I had never been very interested in politics, especially not in politics far from Palestine or Israel. Since starting in the field of journalism, I have mostly written stories about society and culture, the arts, social life, and sports. And I never followed the American elections—until 2016, when CNN asked me to produce a report about the opinion of Gazans on the presidential candidates, among whom was Donald Trump. At the time, I was worried about how I would conduct those interviews. Are there any people in Gaza who care about these elections, I wondered? But I did the research, and I found people who did. They gave me very different opinions; to my surprise, many of the people around me held great interest in American politics. I met many people who expected Trump to win, and when he did, I was surprised yet again that they had been right.
Now the Palestinian street, in Gaza in particular, is looking at the U.S. presidency as a partner with Israel in its war here. Many have similar sentiments: They want a better president than Joe Biden, who encouraged the war on Gaza and never made any progress in stopping it.
Last week, I spoke with five fellow civilians about the vote. Four of them were displaced from the northern Gaza Strip to the southern city of Khan Yunis, where I have always lived. One, Rami Aman, is from Gaza but traveled to Egypt before the war, and has not been back since. Three asked me to withhold their last names out of fear of reprisal for what they might say. Their responses below have been translated and lightly edited for clarity.
Sherine, a 35-year-old woman
We want a humane American president who cooperates in the cease-fire. We do not want a president who sends weapons to kill us. Former President Donald Trump was the reason for stopping the 2021 war and did not agree to its continuation for a long time. [Ed. note: The 2021 war in Gaza, between Israel and a coalition of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, lasted from May 6 to May 21. It occurred after Trump’s term, while Joe Biden was president.] But President Biden did not contribute to the cease-fire during the current war. Instead he encouraged its continuation and was the first supporter of Israel, even when it was bombing densely populated residential areas. We know that Biden’s rule will end up being regarded as the worst ever in American history.
There are [new] candidates, Trump and Harris, but I think that Harris has a policy similar to Biden’s, because he encourages and supports her, and she did not mention Muslims or Palestine during her speeches. We want an American president who views Gaza as worthy of life and believes that wars should not continue in it. We do not want support for wars under the name of Israel’s right to defend itself. Does America encourage Israel to defend itself from children and women? There must be a fair American president.
Salem, a 55-year-old man
I have no optimism with any new candidate for the American presidency. Donald Trump has made a series of hate speeches that support a policy of not allowing any Palestinians to enter America and of imposing sanctions on them. As for Kamala Harris, she is the deputy of Joe Biden, who sent the very heavy missiles that caused the destruction of thousands of homes and the killing of tens of thousands. We and the American people need a president who supports democracy and humanity. We want a president who finds a solution to this conflict, one that never makes us feel safe.
Continual wars, and this war in particular, have led to great tension in the Arab region. We want a president who does not support killing excessively, as Biden has. I and 2 million Palestinians have the same opinion: that Biden was the worst president, one who does not treat Gaza as a humanitarian area that has been besieged for more than 15 years. We need a president who wants to stop the war and rebuild Gaza so that our lives can return again, so we can live our lives like the rest of the world.
Belal, a 40-year-old man
I hope that Trump wins the elections, despite some slightly confusing statements. But he stopped the war in 2021 [Ed. note: see note above], and he has the ability to do so again. He is a man who does not like wars and does not encourage them, so I hope he wins. I hope that he looks at Gaza with humanity and helps in its reconstruction and supports it. Wars are not a solution to end these conflicts.
We need a strong solution to this conflict in order to obtain an independent state. We have been living through successive wars since 2008. We have lived through nearly five wars [since then], and through a lot of political tensions and bombing. [But] this is the most violent war on Gaza, and it has not excluded anyone. All those affected are civilians, and we want to achieve justice for us. We want human rights institutions to work in Gaza. America is the largest country in the world, and we need its support, even as it supports Israel with weapons.
Reham Owda, a 40-year-old woman
It is quite clear for Palestinian people that Harris has a challenging political relationship with the current Israeli government, so she will not have much influence on the cease-fire in Gaza if she wins the election—as Trump will. Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu until now has not responded to her attempts as vice president to reach a hostage deal with Hamas and cease-fire. So if she wins the election, Israel will deal with her administration as it deals with Biden’s now: through ignoring the American request for cease-fire, though still, maybe, allowing humanitarian assistance to access Gaza. However, Trump has a very positive relationship with Netanyahu. He is a businessman who is known for his success in making deals; he is a very decisive man and can convince Netanyahu to end the war on Gaza as soon as possible. He can ask him to start preparing for the day after the war as soon as possible, because ultimately Trump is a man [who cares about] the economy. And he knows very well that the Gaza war has caused damages to American economic interests in the Middle East—particularly the marine economy in the Red Sea. So he will make major efforts to end this war as soon as possible.
We have to not forget that it was Trump who sponsored the Abraham Accords between Israel and some Arab Gulf states, and that he supported Netanyahu in gaining access to political dialogue with Saudi Arabia. So Netanyahu owes him a lot. If Trump becomes the U.S. president, there a high possibility that Netanyahu will listen to him and end the war on Gaza, because there are common interests between the two men.
Most Gazans blame the Biden administration [for the war], because it did not use the card of stopping arms support to Israel as pressure on the Netanyahu government to stop the war. Rather, the U.S. administration continued to support the Israeli army and merely acted as a Red Cross that is concerned and interested only in the lives of Israeli prisoners. [The Biden administration] did this without imposing strong American pressure on Israel to stop the war and save the residents of the Strip from the killing and destruction machine.
So far, the Biden administration has not succeeded in its efforts to put out the fire, and the Gazans have become distrustful of it, because they know that the American position is always biased toward Israel. Perhaps Trump will be more decisive than Harris.
Rami Aman, a 37-year-old man
I don’t think Biden’s support for Israel is personal. There has always been clear American–Israeli military, financial, and air support over the past decades. This current war on the people of Gaza is a continuation of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza and the killing of people here. [It’s only being waged] under the pretext of fighting Hamas. And basically from 2008 until now, Israel has carried out all its wars and military escalations on Gaza with clear American support through all its presidents, from the era of George Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump up through the era of Joe Biden. But I believe that the American elections, regardless of the winner, will have influential results on the cease-fire and on achieving peace. This is what the propaganda of the American presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, includes.
The people of Gaza have lost confidence in the American administration. During this war, they witnessed the most hideous forms of killing, siege, starvation, and the cutting off of water and medicine. Animals ate the bodies of their children, and no one cared about their lives. But they were watching American university students and videos of the American people who rejected the war and showed solidarity with the American soldier who burned himself and died by suicide in rejection of the war on Gaza. The people of Gaza also know that the feelings of the American people are not bound by the interests of American politics.
