Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2003, pages 59-62

Southern California Chronicle

Pro-Israel Crowd Baits ISM Speakers Huwaida Arraf, Adam Shapiro at CalTech

By Pat and Samir Twair

A couple of dozen pro-Israeli activists coughed, hissed and commandeered the Q&A microphones at a Jan. 8 talk by International Solidarity Movement workers Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf. The husband-and-wife team’s appearance at California Institute of Technology was part of the student body’s “Social Activism Speaker Series.”

A large number of students wearing yarmulkes sat in the front row of Baxter Hall and declined to applaud the couple, who married last year. Shapiro is anathema to Israeli extremists because he took supplies to Yasser Arafat while the Palestinian leader was under siege at his Ramallah headquarters in March 2002. The hatred toward Shapiro was so intense that his parents had to move from their New York home because of death threats.

In light of this, Shapiro, who is studying for a doctorate at American University, opened his presentation with an explanation of his empathy for the suffering of the Palestinians.

“When I walk the streets of Palestine and enter Palestinian homes, I’m never asked who I am,” he told the audience. “The issue of my Jewishness seems to be a matter of question only to Jews who have labeled me with slanderous terms.”

Noting that he was raised in a home where he was encouraged to study the Holocaust, Shapiro stated he is acutely aware of the evils of humanity. “These evils can take place not just in Nazi Germany, but in the daily life of humans who are dominated hourly by another group. I know what it’s like to fear going to a café or bus—or, on the other hand, to cower in one’s house while helicopters discharge missiles overhead.”

In light of the security officers present, audience members who objected to the statements of Shapiro and Arraf did not challenge them with vocal outbursts. Instead they began coughing in concert to distract listeners.

A volley of coughing erupted as Arraf discussed the ISM and how the presence of international volunteers has saved Palestinian lives.

“Americans, Italians, Germans…just about anyone…has a government which upholds the rights of its citizens,” she said. “The Palestinians have no governmental body to protect them, but the fact that foreigners are beside them causes Israeli soldiers to think twice before shooting.”

However, she noted grimly, his British nationality didn’t save U.N. Relief and Works Agency worker Iain Hook from Israeli soldiers, who gunned him down Nov. 22 in a U.N. compound in Jenin.

“We don’t hate the Jews, the Israelis,” she added. “All we want is equality and to live in dignity. The internationals have broken the siege, the feeling of abandonment all Palestinians share.”

The American-born Arraf described the so-called security wall Israel is building on the West Bank, noting it is three times higher than the Berlin Wall and twice as long.

“We call it the Apartheid Wall,” she said. “At a cost of $1.7 million a mile, the wall is separating Palestinian farmers from their fields and orchards. So far more than 9,000 dunams have been annexed to the Israeli side of the wall, while towns, olive trees and 200 green houses have been destroyed.

“If they want to build a wall,” she asked, “why don’t they build it on the real border?”

Shapiro commented that, although he doesn’t like to use comparisons, the situation is even worse than in apartheid South Africa.

“Occupation is a form of oppression,” he argued, “and I challenge anyone who disagrees to come and see for yourself. I carry the burden, as a U.S. citizen, that my government is paying unconditionally for this oppression.”

The first question put to Shapiro was why he didn’t criticize Yasser Arafat.

“I am not defending the Palestinian Authority, which is a product of Israel and the U.S.,” he replied. “The PA was given millions of dollars, most of it for security and jails. There was only one suicide bombing from 1997 to 2000. Then Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Natanyahu phoned Arafat and thanked him for assisting in security measures.”

Another questioner asked Shapiro what actions he would take if he were prime minister of Israel.

“I would end the occupation,” he said. “The settlements are very expensive to protect. You can’t have security and settlements. If you established soldiers along the ’67 border, you could have one soldier every five yards.”

A woman identifying herself as the child of Holocaust survivors stated she was concerned about the anti-Jewish propaganda Palestinian children read in their textbooks.

Arraf responded that Israeli textbooks have maps that show the West Bank as part of Israel. Hebrew University has gone on record that Palestinian texts are improved.

“During the siege of Ramallah,” she continued, “internationals walked in the streets carrying white flags. Israelis were with us. The Palestinians invited us into their homes, and when they were introduced to Israelis as Israelis, they welcomed them. I’m inviting you to come see for yourself. It is Israelis who are forbidden by their government to cross the Green Line and go inside the West Bank.”

Another hostile woman asked where the Jews are to live if not in Israel.

“Certainly the fact that Palestinians are seeking a state on only 22 percent of the original Palestine shouldn’t offend you,” Shapiro said.

At this, a woman known for disrupting talks critical of Israeli policies shouted: “Jordan is Palestine.”

Another took the microphone to ask the speakers why they define the occupation as the root of all evil when the Palestine Liberation Organization existed before 1967,

“Let’s put this in context,” Arraf responded. “More than 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees in 1948, and they weren’t about to forget the homeland they were driven from. Now they say they’ve recognized Israel’s right to exist, why don’t the Israelis do the same?”

Another told Shapiro he was disturbed by his endorsement of suicide bombers.

When the booing subsided, Shapiro said he never condoned suicide bombers and certainly not that evening. “The violence must stop. All of it. Where is Israeli nonviolence?”

A white-haired man mentioned his concern for his Christian Arab friends who are being pushed out of the Holy Land by Muslim extremists.

“I am Christian,” Arraf replied. “My family left because it couldn’t feed its dependents because of curfews. Christians and Muslims have always lived peacefully side by side.”

Both speakers urged everyone present to visit the West Bank and Gaza and see for themselves the apartheid conditions under which Palestinians are living.

Second INS Registration Well-Monitored

To the chagrin of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), attorneys, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee and other civil rights organizations were out in full force Jan. 10 for Round 2 of INS sign-ups of non-resident males from mostly Muslim countries.

Monitors wearing bright yellow MPAC T-shirts attempted to take the names of Middle Eastern men entering a designated door to the INS building. The police told the monitors they were not allowed to talk to registrants or to enter the building.

Whereas at the first INS registration on Dec. 16 an estimated 700 non-residents, mainly Iranian nationals, were arrested, few men appeared to be detained at the second call-in.

Representatives of Not In Our Name wore and distributed blue triangles bearing the names of Muslim men who have Disappeared in the USA. Explained Kya Davis: “During World War II, the Nazis ordered homosexuals to wear pink triangles on their sleeves; stateless individuals had to wear blue triangles. We are showing our solidarity with the newly disappeared.”

“Did they register Tim McVeigh?” read one sign. Another stated: “Unfair Racial Profiling Under Guise of Homeland Safety.”

As boredom set in and the crowd dwindled, we watched a black Lincoln limousine pull up to the barricades of the INS Building. As one well-dressed man in a three-piece suit stepped out, followed by another, our first thought was that they must be Saudis coming to register. Then Rev. Al Sharpton emerged from the limo.

Striding up the steps of the INS Building and walking to the MPAC sign-up desk, the African-American civil rights leader said he was in town to meet with Chief of Police Bill Bratton. When he learned of the compulsory registration, Sharpton said, he decided to stand in solidarity with the Muslims.

“Profiling doesn’t stop terrorism,” he told a gaggle of reporters, comparing the registration to the roundup of Japanese Americans at the onset of World War II.

We managed to suggest to an aide that Sharpton might want to question Chief Bratton on the latter’s trip to Israel to learn techniques of subduing gangs in Los Angeles.

Activists Stage Die-In

In its first act of civil disobedience in opposition to a war on Iraq, the Southern California American Friends Service Committee staged a mock funeral and sit-in Jan. 16, resulting in the arrest of 16 demonstrators at the Downtown Los Angeles Federal Building.

The solemn street theater performance marked the 12th anniversary of the first Gulf war and the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. AFSC organizer Shady Hakim had notified the police a day earlier and more than 40 helmeted, somewhat bemused officers stood on the Federal Building steps.

The symbolic death of U.S. Troops, the U.S. Constitution, Health Care, Justice, Civil Liberties, Truth, and Freedom was signified by white cardboard coffins on which each of these categories was inscribed. Among the 16 individuals dressed in black who held a single red rose and a cardboard coffin were Jeff Brown, a naval submarine officer in the first Gulf war; Mennonite minister Bert Newton; Shiva Rose, wife of Dylan McDermott, a star of TV’s “The Practice”; and Bob McCloskey, a union representative who recently traveled to Iraq to deliver medicine to civilians.

A grim figure representing War silently paid homage to a cardboard effigy of a corporation magnate. The 16 protesters then set their coffins on the sidewalk and lay down.

A police officer who seemed embarrassed to go through the motions of arresting the nonviolent protesters tried to speak to them through a bullhorn that didn’t work. A second bullhorn was brought, but it, too, was broken.

A voice in the crowd shouted: “You can’t make a bullhorn work, and you expect to round up terrorists.”

The officer declared the prostrate demonstrators were obstructing the passage of a city sidewalk. One-by-one, they were gently lifted to their feet by police and escorted to a police bus.

“A simple act of civil disobedience can wake up a lot of people who have no opinion on the coming war to the fact that it’s wrong to bomb a civilian population,” commented activist Don White.

Los Angeles Kicks Off Mass Marches

One week before the massive Jan. 18 anti-war marches in San Francisco and Washington, DC, a rousing dress rehearsal was staged in Los Angeles, where 25,000 to 30,000 protesters formed an 11-block-long procession ending near the downtown Federal Building.

“Mr. President, this is just the beginning,” vowed wheelchair-bound Ron Kovic, whose life story was featured in the film “Born on the Fourth of July.” “My greatest service to this country is my service to the peace movement, not the Vietnam War.”

The throngs appeared endless. Many protesters with small children in tow said they had traveled up to two hours to take part. Statements on posters sent a deliberate message to the White House—the most direct being “Impeach the Moron.”

Others were more thoughtful: “Inspectors are barking up the wrong tree. Why not come here where there are 600 nukes?” or “Iraqi mothers love their
babies too.”

A few signs indicated how marchers would vote in the next presidential election: “Saddam didn’t steal my 401(k),” and “Iraq never closed my health clinic.”

If for some reason Los Angelenos were not aware of the Jan. 11 march, they certainly heard it as the chant of “Rise Up, Rise Up, Rise Up” reverberated through the downtown parade route.

Several police cars in the vanguard of the procession gave the impression of official approval to the massive demonstration of dissent. The sound of a shofar was heard intermittently, as Aztec dancers rattled gourds and Chinese acrobats skipped to the sound of cymbals and drums.

Activist Blase Bonpane congratulated the protesters for “being the largest preemptive peace movement in history.”

Grassroots Protests Taking Hold

A phenomenon growing stronger each weekend of 2003 is the appearance of anti-war demonstrations on street corners of cities throughout Southern California. Nor can the protestors be dismissed as “hippie misfits” or “commie dissidents” because, for the most part, the people carrying signs are senior citizens or religious leaders.

One such interfaith group began demonstrating Jan. 18 in Whittier, where, Rabbi Haim Beliak commented, “The people are beginning to understand the upcoming war is not about what we’re being told it’s about.”

Florence Richards admitted that, at age 77, this was her first demonstration. She was a bit bothered by the occasional obscene gesture directed toward her by passing motorists, but at least it expressed an opinion.

“It’s the people who drive by and seem to have no opinion on where the path to war can lead us that really disturb me,” she said.

In Brentwood the same day, nearly 100 Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet held anti-war signs along upscale Sunset Boulevard.

“We don’t want our country to be the aggressor,” said Sister Ellen Joseph, 80. “War would mean too much suffering, too much violence.”

Another group which began in Studio City with half a dozen protesters had grown to more than 200 people. In the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, concerned mothers hold peace signs each Friday in front of the landmark Vista Theater.

Not only seniors, but students at high schools with large Latino enrollments also are voicing their dissent. The largest protest was Jan. 27 at Fairfax High School, where more than 1,000 students walked off campus at noon chanting anti-war slogans. Many teachers joined the march, which fanned out for one-and-a-half blocks on traditionally Jewish Fairfax Boulevard, where students sat on the sidewalk. Organizer Sam Hixon was dispatched to the police station but released without charges.

It wasn’t so benign at Montebello High School, where all entrances were chained in advance of the march. Students proceeded to the football field to stage a rally. Some jumped a fence and gathered at 21st and Whittier Boulevard until organizer Crystal Castaneda was handcuffed and detained.

At San Fernando High School, Robert Guerrero, 16, was forced to transfer to another school after trying to organize a protest that was aborted. More than 100 students walked off campus in a Jan. 14 protest at John Burroughs High School, and several were suspended from classes and assigned to Saturday school.

PATRIOT Act Forum

On Jan. 22, the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC) sponsored a forum in the Southern California Islamic Center to educate the Muslim community on how the PATRIOT Act may affect it in the future.

George Cardona, chief assistant to the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and David Cole of the Center for Constitutional Rights discussed their perspectives of the Act. Representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslim Council, Muslim Public Affairs Council and American Muslim Alliance—AMPCC’s member organizations—also discussed ramifications of the controversial act.

Cardosa focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes electronic and physical searches. FISA searches are approved by FISA courts and the attorney general.

The PATRIOT Act, he explained, has made technical and general adjustments to FISA and immigration laws that give the government leeway in certain cases, such as rendering aliens deportable. No American citizen, he stressed, can be targeted under FISA.

Other adjustments under the PATRIOT Act, he said, allow for intensified surveillance and wiretapping, while relaxing limitations on information sharing among government agencies.

Cole, who teaches law at Georgetown University, said that, in retrospect, little has changed since 9/11 except for 7 percent of Americans who are losing their liberties. Many of that 7 percent, he pointed out, were in the audience. Noting that 1,200 to 2,000 foreign nationals were locked up in early November 2001, Cole said the policy has been to incarcerate and then investigate.

“Attorney General John Ashcroft has changed the rules,” he charged, “and even if a judge releases an alien because there is no evidence, the INS can override the judge and stay the release. Many non-residents said if this is the way you treat me, I’ll go home, but Ashcroft wouldn’t let them go.”

Cole warned that if the government can operate in secret and affidavits never see the light of day, then it does not have to be careful to presume an individual is innocent until proven guilty.

When asked if they believed legislators had read the PATRIOT Act before they approved it, Cardosa replied, “Yes, I presume at least staff read it.” Cole, however, responded, “I would say no.”

Dr. Maher Hathout announced that AMPCC will demand a hearing on the floor of Congress to debate the merits of the PATRIOT Act.