Democratic Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud expressed dismay over President Joe Biden’s handling of Israel's war on Hamas and what international experts have said is the resultant humanitarian crisis. Hammoud is one of several Michigan Arab leaders who rejected a meeting late last week with Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez.
Hammoud spoke with Stateside Monday, elaborating on his decision.
“We were promised a president who was a decent man, who understood what it was like to lose loved ones and who promised experience as it pertained to foreign policy,” Hammoud said. “What we're finding is America being drawn back into endless wars in the Middle East. We had thought we had closed the book on that nightmare.”
Hammoud said he felt the administration wasn't approaching the concerns of his community with urgency. “For the White House administration, they simply look at the Palestinian issue as a political calculation,” Hammoud said of the decision to suggest a meeting with campaign staff. “Palestinians are not measured in poll numbers. Their humanity demands action, not lip service.”
“The conversation we need to be having about how we change course needs to be had with policy staff and policymakers, not campaign staff,” Hammoud said.
Hammoud said he wants to bring troops home, wind down foreign conflict, and, echoing other Arab and Muslim leaders in the state, see the Biden administration call for a ceasefire. “There has to be a change in policy. I mean, immediately, we have to be calling for a cease fire.”
Hammoud said despite his sharp criticism, he doesn’t want his constituents to withdraw from activism. “I tell them that the worst thing you can do is disengage,” he said. “We have to continually protest, organize, come out and rally the vote. Even if that means voting for more local offices and straying away from candidates who don't support the value system that we're putting forward.”
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Michigan was a key state in Biden’s 2020 election victory; he won the state by about 150,000 votes out of about 5.5 million votes cast.
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