Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be able to escape the protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war that have dogged her and President Joe Biden for months.
Harris faced off with a small group of protesters at her rally Wednesday in Dearborn, Michigan, a scene that made clear that critics of U.S. policy in the Middle East are only partially satisfied with the change at the top of the Democratic ticket.
“It’s clear to us, through her statements and what’s been leaked and conversations with people behind the scenes, she does feel differently” from Biden, said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of the Muslim advocacy organization Emgage. “But those are feelings. … What’s needed is an articulation of a policy vision that’s different from what we’ve seen so far.”
The persistence of the pro-Palestinian movement suggests it still has the capacity to do damage in swing states like Michigan, which has large populations of Arab American voters in cities like Dearborn and young voters who align with the movement.
Biden forcefully backed Israel after Hamas militants invaded on Oct. 7 and killed about 1,200 people. He later urged the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint in Gaza, and his administration has pushed for a cease-fire. But that has not satisfied critics who, at a minimum, want the U.S. to curb military support to the Jewish state.
Harris has appeared to take a more considered approach to the issue in her first days as a candidate — expressing openness to the community’s concerns but so far refusing to give in to its demands.
When it was Uncommitted National Movement co-founder Layla Elabed’s turn to take a photo with Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday before their Detroit campaign rally, she told the vice president her group wanted an Israeli arms embargo.
But Elabed, who was invited by the Harris campaign to participate in the photo line, became emotional when she shook hands with the freshly minted candidates, breaking down crying as she explained that she is Palestinian and how devastating the conflict is for her personally. Elabed described Harris as “sympathetic” and walked away from the interaction with the impression that the vice president had agreed to sit down with her group to discuss a weapons embargo.
