Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D.), who has made opposition to Israel and the "pro-Israel lobby" a centerpiece of his campaign, accepted an endorsement from an Arab-American lobbying group led by an unabashed supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah who has called for Israeli Jews to be sent "back to Poland."
El-Sayed said, in a statement dated this past Saturday, that he is "honored" for the endorsement of Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC), a Dearborn-based group that aims to "lobby on behalf of the Arab American political causes which are of concern to the majority of the community."
"AAPAC understands that we can only achieve that promise by investing in our communities here at home instead of sending our tax dollars to fund killing, genocide, apartheid and endless war," said El-Sayed, according to the Arab American News.
It’s a powerful endorsement for El-Sayed, who leads Rep. Haley Stevens (D., Mich.) and state senator Mallory McMorrow ahead of the Aug. 4 primary, one of the most closely watched races in the country. AAPAC pledges to provide "all available resources" to its endorsed candidates, including through "direct bilingual mailings to Arab American registered voters."
AAPAC is led by Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Arab American News. Siblani, who praised El-Sayed in the endorsement for his "vision" and "leadership," has a lengthy history of urging violence against Israel and defending the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, drawing condemnation from Democrats and Jewish groups.
In 2022, Siblani urged Arabs to "fight within [their] means" against Israel with "stones," "guns," or "their hands." He has bragged that he refused to condemn Hamas, which he called "freedom fighters" during a conference call with Biden White House officials in 2021.
In October 2024, Siblani blasted the Jordanian government for its "interception of Iranian missiles directed at Israel." Siblani said Jordan was "complicit" in Israel’s war against "Lebanon and Palestine," where Israel is fighting Hezbollah and Hamas, respectively.
At a rally in Dearborn in September 2024, Siblani hailed "the great Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," and hailed the late Hezbollah leader as a "hero." After chants of "death to Israel" broke out during Siblani’s speech, Siblani responded, "Believe me, they will take care of the job," an apparent reference to Hezbollah.
And he issued a message to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Jews: "We will take you back to Poland." The Nazis operated their principal death camps in German-occupied Poland, and shipped Jews to the Polish camps from elsewhere in Europe by train.
Stevens, who trailed El-Sayed by 2 points in the latest Senate poll, blasted Siblani’s remarks at the time. "I will not condone or associate with this kind of relationship," said Stevens. "A grown man should not be saying, 'All Jews should go back to Poland.'" The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have condemned Siblani’s remarks, and blasted the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigns for meeting with Siblani and other community leaders in Dearborn in the months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
"Any person who denies that Hamas is a terrorist organization should not be meeting with appointed and elected officials to discuss foreign policy," the ADL said of Siblani.
El-Sayed has already faced scrutiny for campaigning with Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American socialist influencer who has said that "America deserved 9/11" and that Israel is much worse than Hamas.
Siblani, who cofounded AAPAC in 1998, is a highly influential leader in Dearborn’s large Arab and Muslim community. City leaders there recently voted to name a street after Siblani, drawing objection from a Dearborn-based Christian minister because of Siblani’s statements condoning terrorist groups.
El-Sayed has catered heavily to voters in the Detroit suburb, which one researcher dubbed the "Jihad Capital of America" because of its high concentration of extremist preachers and activists. El-Sayed spoke at a May 2021 protest against President Joe Biden, ahead of his visit to Dearborn. El-Sayed spoke at the rally alongside Siblani and Amer Zahr, an anti-Israel activist who has urged Muslims to "stand with" Hamas and Hezbollah.
El-Sayed, in a campaign strategy call in March, refused to comment on the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the hands of U.S. and Israeli forces out of concern that he would upset Dearborn residents.
"I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today. So, like, I just don't want to comment on Khamenei at all," said El-Sayed, according to a recording obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
El-Sayed, whose former campaign aide, a Dearborn resident, was indicted last month for conspiring to terrorize Jewish groups at the University of Michigan, has written for Siblani’s newspaper, the Arab American News. He published an article in April endorsing a process to make it easier for Arab families to send remittances from the United States to relatives in the Middle East.
Another contributor to the newspaper, Jeffrey Stevens, was indicted in 2024 for threatening to kill Jews. Stevens wrote 45 articles for the paper between November 2022 and November 2023.
While El-Sayed embraces AAPAC, he routinely demonizes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group that funds pro-Israel Democrats’ campaigns.
El-Sayed’s campaign has referred to the group as the "pro-Israel lobby," and accused it of steering bills that "have us paying more, making less, and watching our taxes get misused to do genocide instead of build schools." And El-Sayed incorrectly referred to it as a "foreign lobbying group" in a fundraising email.
AAPAC not only touts its own lobbying activities, but its leaders have direct access to Michigan’s political leaders. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D.) met with Siblani after he publicly condemned her for visiting Israel. Siblani invited Whitmer to travel with him to Lebanon, his home country. Siblani accompanied Whitmer on a state business junket to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain last year, the Free Beacon reported.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
