Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, Page 121

Bulletin Board

Compiled by Janet McMahon

50-Year Observances

Deir Yassin Remembered's 50th Anniversary Memorial Conference commemorating the massacre of 254 Palestinian villagers will convene April 9 at 10 a.m. in East Jerusalem's Hakawati Theater. Scheduled to speak along with survivors of the massacre are Knesset member Hashem Mahameed, poet Sameh El Kassem, attorney Lea Tsemel, theologian Marc Ellis, and others. On April 9 in Los Angeles, a Deir Yassin Remembered vigil will be held in front of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance; the following day demonstrators will display the Palestine memorial quilt (see below) in front of the Westside Federal Building. For further information contact Daniel McGowan, Deir Yassin Remembered, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 4078 Scandling Center, Geneva, NY 14456, e-mail mcgowan@hws.edu

"Palestine: 50 Years of Dispossession," a national tour presenting a quilt of Palestinian embroidery with a panel dedicated to each of the 418 villages destroyed by Israel in 1948, will start April 15 in San Francisco and travel across the U.S., with rallies in Los Angeles, Houston, Jacksonville, Knoxville, Detroit, Cleveland and New York, culminating May 15 in Washington, DC with a major rally on Capitol Hill. Organizations wishing to co-sponsor the event, or individuals seeking more information should contact Ferial Polhill at ADC, 4201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008, phone (202) 244-2990, fax (202) 244-3196, e-mail adc@adc.org Persons wishing to embroider one of the 60 remaining quilt panels should contact the American Committee on Jerusalem for design and pattern specifications, via e-mail at acj@acj.org

LAW—The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment will hold a conference on the theme of "50 Years of Human Rights Violations—Palestine Dispossessed," June 7-10 in Ramallah, West Bank. In addition to examining the history of 50 years of occupation, the conference will develop stragegies for further actions leading up to the 50th anniversary on Dec. 10, 1998, of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. A conference Web site is available at http:// www. birzeit.edu/lawe/conf/

Deaths

Ambassador Marshall W. Wiley, a retired career foreign service officer and past president of the U.S.-Iraq Forum, died Jan. 31 of leukemia in Washington, DC at the age of 72. A native of Rockford, IL, he received his undergraduate, law and master's degrees from the University of Chicago, and served as a Navy aviator during World War II. His foreign service career was devoted almost entirely to the Middle East, with postings in Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, culminating in his appointment as ambassador to Oman in 1978. Upon his retirement in 1981, in addition to his work with the U.S.-Iraq Forum, he was board chairman of American Near East Refugee Aid, a member of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and of Americans for Middle East Understanding. He lectured widely on the Middle East and appeared on numerous network news programs. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie Eeane Wiley of Bethesda, MD, and their three children.

Israeli Minister of Education Zevulun Hammer, head since 1987 of the right-wing National Religous Party, died Jan. 20 in Jerusalem of cancer, at the age of 62. He was an officer in the Israeli tank corps during the 1967 war and was one of the founders of the Gush Emunim movement which established illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Thomas W. McElhiney, former commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), died Jan. 17 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of sepsis, following lung surgery as a result of tuberculosis, at the age of 78. A native of West Virginia, he was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and served in the Army Corps of Engineers in World War II. He joined the foreign service in 1946, serving in Amsterdam, Berlin and the Sudan, where he was deputy chief of mission. He served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana from 1968 to 1971, then as inspector general of the foreign service until his retirement in 1974. Following his retirement he joined the United Nations as deputy commissioner of UNRWA, and was named commissioner in 1977, serving until 1979, when he retired. He is survived by his wife, the former Helen L. Lippincott of Bethesda, MD, a daughter, two sons and four grandchildren.

Helen Haje, a founder and executive secretary in the 1970s of the National Association of Arab Americans, died Jan. 12 of congestive heart failure at a Washington, DC hospital at the age of 74. A native of Altoona, PA and the daughter of Lebanese-American immigrants, she came to Washington in the early 1940s and worked as a secretary for Catholic Charities. She later started her own public relations firms and, since 1980, worked primarily on political campaigns for Arab-American candidates, and did public relations and fund-raising work for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. As a consultant for NBC's "Today" show, she helped arrange for Arab leaders as guests. Her husband, Albert Haje, died in 1955; she is survived by three children, two sisters, four brothers and two grandchildren.

Uzi Narkiss, a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces who led Israeli army troops in the recapture of Jerusalem in the 1967 war, died Dec. 17 in Jerusalem at the age of 72. Born in what is now Israel, in 1941 he joined the underground Palmach army fighting the British. He remained in the military following the establishment of Israel and, following his return in 1955 from studies in France, helped establish Israel's National Security College. He retired from active duty in 1968.