The Metro: Abbas Alawieh on Lebanon, loss and speaking up
When Abbas was 15, he sheltered in a basement in South Lebanon while American-made bombs shook the walls. Now he watches from Dearborn as it happens again. He is far from alone.
Abbas Alawieh is living through something that many families across metro Detroit are carrying quietly — the experience of watching war unfold in the places they come from. He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how wars abroad have fundamentally changed him and his family.
There’s a phone call that some people in metro Detroit are dreading right now, one where you find out the place you came from doesn’t exist anymore.
Abbas Alawieh got that call recently. His 91-year-old grandmother’s home in Lebanon was destroyed by the Israeli military. She is displaced, among hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians with nowhere to go. This is not the first time his family has been through this.
When Alawieh was 15, visiting his grandmother in Lebanon, war broke out with Israel. He spent days in a basement while American-made bombs fell around him. It changed the course of his life and put him on a political path.
Alawieh grew up in Dearborn. He co-founded the Uncommitted movement that mobilized more than 100,000 Michigan voters in the 2024 Democratic primary.
He is now a candidate for Michigan State Senate in District 2, which covers Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and parts of Downriver. But he did not sit down with The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to talk about his campaign. The Metro invited him because he is experiencing what other families across metro Detroit are living right now — watching war destroy the people and places they love from an American living room.
Hear the full conversation using the media player above.
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