U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (CC BY 2.0)
President Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 2017.
Does it make any difference to the Palestinian people whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the November 5 election? I think it does, big time.
I understand why many Palestinians, Arab Americans, and political progressives in the United States are anguished and angry at the Biden Administration’s refusal to stop sending weapons of war to Israel, prolonging the agonizing suffering in Gaza. It’s a sentiment I express every week at a local Free Palestine demonstration.
But I don’t agree with those who say that, therefore, the right thing to do is to not support Harris in her race against Trump, and perhaps vote instead for a third-party contender such as Jill Stein or Cornel West.
That’s because a Trump win would be absolutely devastating for Palestinians.
Trump is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s guy, and the MAGA Republicans are his U.S. party. It was the House’s Republican leadership that invited the accused war criminal to speak to Congress in late July. During his presidency, Trump provocatively moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (although Biden has done nothing to reverse this).
A Reuters article from August 15 quotes Trump’s comment that “From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hand behind its back, demanding an immediate ceasefire, always demanding ceasefire.” He said this call for an end to the bloodshed “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch a new October 7-style attack.” This refers to the 2023 surprise attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 250 hostages were taken. Since then, Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.
A Trump victory will strengthen Netanyahu and his now-unpopular government, give a green light to settler and Israeli military violence in the West Bank, and advance an explicitly racist and colonialist agenda of extending the state of Israel.
If Harris wins, there will be ongoing opportunities to pressure her and other Democrats to act on their verbal support for a ceasefire and end the war on Gaza by curtailing military aid, if a ceasefire has not already been achieved. A Harris victory would allow the Free Palestine movement to build upon the massive progressive and liberal energy unleashed by her campaign in pursuit of not just a ceasefire, but the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and massive humanitarian aid to Gaza.
A Harris Administration allows for the possibility of moving forward on the road to Palestinian self-determination, a concept the Vice President has touted, despite her seemingly unconditional support for Israel, whose leaders have often rejected this idea.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past ten months is devastating,” Harris said at the Democratic National Convention. “The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.” She looks forward to the day when Palestinians “can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
In my view, bringing that self-determination into being would mean allowing a Palestine-wide election to choose government leaders—not the imposition of the corrupt and unpopular Palestinian Authority or any other scheme where Palestinians are unable to vote for who they want. And, relatively soon, there should be a Palestine-wide referendum on what kind of new arrangement they support, whether or not it is a two-state solution, and how that might come about.
Only a Harris Administration has the potential, if strongly pushed, to achieve these goals. Voting in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, or Arizona for anyone other than her will, in my view, jeopardize and not advance the Palestinian cause.
This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.