ADC Directors Feted At NAAA Board Meeting

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Every year the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) conducts its national board meeting in a different city in the United States. This year, the venue was Los Angeles, the nation's second largest media center and home of the second largest concentration of Arab Americans.

It was a California-style extravaganza as the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of NAAA staged its annual banquet to coincide with the national board meeting. Atop the roof garden of the Universal Sheraton Hotel, affording a panoramic view of the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles chapter offered a real Hollywood greeting to the NAAA board, more than 350 guests, and a special group of invited guests: the chairman, president, and 13 board members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Headliners for the event included Edmonde Haddad, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, who served as master of ceremonies; the 92-year-old uncle of presidential advisor John Sununu, Najib Sununu, who lives in retirement in San Diego; and other Sununu family members.

The NAAA Distinguished Service Award was presented to Dr. Sabri El Farra by filmmaker Moustapha Akkad, director of "The Message" and "The Lion of the Desert."

Reminiscing on their student days at UCLA in the early 1950s, Akkad said he and Dr. El Farra, who today is the physician for CBS in Los Angeles, founded the first Arab student association in the US. The students frequently were hosted in the home of Najib Sununu, Akkad said. He added that since there were 19 members of the association there sometimes were 19 committees for any project planned. Akkad noted that Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell, who was on hand for the NAAA dinner, had been an honorary member of the Arab student organization. The experience, Akkad noted with a smile, had provided invaluable training for any brouhaha he since has encountered as a member of the city council.

In a serious vein, El Farra called upon ADC and NAAA to continue their study of a merger.

"I speak to our people in the West Bank and Gaza everyday," said El Farra, who was born in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. "Their spirit is great. They are giving us a lesson of what it takes to win self-determination. Now it is up to us to let the American people know what is going on over there."

Responsibility of Press Noted

Los Angeles KABC-TV commentator Bill Press was presented the NAAA Freedom of Press Award by Arab-American broadcaster Jim Simon. Press, a candidate in the 1988 primary elections, referred to himself as the "Jesse Jackson of the Senate race for California." Press stated: "When you look at the events of the past 13 months—the bravery of the Palestinian youth to make their legitimate cause known the world over, the State Department talking to the Palestine Liberation Organization, a Republican judge in Los Angeles deciding for Palestinian rights—we have made progress.

"Responsibility of the press goes along with freedom of the press. We're not doing our job when we quote Reagan when he says Nicaragua invaded Honduras and there is no invasion, or when we report there is a nest of Palestinian terrorists in Los Angeles without first checking the facts.

"I disagree with people who say they need Uzis to protect American citizens. It's not men with a gun who protect this country, but men with pens and pencils and telephones. Politicians say we (the press) are too hard on them, but when we hear them squeal, I believe it's a better job we're doing. "

Press asserted that to be courageous in the media, one merely has to say the obvious.

"I said that for Israel to invade Lebanon is breaking international law. For one country to shoot youngsters in the back is criminal, I don't care who is doing it. To deny Arafat entry to this country to address the United Nations is wrong.

"The only way we'll lose freedom of speech is to be afraid to speak out against injustice. The day we stop exposing corruption in business or politics is the only way we'll stop the presses in this country."

NAAA President George Moses noted that many people in Washington are ready to discuss Arab-American objectives and that now newspapers are calling NAAA for ads, such as the full-page Jan. 25 ad that NAAA ran in six major metropolitan dailies comparing the positions of the government of Israel, the government of the US, and the PLO on a number of specific issues.

'We must not stop writing to our legislators," Moses said. "We have a long way to go, judging by the $2 million aid Lebanon received last year. We must reverse this situation."

Leadership Award

The NAAA Outstanding Leadership Award was presented to longtime leader John Stanley Patterson of Lockheed Corporation. Patterson said that his concerns about the Middle East emerged when he lived and traveled there for business reasons. Since then, the Lockheed executive said he has become committed to finding peaceful solutions to the area's problems and communicating these interests to non-Arabs and American politicians.

"The so-called Arab-Israeli conflict actually is a struggle for a Palestinian homeland and justice," Patterson stated. "if the rights of the Palestinians are achieved, other regional problems will have a greater chance of being resolved. We must take the risk of being on the front line and being on a die that is unpopular at present."

In a special chairman-to-chairman greeting, NAAA Chairman Col. Alfred H. Shehab welcomed James Abourezk, chairman of ADC, to the podium. The gesture of good will was repeated the next day at a special session between NAAA and ADC national board members as they discussed the possibilities of merger or continued independent existence but with coordination of important projects, and joint conventions and regional meetings, beginning with a combined national convention in 1990. A special task force committee has been organized to study the various options. NAAA appointeees on the committee are Peter Tanous of Washington, DC; Anne Speake of Fresno, CA; and Alexander Simon of Florida.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in California.