‘Uncommitted’ Doesn’t Endorse Harris, but Warns Trump Is No Option

WASHINGTON — After months of criticizing the Biden administration’s Middle East policy, the pro-Palestinian group “Uncommitted” appeared on Tuesday to signal there’s been a thaw in its relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Though certainly no endorsement of Harris, the group posted a video across all of its social media accounts in which its co-founder, Lexi Zeidan, detailed several ways that reelecting former President Donald Trump — and endorsing the conservative Project 2025 agenda in the process — would be far worse for Palestinians.

“As a Palestinian American, the current administration’s handling of this genocide has been beyond enraging and demoralizing, but the reality is that it can get worse,” Zeidan says near the start of the video.

“Today I wanted to talk about the specific ways Trump and Project 2025 would be disastrous for Palestinian human rights,” she says.

The video comes just four days after Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan on Friday, in an effort to stem defections from a pivotal group of voters in this battleground state.

Michigan is home to over 200,000 registered voters who are of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry, and a large, vocal percentage of them have sharply criticized the White House for its staunch support of Israel’s wars in Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon.

Given that President Joe Biden won Michigan by about 154,000 votes in 2020, success among Arab American voters is considered critical to Harris’ chances of being elected his successor.

During her meeting with leaders from the community, Harris reportedly stood by the administration’s position, but also stressed that she wants Arab Americans to be a part — and feel comfortable being a part — of her coalition of supporters.

With her remarks, Zeidan appeared to be nudging her colleagues and allies in Uncommitted in that direction.

And she didn’t mince words.

“Nobody wants a Trump presidency more than [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, because that is his ticket to wiping Palestinians off the map,” Zeidan says.

The Dearborn, Michigan, resident then goes on in just over two minutes to detail how under Trump U.S. foreign policy “took a sharp turn that prioritized Israel’s hardline right-wing agenda.”

“Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and proposed the Middle East plan that effectively dismantled any pathway to Palestinian self-determination,” she says.

But as bad as all that was, Zeidan says, the implementation of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 would be “even more dangerous.”

“This initiative promises to cut all humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank, effectively closing off not just the meager resources getting in, but one of the only points of contact Gaza has with the outside world,” she says.

Zeidan then goes on to lambast David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor in the White House, for their advocacy for annexing the West Bank and relocating Palestinians to the Negev desert.

These proposals made it clear, she says, that in their view, “there’s no place for Palestinians in their own land.”

“It could be very valuable too,” she continues, pointing to suggestions attributed to Kushner that Gaza “could be turned into a valuable waterfront property if Palestinians are forcibly relocated.”

“These policies signal a future where Israeli expansion is no longer just tolerated by the U.S., but it’s encouraged, and once back in the White House, [Trump] will also keep his promise to help Israel win the current war without worrying about what the rest of the world might think,” Zeidan says.

She then turns her ire on Miriam Adelson, the physician and widow of Sheldon Adelson, the former CEO and chairman of casino company Las Vegas Sands, who is widely considered to be Trump’s top financial backer.

Adelson, Zeidan says, “has pledged over $100 million to support [Trump’s] return to office, praising his past actions and pushing for even more aggressive pro Israel policies.”

“She’s made it clear that Trump is viewed by Israel’s right wing as a savior figure who will deliver on their most extreme goals, including massively expanding settlements,” she continues, but adds the “threats” associated with a second Trump presidency won’t “just stop overseas.”

“Here at home, Project 2025 would severely limit activism by revoking legal protection for human rights organizations in criminalizing protests against Israeli policies, undermining our First Amendment and silencing the few voices advocating for Palestinian rights,” she says.

Zeidan closes with her strongest if veiled support of Harris to date.

“Who will be elected in November is clear,” she says. “It’s Trump or Harris, and we have to orient less towards who is the better candidate, and more towards what is the better anti-war approach in building our collective power? 

“It’s clear Netanyahu will be doing everything in his power to get Trump elected, and we have to do everything in our power to stop him,” Zeidan says.

So far, neither the Harris nor the Trump campaign has responded to the video.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue