Biden faces anger from key Arab American voters in Michigan primary over Israel support in Gaza war

Palestinian keffiyehs and signs that read "Abandon Biden": Arab American demonstrators in Warren, Michigan, made no secret of their anger at the president in early February as he visited the key swing state that helped carry him to victory in 2020.

As voters head to the polls in Michigan's Democratic primary on Tuesday, there is a local campaign urging Democrats to choose "uncommitted" on the ballot as a form of protest vote again the administration's support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

In January, Biden's reelection campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, canceled a meeting with Arab American activists in Dearborn because of backlash over the administration's policies. The U.S. has sent billions of dollars in advanced weapons to supply Israel before and since the terror attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7. The assault killed some 1,200 people there and took a further 240 hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

The Israeli military's response, which has been sharply criticized by numerous world leaders and aid organizations, has displaced some 1.9 million people in Gaza, according to the United Nations, and killed nearly 30,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. The U.N. says that half a million people in the besieged enclave face starvation.

Dearborn, Michigan, is home to the largest Arab American population in the U.S. At the time Rodriguez's Dearborn meeting was canceled, the city's mayor, Abdullah H. Hammoud, tweeted: "Little bit of advice – if you're planning on sending campaign officials to convince the Arab American community on why they should vote for your candidate, don't do it on the same day you announce selling fighter jets to the tyrants murdering our