Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, Page 137

Bulletin Board

Compiled by Janet McMahon

50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIONS

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has announced an updated itinerary for the national tour of a Palestinian quilt representing each of the 418 villages destroyed by Israel in 1948. The quilt will be unveiled May 15 in front of U.N. headquarters in New York, and will then travel to Los Angeles, May 17; San Francisco, May 19; Houston, May 21; Jacksonville, May 24; Knoxville, May 26; Chicago, May 29; Detroit, May 31; Cleveland, June 6, culminating in a major rally in Washington, DC on June 14, the last day of the ADC National Convention. For more information, or to contribute to the project, contact Ferial Polhill at ADC, 4201 Connecticut Ave. NW, #300, Washington, DC 20008, phone (202) 244-2990, fax (202) 244-3196, e-mail adc@adc.org, Web site http://www.adc.org

The Arabic Club of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and ADC are co-sponsoring a month-long series on “50 Years of Occupation,” including panels on human rights, April 6 at 6:30 p.m., Gaston Hall; the Deir Yassin Massacre, April 7, 4 p.m., Gaston Hall; Selective Morality I: U.S. Policy Yesterday, April 17, 6:30 p.m., ICC Auditorium; Selective Morality II, U.S. Policy Today, April 19, 7:15 p.m., ICC Auditorium; Your Tax Money at Work: U.S. Aid to Israel, April 21, 4 p.m., Gaston Hall; Narrating the Diaspora, lecture on Palestinian literature by Lisa Majjaj, April 23, 6 p.m., ICC 141, and showing of the film “Jerusalem: An Occupation Set in Stone” and discussion with film maker Marty Rosenbluth at 7 p.m., ICC 101; Zionism and Its Discontents, April 28, 3 p.m., Gas ton Hall; and Facts, Lies and Videotapes: Media Reporting, April 29, 6:30 p.m., Gaston Hall. Palestinian Authority minister Dr. Hanan Ashrawi will give an address at a date to be announced. For complete information, or to help defray expenses, contact the ADC Research Institute/GU Event, c/o the Arabic Club, 316 Leavey Center, Box 571075, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, e-mail 050yrs@hotmail.com, Web site http://www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/ccas

LAW—the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment now has its own Internet domain. Its new e-mail address is law@lawsociety.org LAW’s Web site, at http://www.lawsociety.org, has a complementary site on the June 7-10 conference, “50 Years of Human Rights Violations: Palestinians Disposessed” (/conf), with an interactive agenda, online registration form and list of all confirmed speakers. LAW can also be reached at PO Box 20873, Jerusalem, and by phone at 011-972-2-5811072.

CONVENINGS

The University of Hawaii and Lee ward Community College’s International Education Committee present the 5th International Educational Festival, 1997-98 celebrating the “Year of Islam and the Muslim World,” with lectures, panels and a cultural festival featuring ethnic music, dancing and art exhibits. For more information contact Dr. Karim Khan, chairperson, International Education Committee, Leeward Community College, 96-045 Ala Ike St., Pearl City, HI 96782, phone (808) 455-0358, fax (808) 455-4071.

Global Exchange will conduct a fact-finding study to Palestine and Israel June 14-17. Participants, limited to 12, will visit peace activists, refugee camps, the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip. Cost is $2,800 including airfare from San Francisco ($1,900 land only). Applications with a non-refundable deposit of $200 are due by April 14 ($50 late fee). For information and application forms contact Shirabe Yamada at Global Exchange, 2017 Mission St., #303, San Francisco, CA 94410, phone (800) 497-1994 x242, fax (415) 255-7498, e-mail shirabe@globalexchange.org

DEATHS

Edward T. Penney, a retired U.S. Information Agency officer, died Feb. 19 of cancer at the Hospice of Northern Virginia at the age of 63. A native of Illinois and graduate of Northwestern University, he joined the USIA in 1962 after serving in the Navy. He served as director of North African, Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, and as director of the USIA’s press and publications service. Earlier posts included India, Lebanon, Egypt and Algeria, the National Security Council and National War College. Survivors include his wife, Mary Clare Penney, four daughters, a sister and five grandchildren.

Frances McStay Adams, a journalist and civil rights activist, died Feb. 9 at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC of an acute arterial blockage at the age of 83. Born in Minneapolis, she majored in journalism at the University of Minnesota and moved to Washington, DC in 1941when her husband, J. Wesley Adams, Jr., joined the State Department. Accompanying him to posts in Ecuador, Egypt, India, England, Iraq, Jordan and Pakistan, she was involved in journalism, education, public health and refugee relief projects from 1942 to 1970. Returning permanently to Washington in 1971, she was director of international programs for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities until 1974 and also worked as an independent consultant. Her husband died in 1989. She is survived by their three children and three grandchildren.

Nazim al-Kudsi, an Arab nationalist who ruled Syria from 1961 to 1963, died Feb. 6 in Jordan, at the age of 91. A member of the influential National Bloc, he was appointed foreign minister in 1950 and prime minister later that year. He ruled Syria following the dissolution of its short-lived union with Egypt, until falling to a bloodless coup led by Col. Ziad Harira, aided by the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, still in power today. He had lived in Jordan since 1986.

The Rev. Joseph L. Ryan, an educator and outspoken Middle East activist in the Boston area, died in February at Campion Center in Weston, MA. Father Ryan entered the Jesuit Order in 1938 and, after completing his studies at Weston College, taught for three years at the Jesuits’ Baghdad College. After further studies he returned to Baghdad, where he helped plan Al-Hikma University, remaining as dean and academic vice president until 1968. From 1971 to 1975 he served as associate of the Center for the Study of the Modern Arab World at Beirut’s St. Joseph University, and was director of the Pontifical Mission to Palestine from 1984 to 1990. The author of numerous articles on the Middle East and a member of a number of professional organizations, he testified before congressional committees on anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and delivered a paper on Palestinian rights at the United Nations. He had received awards from the Arab American University Graduates and the American Arabic Association for his lifelong contributions to the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East.