By Nathan Layne and Andrea Shalal

February 6, 2025

• Summary
• Companies

• Arab American leaders criticize Trump proposal to take over Gaza
• Most dismiss comments as rhetoric not likely to lead to action
• Some Arab American supporters say Trump still best option for peace

Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Arab American and Muslim leaders, including some who supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election, criticized the president’s proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians, but some of them said they still believed he was the best option for lasting peace in the region.

The leaders largely dismissed Trump’s comments as unrealistic bluster and said he was unlikely to pay a big political price in the community.

“We believe that his ideas, as well-intentioned as they might be, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,” Bishara Bahbah, who founded Arab Americans for Trump and helped rally support for him in Michigan and other battleground states, told Reuters.

“We’re opposed to any transfer of Palestinians, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, out of their homeland.”

Bahbah said he still supports Trump, seeing him as the best option to avoid conflict in Gaza. He said his organization changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace two days ago, reflecting its shift in focus following Trump’s election.

Trump outlined the idea for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza during a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. Trump also floated a proposal to relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries and redevelop the war-torn territory into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” while not ruling out the deployment of U.S. troops.

The move by Arab Americans and Muslims away from the Democratic Party likely factored into Trump’s victory, with the largest impact in the swing state of Michigan, home to the country’s biggest population of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians

Many in the community voted against then-Vice President Kamala Harris to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attacks. Some also credit Trump with orchestrating a ceasefire, even though it happened before he entered the White House.

A nationwide exit poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group showed that 53% of Muslims voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 election, with Trump and Harris picking up 21% and 20%, respectively. The poll, which surveyed 1,575 Muslim voters via text message, marked a sharp constrast with 2020, when 69% of Muslim Americans voted for Biden and only 17% went for Trump.

source https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arab-american-muslim-leaders-decry-trump-comments-gaza-2025-02-05/