Boston Activists Slam Israeli Human Rights Violations Against Palestinians

By David P. Johnson Jr.

On the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, a group of Boston activists charges Israel with blatant and serious human rights violations. In fact, the group accuses the Jewish state of abrogating most of the declaration’s provisions, including the torture, arbitrary arrest, oppression, discrimination and land expropriation of Palestinians.

Activists held placards, each citing one of the 50 major Israeli violations of the declaration in Dec. 10 vigils outside the Israeli Consulate to New England, in Boston’s Park Square, and later in Government Center. Each poster listed one of the provisions of the declaration and then explained how Israel was in violation. Speaking into a bullhorn, every marcher in turn read the violations listed on his or her sign.

Nancy Murray of the Boston Committee on the Middle East, one of the groups taking part in the protest, said, “We have 50 signs to reflect each of these 50 reasons.”

For instance, the group charged Israel with four violations of Article 5 of the declaration, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The protesters charged “Israel has legalized torture and uses it routinely in interrogations, even against children.” They also stated that Palestinians have died under interrogation and in Israeli custody; that Palestinians face inhuman conditions in Israel’s prisons and that prisoners, including children, have been denied visits from relatives.

Israel was also accused of denying Palestinians the right to their own nationality, with interfering with religious observances by preventing Palestinians under 30 from participating in the pilgrimage to Mecca and preventing Muslims in the occupied territories from praying in mosques in Jerusalem and Hebron. In addition, Palestinians face destruction of their homes and property, as well as land confiscation and expulsions from Jerusalem.

During the demonstration, a staffer from the Israeli Consulate accepted a letter addressed to Consul General to New England Yitzhak Levanon from The Coalition for Palestinian Rights. The letter urged Israel to “respect the human rights of the Palestinian people as a necessary and long overdue step toward the achievement of peace, justice and genuine co-existence in the region.” In addition, the letter charged that the protections of the Fourth Geneva Convention have been denied to Palestinians under occupation.

Disputing Israeli security justifications for human rights violations, the letter stated, “We do not believe that Israeli security can be achieved through torture, arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial executions, and the wholesale abandonment of due process…If Israel is interested in a real and lasting peace, it must take immediate steps to respect and protect the equal and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

Murray was surprised that Boston’s newspapers and television stations chose not to cover the vigil. “I can’t believe the press isn’t here,” she said. “It’s really quite astonishing. We sent press releases twice, and followed up with phone calls. With Clinton about to go [to Israel], you’d think this would be newsworthy.”

Those involved included Christians, Muslims and Jews from various organizations. Several representatives of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) were on hand, including Evelyn Menconi, Dr. Elaine Hagopian, Randa Khuri and Yvonne Homsey.

Several of the Jewish participants said that deploring Israeli policies cuts across religious lines. “I don’t believe this is a religious issue,” said Andrea Anderson, a student at the Harvard University Divinity School studying the role of Islam and Judaism in Middle East politics. An American Jew who has lived in Israel and Palestine, she said protesting Israeli politics is not anti-Jewish. “I don’t see this as a contradiction.

“It’s a cultural colonization. That [religion] exacerbates the conflict, but it’s not a religious conflict,” she said. Anderson also cited the conditions in Palestinian refugee camps. “You have to go there to see people living in conditions like this.”

Rev. Wayne Underhill, a retired Methodist minister active with another group, SEARCH for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel, based in Framingham, Mass., said that the U.S. has contributed to the injustices suffered by Palestinian Muslims and Christians because its policy is so one-sided in support of Israel.

One woman passing by noted the large police presence. “There are 12 motorcycles,” she said. “We never see anything like that. Is there going to be a riot or something?”

The groups involved plan future activity on behalf of Palestinian human rights. For more information, contact SEARCH, (508) 877-2611; The Coalition for Palestinian Rights, P.O. Box 2425, Cambridge, MA 02238.

Book Dealer’s Passion: Middle Eastern Scholarship

An unobtrusive doorway, a cluttered room, a dark basement, endless books—it might be a shop out of the Arabian Nights, or one of countless old-fashioned book stores around the world where a passion for literature and learning is more important than a supply of best sellers. In today’s world, when every book store seems to stock identical titles and feature familiar floor plans, Dr. Mohammed B. Alwan’s World Wide Antiquarian indeed stands out. There are books everywhere: on shelves, stacked in dark corners and in piles on top of each other. They are in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish; in English, French, Latin, German, Russian and Dutch; in Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan and Thai. There are biographies of contemporary leaders, auction catalogs, out-of-date economics textbooks, histories of the Pharaohs, classical Persian poetry, modern Arabic literature, copies of the Qur’an in all shapes and sizes, accounts of French explorations of the region, turn-of-the-century geographies and on and on, but all 20,000 books involve the Middle or Far East.

They represent a lifelong passion for collecting, explained Alwan, a professor of Arabic language and literature at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

“I have loved books all my life and loved Arabic manuscripts and Persian manuscripts, all my life,” Alwan stated. “I enjoyed them so much and I accumulated so many Arabic and Persian manuscripts I started selling to sustain my habit of collecting books.”

Alwan readily admitted that the store, which he opened in 1987 after starting in his home in 1979, reflects his interests, not a desire to make money.

“I know something about everything here,” he said. “Knowledge fascinates me. Knowledge is important. Without knowledge you can’t do very much.”

Since the Qur’an is the foundation of Arabic scholarship, it is not surprising that Alwan offers copies of the Qur’an in various languages and styles. Pages from a 10th century Qur’an are available at $500 per page. One of the first Qur’ans ever printed in English dates to 1649. An enormous 19th century Qur’an from Pakistan is “the largest I’ve ever seen,” he said. An elaborate Qur’an written in Turkey in 1818, using glittery gold ink, sells for $1,800. He also sells rare copies of the Qur’an translated into European languages in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Alwan also appreciates Persian poetry, pointing out a 17th century manuscript written in ink on gold and silver leaf by a skilled calligrapher. That volume is available for $5,000. There is also a substantial amount of classical poetry, “mystical and erotic in Sufi terms, not vulgar in Western terms.”

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of Alwan’s favorites, with shelves and shelves of the book. “We’ve got all sorts of editions,” he said, showing Persian, Arabic, French, German and even Japanese versions. “It just became incredibly popular in the first quarter of this century.”

Other treasures include an Ethiopian rolled manuscript written in Gi’ez, a classical Ethiopian language, some Sumerian and Bablyonian clay tablets, roughly 5,000 years old, which seem reasonable at $1,000 each, and a Latin astronomy text published in Wittenburg, Germany in 1754, which is $800.

Alwan said that his interest in the Middle East gradually spread to the rest of Asia. Histories of China, Japan, Vietnam and Korea, and books on the philosophy of I Ching compete for shelf space in the East Asia room with accounts of climbing Mt. Everest.

Antique Tibetan Buddhist prayers against evil spirits, written on cardboard, and a spectacular Thai Buddhist manuscript with letters in black tree bark resin against a red resin background, all upon gold-lacquered palm fronds, are among the more noteworthy manuscripts in the East Asian section.

Alwan also has a vast collection of some 3,000 19th century photographs of sites from Teheran to Tangiers, many for sale at under $100. He also sells various articles he acquires at shops or auctions, such as old water pipes from India and Afghanistan at $400 each.

Rare stereoscopic slides, which create a three-dimensional image when viewed through a special viewer, dating from 1890 to 1910, are also on sale, with sets of 30 to 100 slides priced at $150 or more.

Benjamin Steele is the only employee of the World Wide Antiquarian. A musician, Steele became interested in Arab music and decided to study classical Arabic. Alwan was his teacher.

Originally from Baghdad, Alwan explained that although his parents pushed him to earn a BA in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester, England, he has never worked in that field.

“My first love was literature,” Alwan said. “Thank goodness I’m back in it. I did not work a single day as an engineer.”

He received an MA in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Indiana, where he specialized in English and French influences on Arabic literature. Alwan taught at several universities, including Harvard, before settling at Tufts.

Noting that his parents considered literature impractical, Alwan said, “I was not so much looking for sustenance. I was looking for beauty. Beauty in language, beauty in art, beauty in life.”

The World Wide Antiquarian is only open by appointment. Books may also be ordered by mail or over the Internet. For a catalog, call (617) 876-6220; fax: (617) 876-0839; E-mail: mbalwan@aol.com.

David P. Johnson Jr. is a Boston-based freelance writer specializing in international relations.