[8] Beginning in the 1990s, many Palestinian communities were subject to intensive government surveillance under Operation Vulgar Betrayal (OVB), an FBI-led dragnet operation launched in collaboration with Israeli intelligence which sought to uncover networks of financial support for Hamas and Hezbollah among Palestinian Americans.[9] In 2015, filmmaker Assia Boundaoui produced a documentary on the experience of Palestinians living in Bridgeview, Illinois, revealing the unscrupulous tactics used by the FBI as well as the total lack of transparency surrounding the surveillance effort.[13] The southwest suburban Palestinian community features prominently in Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2024 book, The Message, with the author visiting a survivor of the Deir Yasin Massacre now living in Orland Park, Illinois, and dining in a Middle Eastern restaurant alongside local Palestinian activists and leaders.Paterson, New Jersey, has its southern half of the city nicknamed Little Ramallah, with an Arab American population estimated as high as 20,000 in 2015.[28][failed verification] The study of culture and the Arabic language is increasingly important among Palestinians, especially in college and graduate school.[30] Palestinian Americans have owned Middle Eastern groceries, shops and restaurants ever since their immigration to the United States.[32] Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East and former Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.[35] Ismail al-Faruqi was a Palestinian-American philosopher and theologian, known for his significant contributions to Islamic studies and the philosophy of religion.[38][39] Belal Muhammad, the current UFC Welterweight Champion was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, to Palestinian parents.[40] Arab Americans who supported Hillary Clinton believed that addressing gun violence, health care, and Social Security were important to electing the President, however those who supported Donald Trump saw combatting terrorism, further regulating government spending, and creating stricter immigration policies as of chief importance after "Jobs and the economy".Harris' VP-pick, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, separately addressed Democratic Muslim groups with a promise to keep an open door to discussion and working to secure an end to the war, simultaneously pointing to Trump's documented history of Islamophobic policies and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.[46] Several Muslim and Arab voters who pivoted from supporting Biden in 2020 to Trump or Stein in 2024 mentioned wanting to exact accountability and punish Democrats for their perceived complicity in "genocide in Gaza", as well as an inability to procure a sustained ceasefire.[citation needed] Ammar Campa-Najjar is a Democratic candidate of Palestinian and Mexican Heritage from East County who ran for Congress to represent California's 50th congressional district in 2020.[47] Ammar worked as a campaign official in San Diego raising awareness and helping to get President Barack Obama reelected in 2012.[48] His opponent in the 2020 electoral season is Darrell Issa (another Arab-American of Lebanese, German and Bohemian (Czech) ancestry).
Bay Ridge
in
Brooklyn
,
New York City
; also has a strongly diverse
Arab
community, in which its largest Arab groups are
Palestinians
and
Yemenis
. Its strong presence is noticeable from Arab shops to Babel Barber Shop, shown above during the January 2016 snow storm.
Kanafeh
is a popular Palestinian dessert which originated from
Nablus
. Kanafeh is becoming very popular in the United States, including
New York City
.