JACKSON: Why Muslim voters matter
President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s administration has failed Palestinians, and Vice President Kamala Harris will pay the price in this election.
For more than a year, the Biden Administration has supposedly been working "around the clock" to bring about a ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas War. During this time, more than 40,000 Palestinians, including approximately 16,000 children, have been killed as Israel's attacks expand, which the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Occupied Palestinian Territories has classified as a genocide.
The Biden Administration has not only been complicit in these actions but also is critical in supplying the Israeli military, sending $17.9 billion in military aid in the past year. This is a record-breaking number. A large part of the U.S.'s aid to Israel takes the form of munitions, such as artillery shells and bombs, which are directly used to constantly bombard Gaza.
Despite consistently warning of red-lines and preaching caution to Israel, the Biden Administration has enabled and contributed to the destruction of Gaza and the disproportionate killing of civilians.
It is uncommon for a foreign policy issue to be critical in our presidential election, yet there has been high mobilization around Gaza. Protests have continued against military aid to Israel and the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. This has dominated the minds of many Americans for the past year, particularly Muslim-American voters.
While Muslims make up just 1.1 percent of the American population, many are concentrated in battleground states like Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania, which are critical in the presidential election. In 2020, these swing states awarded their electoral votes to Biden.
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) released its findings about the intentions of Muslim voters in these three swing states in the upcoming presidential election. The study found that in the 2020 election, 65 percent of Muslims voted for Biden, but before he dropped out of the race, only 12 percent of Muslims intended to vote for Biden in 2024.
The study also revealed that 61 percent of all Muslim voters "say that the war in Gaza is one of the top three most important priorities on which they will judge a candidate." Muslim voters unite in their prioritization of Gaza in their voting decisions in November. In places where every vote counts, the Democratic nominee is losing support.
Though Biden is not running for reelection, Harris stepped into the ring. While she initially attempted to distance herself rhetorically from Biden's unflinching support of Israel, her reaction to pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally in Detroit and the apparent absence of Palestinian speakers at the Democratic National Convention have solidified for many that Harris will not bring change.
A standard response to criticism of Harris's stances on Gaza is that former President Donald J. Trump would be worse. The study from ISPU found that not many Muslim voters are switching their support to Trump. More Muslims are now voting third party, writing in a candidate, not voting at all or remaining undecided.
It is the third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Cornel West who, instead of silencing those with concerns about Palestinians, openly advocate for permanent ceasefire and the halting of military aid. The voters that Harris shushed hold the fate of this election in their hands.
This is not a new revelation. During the Democratic primaries, many across the country voted "uncommitted" for Palestine as a show of disapproval of Biden's policies and solidarity with the Palestinian people. This included more than 100,000 uncommitted votes in Michigan in February.
A poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), released last month, found that Stein leads Harris in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin by significant margins, which are all battleground states. During this time, Harris' ambiguous declarations for "deals," while maintaining the right of Israel to "defend itself" have fallen flat for those who hoped she would diverge from Biden's policy.
You may criticize the prioritization of Gaza by Muslim voters in the presidential election as failing to recognize other important issues at stake, such as abortion, environmental reform and taxes. But can you blame them? How can you blame Lebanese-American voters in Michigan for refusing to vote for a party that is complicit in the bombing of their home and killing of their families or friends?
The destruction of Gaza and the mass killings of Palestinians brought forth domestic perils, including censorship on campuses, Islamophobic news coverage, rising anti-Muslim violence and the extent of the military-industrial complex. Perhaps most of all, the treatment of the Palestinian people has shown that to the U.S. government, some lives matter more than others.
If Harris wants to win this election, she needs to make drastic changes quickly.
Kate Jackson is a senior in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in history and minoring in critical intelligence studies. Her column, "Writer's Block," runs on alternate Thursdays.
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