January/February 2001, Pages 91-93

Activisms

College Campus Activism

Iowa State University Looks at Palestinian Perspectives

The Ames, Iowa chapter of the United Nations Association sponsored Palestinian students at Iowa State University’s Memorial Union on Nov. 30, in an event titled “Palestinian Perspectives.”

Betsy Mayfield, a Palestinian advocate, publicist, fund-raiser, and editor with extensive experience assisting institutions of higher education in the Arab world, organized and chaired the event.

Presenters were, from Jordan, Bassam Shehadeh, a Ph.D. candidate and research and teaching assistant in the ISU Physics and Astronomy Department, and Aref Al-Farra, also from Jordan, and an MBA candidate in the Business Administration Department.

More than 60 members of the ISU and larger Ames and central Iowa communities filled Memorial Union’s Room 246 to overflowing. The event began with a showing of Columbia University professor Edward Said’s 1998 BBC documentary, “In Search of Palestine.”

“The situation in Palestine has deteriorated seriously,” said Mayfield, “and far too few Americans are aware why.” Mayfield echoed recent comments by Professor Said regarding the iron-like wall protecting American discourse about Israel, a wall that keeps criticism of Israel from entering the public discussion. “It is critically important that the Arab side be heard,” she said, “because we hear the Israeli side all the time from our media.”

Shehadeh presented a brief history of the creation of Israel and the occupation of Palestine from a Palestinian perspective.

“Prior to the establishment of the Zionist state, during the British Mandate of Palestine, moderate Arab leadership organizations proposed national unity governments no less than six times,” Shehadeh said.

“The proposed national unity governments included representation for recent Jewish immigrants to Palestine,” he explained, “but Zionists were seeking to create a Jewish state, and influential British Jewish organizations blocked the early proposals for inclusive and cooperative government in Palestine.”

Al-Farra, who lived in Palestine from 1994 to 1996, spoke on the current crisis in Palestine. “The government of Israel has been responsible for many massacres in Palestine in recent years,” he said, “and the brutality of the illegal military occupation is not a good foundation on which to build peace.”

Al-Farra reminded his listeners of the massacre of Feb. 25, 1994, when Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish religious fanatic and Israeli military physician, entered the Muslim prayer hall in Hebron and murdered 29 Muslim worshippers, including children, shooting most of them in the back. Many more were wounded.

Al-Farra also spoke about the event that precipitated the current popular uprising, the so-called “visit” of reactionary right-wing Israeli political leader Ariel Sharon to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Arab East Jerusalem.

“Sharon is a war criminal,” said Al-Farra. “Even the Knesset’s own Commission of Inquiry, known as the Kahan Commission, said the 1982 massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon were caused by Sharon.”

The official investigation found Sharon and seven other Israeli political and military leaders bore “indirect responsibility” for the slaughter by Lebanese Phalange militia-men of as many as 2,000 Palestinian refugees in the two camps during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

— Michael Gillespie

Intifada Forum Features Georgetown Professor Ruedy and Peace Now’s Roth

The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University hosted an Oct. 18 forum to discuss the unfolding intifada. Speakers were CCAS Professor John Ruedy and Lewis Roth, the assistant executive director of Americans for Peace Now, and CCAS Prof. Judith Tucker moderated the forum.

Ruedy opened his presentation by imagining himself in the shoes of a “20-something Palestinian man in the West Bank, perhaps a college graduate, who has been unable to find work for several years now.”

He proceeded to describe how this hypothetical Palestinian would perceive the current situation of the Palestinians on four different levels. First, Ruedy described the event which ignited the “second intifada.” Ariel Sharon, accompanied by more than 1,000 Israeli security forces, “visited” the Haram al-Sharif (or Temple Mount), taking the opportunity, Ruedy said, “to declare that the holy Muslim site of al-Aqsa will be under Jewish sovereignty forever.” The presence of the Israeli police, Ruedy argued, confirms that Sharon’s “invasion” was approved by Barak.

Ruedy also pointed out the numerous socio-economic political factors that had been building up prior to the Sharon incident. “By 1993,” he said, “Israel had illegally occupied the West Bank and Gaza for 26 years.” Oslo, he continued, only served to “essentially allow Israel to perpetuate its occupation with impunity.”

Furthermore, he noted, any “self- rule” given to the Palestinian population centers, was utterly worthless, since the Palestinians were essentially “cut off from each other with a web of military checkpoints.”

As for the economy, Ruedy noted, per capita income fell by half in the West Bank, and by two-thirds in Gaza, during the seven years of Oslo negotiations.

Secondly, over the next few years Israel refused to “abide by the rules.” When Palestinians agreed to recognize the state of Israel in order to initiate the Oslo process, they thereby renounced their claim to 78 percent of mandate Palestine. In return, Ruedy emphasized, “the Palestinians expected to gain full control over the remaining 22 percent (consisting of the West Bank and Gaza).”

Israel, however, insisted that control over the remaining 22 percent must be negotiated and, while negotiations dragged on, continued to expand illegal settlements on Palestinian land. In addition, Ruedy said, “It is fundamentally unjust that Israel continues to deny the ‘Right of Return’ to Palestinians driven from their homes, while its own ‘Law of Return’ allows any Jew the right to immigrate to Israel.”

Finally, Ruedy highlighted the Israeli tactic of reversing the victim and the victimizer. “There is profound frustration that much of the world perceives Palestinians as terrorist fanatics, while they are the true victims,” he said. Dr. Ruedy cited a study by Walid Khalidi that calculated the ratio of Arab to Israeli deaths in the various conflicts from 1948-85 as approximately 21 Arabs per each Israeli. He noted that this is about the same ratio which has been seen in recent weeks.

Roth then outlined the mainstream Israeli perspectives on the current breakdown in the peace process. He made a disclaimer that his presentation would not necessarily reflect his personal viewpoint or that of Americans for Peace Now. Roth began by stating the popular belief that Israeli Prime Minister Barak at the recent “Camp David II” summit had “offered more than any other Israeli prime minister in history.” He observed that Barak and other Israelis felt frustrated that Arafat not only rejected Israeli proposals on Jerusalem, but also failed to make a counterproposal. According to Roth, Israelis were surprised at Palestinian reaction to Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, because they understood that the visit had been cleared with the Palestinian authorities on the condition that Sharon would not actually enter the al-Aqsa mosque.

Roth explained that Israelis see separate but interrelated crises as having exploded simultaneously: First is the issue of rioting between Jewish and Arab Israelis within Israel proper. Roth stressed that most Israelis (70 percent in a recent opinion poll) perceive this as the most pressing crisis currently affecting Israel. Some 70 percent of Israeli Arabs identify with the Palestinian cause, according to Roth, “although most also prefer to retain their Israeli nationality and have no desire to live under the PNA.”

Many Israeli Arabs were upset by what they perceived as a desecration of al-Aqsa mosque, he said, which combined with their resentment at being treated as second-class citizens to spark the unrest.

Lebanon is another critical issue for Israel, Roth noted. The failure of the Lebanese government to secure its southern border from Hezbollah, and that organization’s kidnapping of three soldiers and a businessman (allegedly a Mossad agent) are a source of concern. Also, Hezbollah has emerged as a role model for organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Roth pointed out.

Roth mentioned concerns the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) regarding the recent violence: The weaponry of the tanzeem (street militias) is permitted to surpass that of PNA security forces; the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers by Palestinians; and the PNA’s release of Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists.” Finally, noting that the two peoples are bound by ties of economic interdependence as well as by the difficulty of uprooting settlements, Roth commented on the impracticality of complete physical separation between Israelis and Palestinians.

—Adila Masood

University of Michigan Holds Palestinian Children’s Art Exhibit

“ Innocence Under Siege” was the theme of an exhibit organized by concerned students at the University of Michigan. The exhibit, which ran from Nov. 27 to Dec. 15 in the Michigan Union study lounge, featured a display of Palestinian children’s drawings and essays from students of the Ibrahimieh College, a K-12 Arab school in East Jerusalem.

The exhibit drew attention to the plight of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation. “The drawings and essays clearly illustrate the disturbing effects of military occupation on the psychology of the children,” said exhibit coordinator Hiba Ghalib. The exhibit was sponsored by the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Muslim Students’ Association, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Arab Student Association and Palestine Committee.

—Delinda C. Hanley

IDF Director of Military Intelligence Speaks at ISU

Former Israel Defense Forces director of military intelligence Shlomo Gazit appeared on the Iowa State University campus on Dec. 3, in the Memorial Union Gold Room. The retired Israeli spymaster planned to speak for two hours on “Defense and Security Issues in Israel,” but faced sharp and effective questioning from several members of the audience after he characterized recent violence that has left over 250 Palestinians dead as “part of the peace process.”

“Gazit got red in the face and began shouting about Zionism,” said Bassam Shehadeh. “He did not like the questions we prepared for him.”

The former IDF general concluded his comments less than one hour into his speech and departed abruptly. “When Gazit saw that he didn’t have much support,” said Betsy Mayfield, “he shut down and was out of there with several of the Palestinian students in hot pursuit, attempting to get him to answer their questions.”

Gazit’s abbreviated visit to the sprawling, snow-covered campus was sponsored by the ISU Political Science Department, Hillel, and the Committee on Lectures.

Professor Marc Ellis, renowned peace and justice ethicist, will speak at ISU on Jan. 16. Ellis, who heads the Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, will talk about “revolutionary forgiveness” in the context of the Israel/Palestine crisis. His appearance, arranged by Mayfield, is sponsored by the United Christian Campus Ministry, ISU Departments of Religion, Political Science, and Sociology, the YWCA of Ames, the ISU Program for Technology and Change, Hillel, and the Committee on Lectures, among other groups.

—Michael Gillespie

University of Maryland Hosts Paul Findley

The Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), Muslim Women of Maryland (MWM) and Organization of Arab Students (OAS) at the University of Maryland, College Park sponsored a series of events, starting Nov. 27, on “The Crisis in the Holy Land.” Prior to the events, French television pictures of the killing of Mohammed Al-Durra stirred debate between MSA and Jewish Student Union (JSU) students in front of the Student Union. The MSA taped down and handed out flyers featuring pictures of the violence in Palestine and condemning Israel’s part in the encounters. Several JSU students removed these flyers.

By the time the Holy Land series started, tempers were frayed. As the first program began, on the evening of Nov. 27, JSU president Harry Seidman came to the front of the room and began to read a prepared statement condemning the MSA’s decision to invite professional speakers instead of holding student panel discussions on the conflict. The MSA had asked their fellow JSU students to join the series with speakers of their own, but the Jewish organization had not provided any panelists. MSA vice president Kareem Darwish asked Seidman to stop the interruption and called campus police. After Seidman and his supporters walked out, in a planned protest, Darwish introduced the first speaker, civil rights activist Imam Mahdi Bray. “I wanted a dialogue, not confrontation,” Bray said, “I would have hoped our cousins would have stayed.”

Bray talked about the “media blackout in America” and the senselessness of the conflict. Malcolm Cannon from the International Action Center, American Muslim activist Manal Omar, and Howard University chaplain Imam Johari Abdul-Malik also spoke. Each speaker condemned the American media for its biased coverage and the U.S. government for its financial support of Israel. Some of the Jewish protesters quietly returned to stand in the back of the room and listen. After the speeches, the speakers entertained questions from the audience. Several Jewish students stayed to refute the speeches and to discuss JSU/MSA relations with the speakers.

Former Illinois Republican Congressman Paul Findley, author of the best-selling book They Dare to Speak Out, was the guest speaker on Nov. 30. Mahdi Bray introduced Findley as a “righteous dude,” who has championed many civil rights causes as well as an even-handed U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Thanking the MSA for their invitation, Findley mentioned that Muslim Student Associations were the original pioneers in Muslim public relations. MSAs began in 1963 at the University of Illinois, he said, and helped to create a more accurate understanding of Islam in America.

Findley said he was revolted by the actions of his former congressional colleagues, the secretary of state and the president, and their words deploring the excessive violence Palestinian rock throwers are inflicting on Israelis with their state-of-the-art weaponry, donated by the U.S. “The recent resolution to stand firmly by Israel in their moment of peril and bravery under fire,” he went on to say, “makes me hang my head in shame for the elected officials of our government and how they’ve reacted to the recent developments in the Holy Land.”

Though Israeli forces are doing most of the killing, Findley said, Palestinians have every right and duty under international law, and under all major religions, to fight for liberty, independence and the pursuit of human dignity. “Israel is committing atrocities on Palestinian soil when they have no right to be there,” he argued.

Findley said he was amazed that, “With all the marvels of the information age, most Americans still don’t understand what is going on in the Middle East and the human tragedy that was inflicted on Palestinians. Our government has participated in attempting the dismemberment of a proud nation called Palestine.”

The former congressman, whose latest book Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam, will be published by Amana Books this spring, closed by saying that Muslims have politically arrived in the U.S. as a result of the recent bloc vote. While Muslims generally favor Democratic candidates, 72 percent of Muslims voted for George W. Bush, in part, Findley said, in hopes he would be a more honest broker for peace in the Holy Land than the Democratic alternative.

—Delinda C. Hanley