammatory,” “grotesque” and “unacceptable” but also drew a distinction between Trump’s words and the Biden administration’s actions.
“At the same time, [Trump’s comment] is rhetoric, and we are not going to equate rhetoric with the actions of the previous administration,” he said. “We believe that is disingenuous and dishonest.”
The Abandon movement said in a statement following Trump’s remarks that his administration pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire is a “surprising relief.” The statement argued that Trump was only acting out of self-interest and not humanitarian reasons, but he still got the fighting to stop, which it said would not have happened if Harris won.
“It was for his own personal self-interest,” Ahmad said. “Still, it must be emphasized that Trump did what Biden and Harris blatantly refused to do, which is pressure Netanyahu into ending the genocide.”
The outgoing Biden administration and incoming Trump administration worked together ahead of Inauguration Day to solidify a ceasefire deal that releases the hostages held in Gaza.
Layla Elabed, a co-founder of the Uncommitted movement, told The Forward that she feels “sad, angry, and scared for our communities.” She said the group warned about the danger that Trump poses domestically and internationally for months, but their words were largely ignored.
“Harris left a vacuum by not visiting Michigan families impacted by US-supplied bombs to help create a permission structure for their trust while Trump visited Dearborn and filled a community in despair with lies,” she told the outlet.
“Trump’s illegal calls for ethnic cleansing are horrific, but as on so many other issues, Democrats had a chance to persuade voters that they were the better alternative and they blew it,” she said.
Both groups appeared more driven away from the Democratic ticket than toward the GOP, while some others outside the party were openly supportive of Trump as a result, though they still don’t support Trump’s proposal.
A pro-Trump Arab American group received attention Wednesday when it announced it was changing its name from “Arab Americans for Trump” to “Arab Americans for Peace.”
Bishara Bhabha, the organization’s chair, said the group had been considering a name change since after the election, but given Trump’s comments this week, it decided to send out a release about the decision. He said he was surprised by Trump’s statement but noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt both sought to walk back Trump’s comments.
Trump doubled down on his proposal in comments Thursday, though he said U.S. troops wouldn’t be needed to carry it out.
Bhabha said Trump’s comments were “clearly” not fully thought out, but he expects as Trump hears from various Arab countries that they would not accept Palestinian refugees being sent into their territory, Trump will be able to reach a “reasonable and acceptable resolution.”
“The voluntary or involuntary transfer of Palestinians from their homeland is totally unacceptable and rejected by all of us as Arab and Muslim Americans,” he said.
Those who favored Trump over Harris, or at least rejected the Democrats in 2024, also could have been influenced by other issues outside the conflict, others noted. As a result, winning back these voters may be complex.
Ani Zonneveld, the president of Muslims for Progressive Values, said she has been tracking a shift to the right among a certain group of Muslims for the past decade, particularly regarding LGBTQ rights. Trump’s first-term policy to suspend immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries caused these voters to identify as progressives, but they shifted back during the Biden administration.
She pointed to a 2023 document called “Navigating Differences” that pushed back against “LGBTQ-centric values,” citing religious text.
“It became a real effort by the Christian right to court the Muslim right, in a real strategic manner,” Zonneveld said, noting former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn’s meeting with Muslim political and religious leaders in Michigan to come together to push against LGBTQ rights.
“They’re going to vote based on how this next four years is going to affect them, and I think that’s still to be played out, but I think it’s going to play up badly for everyone, except for a few,” she said.
Munayyer cautioned against treating these communities as a monolith, as other voters outside the Arab and Muslim American communities also made their decision on this issue and those in the community made their voting decision on a range of issues.
But he said many of those whose decision hinged on the war likely stayed home rather than voting for either candidate in November. And Trump’s comments demonstrate the conundrum that faced this group and still does.
“They understood Trump is not going to be good and Biden’s not going to be good,” Munayyer said. “But on this issue, there’s not a whole lot of tangible difference between the two of them, and the impact of that ended up alienating voters that, in my view, probably made a difference in this election.”
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