For Toledo's Arab Americans, West Bank settler violence hits close to home

TOLEDO, Ohio — Thamin Tim Ridi was in his office just outside the city when he opened his phone to check a live security feed from his brother’s house in the occupied West Bank. His brother Loui had traveled there from Ohio this month after their family’s property in Qusra, south of Nablus, came under threat from Israeli settlers. Their mother and other relatives were inside, and the live footage made the danger vivid.

Settlers have surrounded a cluster of Palestinian homes in Qusra, according to the family, leaving Loui and others unable to leave as food and water supplies run low. On Aug. 13, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee posted on X that the settlers’ actions should be called what they are: terrorism.

For years, the Trump administration has backed Israel and its settlement enterprise, including expansion that much of the world regards as illegal. But comments in recent weeks from Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump have hinted at a possible shift in tone.

From his office, Ridi pointed at the phone screen, identifying buildings on the hillside: “This building has been taken by settlers; that one up there by the soldiers.” He said he was “extremely worried” about his brother and mother. One of the first things Loui did after arriving in Qusra, he added, was put up an American flag on the property.

For decades, the Middle East conflict had been a distant headline for residents of Toledo, a manufacturing city in northwest Ohio. But this city has been shaped by generations of Arab American migration, and the current war in Gaza, combined with a rise in settler violence in the West Bank, has brought the conflict into local streets and homes.

Last October, five people were arrested in downtown Toledo during a protest outside the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican who voted in favor of sending aid to Israel. The local city council also passed a ceasefire resolution in the weeks after Oct. 7, 2023. “There’s been demonstrations, petitions and a palpable difference of opinion,” said Mike Ferner, a Navy veteran and one of those arrested.

Ferner said he began speaking out against America’s support for Israel after the war began and later organized a 40-day fast outside the United Nations in New York. “It just comes to a point where you have to ask: is this what I want my country paying for?” he said.

Israel’s military assault has largely destroyed Gaza and killed more than 76,000 people, and it has been described as genocide by a United Nations body. Ferner’s position reflects a widening gap between American public opinion and U.S. policy toward Israel. A Pew Research Center poll released in April found that six in 10 Americans held an unfavorable view of Israel, up seven percentage points in a year.

For decades, groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have spent billions of dollars to help elect politicians supportive of Israel. This year, several prominent AIPAC-backed candidates were defeated in primary races despite tens of millions of dollars in spending.

Toledo’s Arab American roots run deep. Beginning in the late 1800s, immigrants came to work in the region’s growing manufacturing industry, and the Old North End once had its own “Little Syria” district. Today, Arabic is the third most common primary language in Ohio, after English and Spanish.

Nabil Shaheen, who emigrated from Lebanon as a child in 1979 and later worked in manufacturing, said the community has kept strong ties to its homeland. “There are at least 300 families from Sultan Yacub here. We even have a Sultan Yacub club, which for every occasion we meet there,” he said. Shaheen now runs a sign manufacturing company in a former church west of downtown, his office decorated with Cincinnati Bengals memorabilia.

Many Arab Americans in the area have since moved to suburban Sylvania, where Eastern Orthodox churches, a mosque and an Islamic school have opened in recent decades. In those communities, dialogue between Arab and Jewish residents has flourished.

“As a Jewish community, we believe deeply in the importance of a shared society: one grounded in respect for diversity, the dignity and rights of every individual,” said Roy Büchler of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo. He praised Loui and his brother for building successful businesses and working to bridge divides in the region. The federation declined to comment on the settler violence in Qusra.

The Ridi family’s chain of supermarkets, car washes and gas stations spans northwest Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Founded in 1999, after several brothers came to the United States to attend university during the 1990s, the company now employs hundreds of people and has become a cornerstone of Toledo’s Palestinian American community. It donates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to local charities and nonprofits.

Ridi said he normally visits Qusra three times a year, often with his children. The war in Gaza and rising violence in the West Bank have made those visits harder in recent years. Still, he sees reason for hope.

“I was so surprised by Huckabee’s comments, calling the settlers Israeli terrorists,” he said. “Maybe something is changing.”