Middle East Eye reports:

A group of Michigan-based Democratic voters who launched a historic nationwide primary ballot initiative to enact policy change on Gaza now say their best bet is to continue working through party channels.

However, that’s not to say that White House officials or Democratic Party staff have heeded their calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an arms embargo on Israel, and a lifting of the 17-year-old blockade on the Gaza Strip.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday morning, senior leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement made it clear that they will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the US presidency, but more importantly, that they discourage any moves that could lead to a second Trump administration – namely voting for a third party candidate.

This despite Green Party candidate Jill Stein being the favourite among Muslim-American voters in at least three swing states, and standing almost neck-and-neck with Harris nationwide, according to polling conducted late last month by the Council on American Islamic Relations.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people believe casting the third party vote is a vote of consciousness, and it’s completely understandable given the context of people navigating fear and grief and betrayal,” Alexis Zeidan, co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, told Middle East Eye, referring to the war on Gaza.

“But within the context of our broken electoral college system, we know that voting a third party is ultimately inadvertently supporting Trump,” she said.

Zeidan says she believes Trump will “exacerbate” the genocide, annex the occupied West Bank and punish pro-Palestinian protesters in the US. [Continue reading…]