Frustrated Arab and Muslim voters in New Jersey divided on which candidate will bring change

Israel’s war in Gaza, funded with substantial US support, has inspired some to back the Green party, while others say Kamala Harris is the ‘lesser evil’

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Fifty-year-old Maged Judeh initially did not want to vote in Tuesday’s US election, he said while exiting the South Paterson library community center polling location in New Jersey.

Judeh, a Venezuelan Palestinian Muslim American, has lived in Paterson for over 25 years, a city with one of the largest Muslim and Arab populations in the United States. His father survived the 1948 Nakba – when more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel’s creation. Because of Israel’s current war in Gaza, which is funded with substantial US support, Judeh said he has been completely turned off to either major political party.