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London: US Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, known for her vocal support for Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top choice among Arab American voters in the lead-up to the November 5 US election, according to a recent poll. .

Stein, who is running as a third-party candidate, has the support of 45 percent of Arab Americans polled by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American civil rights organization.

That puts Stein, a physician and environmentalist, ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 27.5 percent of the vote in the same poll.

The survey was conducted between July 27 and 28 in partnership between ADC, Molitico for data insights, and Community Pulse, which specializes in polling solutions.

According to Abed Ayoub, ADC's national executive director, the Arab-American voter demographic has increasingly gravitated toward Stein because of his advocacy of Palestinian human rights and his opposition to Israeli military operations in Gaza since October.

In a post on social platform X, he said: “Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein's strong polling of 45.3 percent, as in previous polls, demonstrates consistent community support, mainly due to her outspoken stance on Palestinian human rights.”

Stein has been the favorite among Arab voters since the ADC's last poll in May, where he led with 25 percent support. In comparison, President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the presidential race in July, and Republican candidate Donald Trump received 7 percent and 2 percent of the vote, respectively.

In 2022, 2.2 million people in the United States reported having Arab ancestry in that year's Arab Community Survey. The majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and 85 percent of Arabs in the US are citizens.

While the community traces its roots to each Arab country, the majority of Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. The top four states by Arab American population size are California, Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.

Ayoub noted in his post that Biden's declining popularity among Arab Americans “is due to the retiring president's staunch support for Israel's continued actions in Gaza.”

The Israeli military launched a bombing campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, in retaliation for a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel, in which the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has exceeded 39,500, with at least 15,000 children dead and more than 12,000 injured, Gaza health officials said.

Humanitarian organizations, rights groups and governments around the world have repeatedly called for a ceasefire, but Israel continues its military operations.

Stein has consistently criticized Biden and his administration for their unwavering support for Israel, warning in an Aug. 1 post on X that the Israeli government is dragging the U.S. into “WWIII.”

Following the suspected Mossad elimination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week and a senior Hezbollah figure in Beirut, Stein criticized Biden and Harris for their “deafening silence” on “Israel's massive escalation toward a larger war.”

In a July 31 post on X, Stein demanded “the U.S. immediately cut aid to Israel, order a cease-fire, and arrest the war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) before he kills us all.”

The killing of Haniyeh on July 31 has raised fears of regional conflict. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge, warning Israel that it had “paved the way for your severe punishment.”

Netanyahu's government has neither claimed nor commented on Haniyeh's death. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the US was “not aware of or involved” in the killings.

However, the day before Hanih's death, Israel claimed responsibility for killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut. Hezbollah has vowed a “firm” response to Shukra's killing.

Whether or not the U.S. was involved in these increases, Biden's Middle East policy has faced intense criticism since October, with human rights groups urging the U.S. administration to halt arms transfers to Israel.

In late April, Amnesty International reported that US weapons supplied to Israel were “used in serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and inconsistent with US law and policy”.

In May, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders, including Hanih.

Chris Habibi, ADC's director of national government affairs and advocacy, said the survey revealed two key insights. “First, President Biden is deeply unpopular among Arab Americans,” he told Arab News.

“Second, being anti-genocide is a win-win situation for our communities across the country.”

Habibi added that the survey results “reflect what we have called for 10 months and 300 days of this carnage – an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo on all weapons sent to Israel.”

Biden suffered a significant defeat in the Michigan Democratic primary in February when a majority of voters in Dearborn, a city with a large Arab and Muslim population, chose to vote “unrestricted” instead for him.

According to USA Today, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly endorsed the “unrestricted” vote movement, citing Biden's policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

In contrast, Stein has actively represented the Arab American vote in Michigan and beyond.

In an interview with Arab News in June, Stein pledged that if elected she would end military support for Israel's “apartheid government” and push for real peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

“Arabs and Muslims are taken for granted in America. They are victims of racial profiling, Islamophobia and violence against Arabs in this country,” she said.

“Government shutting down our talks is a complete violation of our constitutional rights. People are trying to cope with the carnage we are seeing live and in real time on our iPhones and computer screens. “

Stein emphasized that “sending arms to Israel is against US law, violating human rights and interfering with the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

He added: “People who stand up to uphold our legal values ​​and human values ​​are being criminalized and charged with crimes.”

Despite Stein's growing popularity among Arab-American communities, other presidential candidates have a chance to gain more support from Arab and Muslim voters before November.

ADC's poll indicates that, in addition to the 27.5 percent of respondents who support Harris, 18 percent are unsure about their vote in November, and 6 percent say they don't plan to vote.

“With nearly 1 in 4 voters either undecided or inclined to sit out the polls, there's plenty of room for Harris or any other candidate to garner more support from the community if positioned correctly,” ADC's Ayub wrote in X.