George Salem

By Michael Baris

George Salem is a Republican and a firm believer in working within the system to achieve the political goals sought by Arab Americans. So when the Republican party asked him last spring to serve as Executive Director of Ethnic Voters for Reagan/Bush 184, Mr. Salem just couldn't say no. Palestinian by birth and a partner in the Washington law firm of Thompson, Mann & Hutson, Mr. Salem confesses that he initially balked at the idea of taking on another job: "Whatever time I had outside the firm was devoted to my wife and children, and to Palestinian organizations like the Ramallah Federation and the United Palestinian Appeal. " But his appreciation of the potential value to Arab Americans of having a voice inside the system eventually overrode personal concerns.

Today, more than a year later, he is convinced that the results of his efforts were well worth the sacrifices. "In the beginning," he explains, "people at the campaign literally blanched when I told them I was Palestinian. But after a while their preconceptions gave way to a great deal of sympathy for the Arab viewpoint. Later, people told me they were delighted to see Arab Americans getting involved in the Republican Party."

Building a Network from Scratch

Mr. Salem's responsibilities at the Ethnic Voters division encompassed virtually all ethnic groups, as defined by the Republican party. To get votes for President Reagan, he and his staff built a nationwide grass roots network of 500 leaders and organized them into two parallel networks working on the city/state and national levels. When Air. Salem discovered that no formal structure existed within the Republican party to represent Arab Americans as a whole, he went to work creating one. Many hurdles later, his efforts were crowned with the creation of the first nationwide Arab American committee in either political party. "It was a very bold initiative on the part of the Reagan/Bush Campaign," opines Mr. Salem.

The Republicans did not regret this small show of political bravura. The Arab-American Committee for Reagan/Bush 184, with Joe Baroody at the helm, turned in a virtuoso performance for the President, obtaining more pledges of support for the ticket than any of the other 41 nationality committees. "When the Vice-President saw the Arab numbers his eyes literally popped out of his head," Mr. Salem says.

He argues that 1984 was the year in which Arab Americans finally took the critical first step toward becoming a viable ethnic constituency within the American political system. Although he personally thinks the Republican philosophy has greater appeal for the majority of Arab Americans, he is quick to point out that Arab Americans need to make further political inroads in both of the major parties.

To accomplish this, Mr. Salem helped Jim Zogby, the former executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and others launch the Arab American Institute (AAI), which held its inaugural leadership conference in Washington in early March. Under AAI auspices, Mr. Salem is establishing an Arab American Republican Federation, which will serve as the vehicle within the Republican National Committee to involve Arab Americans in the party at the city, county and state levels. "Jim is working on creating a framework for participation within the Democratic Party," Mr. Salem notes, "while our Republican Federation is already 75 percent of the way towards receiving accreditation." Air. Salem believes that if these efforts are successful, Arab Americans will have, for the first time, a formal vehicle for participating within the two parties and thus better opportunities for getting Arab Americans elected to public office.

Growing Up in a Big Family

George Salem, who currently is chairman of the Council of Presidents of National Arab-American Organizations, also plays a leading role in both the United Palestinian Appeal and the Ramallah Federation. The Federation's 30,000 members all trace their lineage to eight brothers who founded the West Bank village of Ramallah in 1615. Mr. Salem's own family, like most others in the tightly-knit organization, emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1940s as a result of widespread expropriation of Arab property by the newly-formed state of Israel. Mr. Salem was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, and because of the large Ramallah community there many of his activities as a youth were sponsored by the Federation. With national headquarters in Detroit, the Federation publishes a quarterly magazine, organizes youth and self-help groups, and raises funds for scholarships, among its other activities.

Mr. Salem went off to Emory University in Atlanta in 1970 to become a dentist, but switched to law in his junior year after discovering that he "just hated teeth." After graduating from Emory Law School in 1977, he went to work full-time for Thompson & Pace, an Atlanta firm founded by two of his former classmates. When Thompson & Pace merged with the Washington management labor law firm of Thompson, Mann, & Hutson in 1980, Salem moved along with it. He was made junior partner in 1982.

Michael Baris, an anthropologist, is creating a data base for the American Educational Trust.