Northwest Groups Host Talks on Palestine, Iraq

by Elaine Kelley

Palestinian Melkite Catholic priest Father Elias Chacour of Galilee, Israel, and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark visited the Pacific Northwest for separate fall events sponsored by an impressive list of organizations concerned with deteriorating peace prospects between Palestinians and Israel and the ongoing human tragedy in Iraq.

Elias Chacour Meets Northwest Groups

Fr. Chacour’s Oct. 20 to 24 Oregon itinerary was organized by a dozen groups, including Good Samaritan Ministries, the Portland State University Middle East Studies Center, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Oregon Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, Mercy Corps International, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and several local Christian churches.

In presentations before audiences at universities, churches, a Jewish high school and a Rotary Club, Fr. Chacour was unyielding in his belief in peace. He referred to the peace agreement between Palestinians and Israel as “a poor agreement, a miserable peace treaty almost worth nothing.” But in the same breath he insisted that “peace is the only alternative.” He compared the peace process to a premature baby who needs more attention and more love. “You don’t let it lie and die,” he said. “You must take care of it, give it more. It must live. The alternative is death.”

Fr. Chacour is the author of two books, Blood Brothers and We Belong To The Land. The first, written in 1984, tells the story of Chacour’s childhood in the Galilee region in the context of the creation of the state of Israel. The second book is a sequel recounting Chacour’s religious formation and achievements in subsequent years.

Many who listened to the peacemaking priest asked why Palestinians reacted so violently to the opening in Jerusalem of a tunnel which, according to news reports, had been carried out merely as a convenience to tourists. “It’s not that simple,” Chacour said, adding that in opening the tunnel, “Israel was asserting exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem and did not calculate the outcome.”

The status of Jerusalem is one of the pivotal issues remaining in final negotiations between Palestinians and Israel. Since the 1967 war, however, and even after the 1993 peace agreement was signed, Israel has developed the city aggressively in its own image.

Chacour reminded his audiences that the previous government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to negotiate the final status of Jerusalem and that the new government “should have waited to open the tunnel together” with the Palestinians, but only if both sides agreed to it. He blamed the media and the current U.S. administration for America’s unquestioning support for Israel. “America is building bridges on one side of the river, on Israel’s side,” he said, and urged Americans to continue their friendship with Israel but to “stop interpreting your friendship with Israel as automatic enmity with Palestinians.”

Chacour urged peace-loving people to look for the truth. He told how his Palestinian students gave blood for Jewish victims of bombings in Tel Aviv, expressing regret that the news media do not report positive stories like this. He told of the time that Shimon Peres promised in front of 1,800 people gathered at the new Prophet Elias College in Ibillin, Galilee, to be the Palestinians’ ambassador with the Israeli government. Chacour said Israel’s minister of education, who was there that day, asked, “Will your school accept some of our young people who have just finished their military service?” The priest proclaimed, “Yes! For God’s sake, send me the whole Israeli army!”

Sen. Wyden at George Fox University

Chacour made a presentation on “U.S. Foreign Policy and the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict” at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He shared the podium with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) who, in January 1996, won the race to replace Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR), a staunch supporter of Israel. Wyden, who is Jewish and considered by his Oregon constituents to be liberal and progressive, was listed as the top Senate recipient of pro-Israel PAC contributions as of March 31, 1996 in the July 1996 Washington Report.

Speaking two weeks before the ’96 general election, Wyden commended the work of Fr. Chacour and others who are committed to the peace process. He stated that while he disagrees with President Clinton in some areas, he believes the president has been pushing forcefully for a Hebron withdrawal timetable, and that this is a key test of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s willingness to keep the peace process on track.

“I have indicated in my meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, whom I met with in Washington, that we feel very strongly about keeping the peace process,” Wyden said. “That’s why this matter of Hebron is at such a key point.”

Summarizing his fiscal priorities, Wyden said, “I believe we can do with a few less B-2 bombers and tobacco subsidies.” When questioned later about his budget priorities and how he feels about the billions of dollars the U.S. commits to Israel every year, the senator wrongly implied that Israel and Arab countries receive equal amounts from the U.S. “From the standpoint of a U.S. taxpayer, [support] has been commensurate in terms of Israel and a number of the Arab countries get help as well,” he said.

(In fact, the disparity is great. U.S. grants to Israel in FY 1996 came to $5.5 billion [see Washington Report, April 1996], more than to any other country. Grants to Arab countries have been negligible, with the exception of Egypt, the first Arab state to negotiate a peace with Israel and a key U.S. partner in providing support for the U.S. military presence in the Middle East. Clinton’s FY 1996 budget request for aid to Egypt was $2.1 billion. By contrast, U.S. aid was approximately $314 million to Jordan and a mere $4.5 million to Lebanon. The U.S. has pledged $500 million for economic assistance in the West Bank and Gaza for the five-year period 1994-1998.)

Following Wyden’s departure for another scheduled appointment, Fr. Chacour was introduced by Ralph Beebe, a professor of history at George Fox University and co-author of Blessed are the Peacemakers: A Palestinian Christian in the Occupied West Bank. In his book, Beebe tells the story of the Rantisi family, Palestinians who, like the family of Elias Chacour, as told in Chacour’s book Blood Brothers, shared the experience of forced eviction from their ancestral homes in Palestine in the 1948 war.

“I wish instead of addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict, senators and good Americans would address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” Fr. Chacour began. He added that he wished the senator could have stayed to listen to him. “But I’m sure that what I say will reach his ears,” Chacour said. “Here is another blood brother, a Jew, and I hope we will stop being bloody brothers.”

At an interfaith workshop organized by Good Samaritan Ministries in Beaverton, Oregon, entitled “Working Towards Reconciliation and Peacemaking,” Fr. Chacour invited his listeners to “go beyond tolerance to acceptance” and illustrated the situation in his homeland with a parable about Jews and Palestinians. “They are like a forest full of trees in the midst of a terrible storm, and the branches are beating against each other violently,” he said. “Many branches get broken and fall to the ground, and the storm continues, but we do not despair because all the while our strong, deep roots are embracing, so the trees will not fall and we will not disappear.”

Fr. Chacour’s efforts toward reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis and his decades of work to improve educational opportunities for impoverished Palestinians are recognized worldwide. He also has spearheaded the development of youth programs, libraries and schools, and he has been nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was presented with the World Methodist Peace Award in 1994 (see Washington Report, Feb./March 1994 issue).

Ramsey Clark Calls for Iraq Food Aid

“Genocide by starvation and sickness is now the preferred weapon of the rich against the poor.”—Ramsey Clark

“567,000 children in Iraq have died as a consequence of economic sanctions against Iraq.” So claimed former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, speaking to large audiences in Portland and Seattle on Nov. 9 and 10 on the topic of “Sanctions and Other Weapons of War.” Clark, an outspoken critic of U.S. military policy, has traveled extensively to trouble spots around the world. In Portland he made a passionate appeal to Americans to take responsibility for their government’s actions in Iraq. “Genocide by starvation and sickness is now the preferred weapon of the rich against the poor,” he said, “because like the neutron bomb, it kills people and preserves property.” Armed with United Nations reports on the impact of sanctions on Iraq, Clark cited statistic after statistic, saying that “Every U.N. agency has reported on the death rates caused by the sanctions,” contrary to the U.S. government’s denials.

The reports, prepared by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, were published in book form by the International Action Center, an organization initiated in 1992 by Ramsey Clark and the first to expose the damages of U.S. bombing of Iraqi civilians and the massive destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure. The Children are Dying is described as “an appeal by world leaders to the United States government and the Security Council of the United Nations to end the use of sanctions as a weapon of war.”

Clark charged that when reports started coming out during the 1991 bombings that 100,000 to 150,000 had been killed, government estimates of deaths were lowered to 5,000 because it began to look like a slaughter. He added that when General Colin Powell announced openly that two nuclear reactors in Iraq had been destroyed, there was no public outcry about it, even though the bombing of nuclear plants violates international law, which prohibits damage to “potentially dangerous facilities.” Economic sanctions also violate international law, he said, but there is no outcry from the media about that, either.

Clark commended the coverage of the tragedy in Iraq by the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes,” whose reporter Lesley Stahl visited Iraq and did a segment on the program early last year. The images of starvation, disease and general human misery were followed by Stahl’s interview with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright. Stahl questioned Albright about reports that half a million had died in Iraq because of U.S. economic sanctions. “Is the price worth it?” Stahl asked, and Albright answered, “I think this is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it.”

Clark has visited Iraq every year since the 1991 Gulf war and continues to be a leading voice against U.S. sanctions. He urged people to help end the silence by studying the reports of the FAO and distributing them to others. “If we can’t stop our own government from continuing these sanctions in the cradle of civilization,” he said, “more will die, unless we act radically.”

Clark’s visit was co-sponsored by Portland State University Middle East Studies Center, Portland Peaceworks’ Iraq Affinity Group, Northwest Veterans for Peace, the Arab-American Community Center and a host of other groups that were present with information displays in the university’s ballroom where Clark was speaking. The event included a photo exhibit of scenes from Iraq by photographer Bill Hackwell who journeyed to Iraq with Ramsey Clark in February 1996.

Jerusalem Speakers in Portland

Majed Alloush, director of Al-Sadiq al-Taieb (in Arabic, “good friends”) in East Jerusalem, and Yassin Hamdan, co-founder of the organization, visited Oregon as guests of Good Samaritan Ministries in September and October. Al-Sadiq al-Taieb provides drug and alcohol counseling and education. The visit was organized by Bettie Mitchell, director of Good Samaritan Ministries, who helped start Al-Sadiq al-Taieb 10 years ago and continues to provide funding and other support through Good Samaritan projects. Alloush and Hamdan spoke before groups in the Portland area to develop support for their work in Jerusalem and on the West Bank.

Prof. Denny Speaks at Willamette

Frederick Denny, professor of Islamic Studies and the History of Religions at the University of Colorado, spoke at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon on Nov. 1 on the topic of “Islamic Revival in the Age of Religious Fundamentalisms.” Dr. Denny, who works with the American Muslim community to dispel stereotypes, is working on a comparative study of the three monotheistic religions which, he says, all are “undergoing critique and review.”

Portland State Islamic Program

Portland State University’s Middle East Studies Center, in cooperation with The Muslim Educational Trust, held an inaugural dinner on Nov. 14 at Portland’s Marriott Hotel for the opening of Portland State’s Toulan Islamic Studies Program. The new program is named for Dr. Nohad Toulan, dean of the School of Urban and Public Affairs, in recognition of his academic and professional contributions to his field and his personal commitment to Islamic education in the local and global community. The program at Portland State will address needs in university teaching and research by augmenting existing offerings and integrating Islamic law studies into comparative and international law studies in local law schools. A $5 million dollar endowment is the goal of the program. Earnings will fund additional tenure positions in Arabic language, history, art and architecture and Islamic law.

Interreligious Cavalcade at Portland

The Oregon Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East is preparing for its Fourth Annual Cavalcade for Peace in Portland on New Year’s Day. Jews, Christians and Muslims will gather to pray for peace together in area synagogues, churches and mosques.

Edward Said Appearance Canceled

Edward Said, a Palestinian scholar and former member of the Palestine National Council, canceled for health reasons his appearance at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he had been scheduled to speak Sept. 28th on “The Palestinian Situation Today.” Said suffers from leukemia.