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

Left to right: Youness Haddadi outside a polling location in Paterson, New Jersey; Wijdan Abdullah, a phone bank volunteer at the Arab American Community Center in Clifton; Majed Judeh, whose family survived the Nakba, outside a polling location in Paterson, New Jersey. Photograph: Kholood Eid/The Guardian

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 for over 25 years in Paterson, 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 by both major political parties.