Could little-known presidential contender Jill Stein hand the election to Donald Trump?
Jill Stein is taking on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee for the Green Party.
Soujoud Hamade can't get the video of the burning man out of her head.
"It's a horrendous, horrific image that will be imprinted in my mind for the rest of my life," the Michigan lawyer said.
Shaban al-Dalou was a day shy of his 20th birthday when he burned to death in his family's tent last week as a result of an Israeli strike near the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza.
Graphic video of the young man's final moments in the inferno, his writhing arm still attached to an IV drip, has gone around the world, a symbol of civilian suffering in Gaza.
The US State Department has described the images as "horrifying" and "deeply disturbing".
Israel said it was targeting a Hamas command centre.
Soujoud Hamade considered herself a life-long Democrat, but is now voting for Jill Stein.
Until recently, Hamade, the president of the Michigan chapter of the National Arab American Bar Association, considered herself "a life-long Democrat".
But the 32-year-old blames the Biden administration for its continued support of Israel and for not doing enough to end the killing of civilians.
The death of al-Dalou feels like a final straw for Soujoud.
"I'm a first-generation American, that could have easily been me," she said.
Soujoud said she would now be voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the presidential election.
"I mean, what more do you need to see?"
The protest vote inside a key swing state
"As-salaam 'alykum sister — please vote and vote for a third party," Farah Khan says as she presses a small flyer into the hand of a woman leaving Friday prayers in a mosque north of Detroit.
"We have to register our protest — we cannot be silent," she tells another woman.
The woman studies the leaflet. "I know," she says quietly.
Khan is a Michigan co-chair of the Abandon Harris group, which sprang up last year in protest at the Biden administration's staunch support of Israel.
Farah Khan is encouraging Michigan voters to support Jill Stein.
The group, originally called Abandon Biden, is one of a number of organisations that formed ahead of the Democratic primaries earlier this year.
They urged voters to lodge a protest by choosing the option of "uncommitted" on their ballot paper, rather than backing a candidate.
More than 100,000 in the key swing state of Michigan did so, in the hope of pressuring the administration to do more to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza.
In January of this year, in response to a case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice found Israel should take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza.
It could take years for the court to issue a verdict on the substantial question of whether genocide is occurring, an allegation Israel calls "baseless".
For the Abandon Harris campaign and many Arab Americans, there simply is no ambiguity. The movement is formally endorsing Stein for president.
Lebanese flags are flown from a balcony in Dearborn.
"We want to punish this administration, the Harris Biden administration, for committing genocide, for abetting it, for funding it, for funnelling our money, our hard-earned tax money, and keep supplying weapons to kill innocent people," Khan said.
Could the Green Party decide the election?
Some Democrats blame Stein for robbing them of victory in the 2016 presidential election.
In Michigan and another key swing state, Wisconsin, the Green Party candidate's total number of votes was greater than the margin by which Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton.
This time, Democrats are taking no chances.
A Gen-Z voter group backing Kamala Harris has branded Stein as a scammer, who's running a "spoiler" campaign.
Jill Stein (centre) wants the US to stop supplying arms to Israel.
"She's literally worse than Elizabeth Holmes, the Fyre Fest guys and Anna Delvey combined," one of their videos claims.
The Democratic National Committee has also released an attack ad on Stein, in which the candidate's face slowly morphs into Trump.
"She's not sorry she helped Trump win. That's why a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump," it said.
In response to the attack ads, Stein has said: "Bring it on."
"It's wonderful, it's the best public relations campaign we could ask for," she told the ABC.
The 74-year-old Harvard-educated doctor and activist is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and has advocated for making US military aid to Israel dependent on an end to the violence.
"The US controls the weapons, the financing, the diplomatic cover and the intelligence," she said.
"So when the US says the war is over and the genocide is over, it's absolutely over."
Protest signs are dotted around Dearborn.
Stein is one of several third-party candidates running and is also campaigning on issues including combating climate change and reducing income inequality.
She says while she's "not ruling out a win", she hopes ultimately to shake up America's two-party system.
Stein is polling nationally at about one per cent, but small shifts to a third-party candidate in key battlegrounds could make all the difference in who wins the White House in November.
"You know, most people are holding their nose," Stein said.
"They're voting against the candidate that they hate the most.
"Why don't we have more choices? That's what democracy is supposed to be about."
The key issue in America's Arab-majority city
Dearborn, which is on Detroit's outskirts, is America's first Arab-majority city and is like a little pocket of the Middle East in the US Midwest.
Waves of migrants have come here over generations, many to work in the auto industry.
Dearborn, Michigan, became the first Arab-majority city in the US in 2023.
Ford Motor Company's worldwide headquarters are located in Dearborn, and Henry Ford was said to favour Arab workers, finding them industrious and reliable.
Today just over half of Dearborn's 110,000 residents are of Arabic descent.
In 2020, they backed Joe Biden by a ratio of around three-to-one, helping him win the state and take the White House.
But the Democrats can no longer rely on that support.
In the Sahara restaurant in downtown Dearborn, images of the destruction in Lebanon play on the television screen above the cash register.
The establishment is doing a brisk lunchtime trade with police officers and a couple of tourists mingling among the regulars from the nearby Ford plant.
Owner and manager Sam Hammoud is busy taking orders as well as making the food.
He said he's found it difficult to sleep since Israel invaded southern Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in hostilities with Hezbollah.
"It's tearing us apart," he said.
"The bombing hit home. I'm talking about my village, my people, my cousins.
"My old man has been running all over the country trying to find a safe place to stay."
Sam Hammoud runs a restaurant in Dearborn.
Hammoud voted for Trump in 2016 and again in the 2020 presidential elections, but this time he won't be backing the former president or Harris.
"This is two administrations that just want to pound, pound, pound bombs," he said.
"And they're all USA bombs, and I feel like I'm in this whole situation because they're using our tax dollars."
He said he's considering not voting at all, or perhaps opting to cast his ballot in favour of Stein.
"I have not decided yet … I'm just waiting on somebody to stop the war."
A close race enters the home stretch
Democrat Noah Arbit knows the result in Michigan could come down to the wire.
"It's exceptionally close," he said. "As much of a toss-up as anything could be."
State politician Noah Arbit is the founder of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus.
Arbit represents Michigan's 20th district, north-west of Detroit, in the state legislature.
He acknowledges that concern about the handling of the war in Gaza "has led to a significant erosion in support for Democrats".
The 29-year-old, who is Jewish, is also fielding concerns from some constituents about whether the administration is doing enough to combat rising anti-Semitism.
"My message to people is you can criticise the Israeli government, but you cannot come for the Jewish community," Arbit said.
The real work, he said, is to "find more votes in other places that we can compensate for any erosion, whether it's in the Arab community or other communities".
David Dulio, who is a professor of political science at Oakland University north of Detroit, said the Harris campaign is likely factoring in some losses in Michigan's Arab community and appears to be trying to offset them with outreach to other constituencies.
David Dulio is a distinguished professor of political science at Michigan's Oakland University.
"If they can limit the damage and turn up the heat on the African American turnout, maybe that's enough," he said.
"But Trump is doing the same thing in other parts of the state, with other constituencies and in rural Michigan.
"I think both campaigns know Michigan is at or near the top of the list when it comes to priorities in these battleground states."
Soujoud Hamade knows a vote for Stein could end up boosting Trump's chances, but she rejects the suggestion she will be essentially voting for the Republican candidate.
"It's an unfair characterisation," she said.
"I think that it's a vote for Jill Stein, it's not a vote for Trump.
"The Democrats shouldn't feel entitled to our vote. If they want our vote, then they need to do what it takes to garner our vote."
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-22/us-election-trump-harris-jill-stein-green-party-michigan/104492754(责任编辑：admin)
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