May/June 1996, pgs. 62-68

Arab-American Activism

ADC Convention Panelists Share View of Peace Process

The 1996 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s 16th Annual Convention was highlighted by discussions between some of the most respected Arab and Arab-American policy analysts in the world. The last of these panel discussions, entitled “Arab Perspectives in the Peace Process,” allowed these thinkers to give their overall view of Arab-Israeli relations.

The panelists, however, were not encouraged by recent events, and all had a bleak assessment of a peaceful settlement to Israeli-Arab disputes.

“This is a surrender, not a peace,” said Georgetown Professor Halim Barakat of the Oslo accords. “They [the PLO] did not sign an agreement, but rather succumbed to Israeli demands.” He said Syria is the only one of the nations bordering Israel that has not yielded to Israeli pressure. The other countries have acted only in their own self-interest, Barakat added, with “total disregard” to justice. “Syria has not reached an agreement because it insists on parity and self-respect,” he said.

Barakat also expressed his outrage over the Israeli shelling that had killed 92 Lebanese civilians in a United Nations shelter just three days earlier. He said that the lack of condemnation by the Israelis and the United States shows a complete disregard for Arab interests. “Arab security is not taken into account...neither is the well-being of their countries or their societies,” Barakat said. “The unstated aim of Israel has been to drive a wedge in Lebanese society. They are creating divisive conditions by attacking airports and water supplies and sooner or later [the Lebanese] will start blaming Palestinians for their troubles.”

Former Egyptian diplomat Tahseen Bashir added that the absence of U.S. criticism of the bombings demonstrates that America is not qualified to mediate in the peace process. He said that America’s blind support for Israel, regardless of its actions, is a major barrier to peace agreements. “How can we work for an honest peace if the United States is not an honest broker?” Bashir asked.

He added, however, that there is really no alternative to the peace process for Palestinians or for Israel’s Arab neighbors. Without an agreement with Israel, the economic and social stability of these countries will always be tenuous. “Anti-peace talk is ridiculous,” he said. “It refers to a time that no longer exists.”

Adnan Abu-Odeh, a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute for Peace, said the power of the bordering nations and the Palestinians was further marginalized by the Gulf war in 1991. He said this conflict established close relations between the United States and the Gulf countries and also helped normalize relations between the Gulf and Israel. This makes a peace agreement much more crucial for the Arab states bordering Israel because they no longer have the Gulf countries to support them. “While these relations [between the Gulf states and Israel] were being made, the center was being pushed out,” Abu-Odeh said, adding that this separation of the Arab countries is one of the “most serious” problems the Arab world is facing.

—Geoff Lumetta

AAI Calls for Justice in Anti-Terrorism Campaign

The Arab American Institute called an emergency summit of Arab-American leaders March 29 to discuss a series of events that were leading to a breakdown in the Arab-Israeli peace process and hostile treatment of Arabs and Muslims in the United States. The summit was called to curb the backlash that followed the four terrorist bombings that killed 58 Israelis earlier that month, but before Israel’s “Operation Grapes of Wrath” attack against Lebanon.

Actions taken after the sucide bombings in Israel included the closure and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza, the suspension of Israeli-Syrian peace talks, the escalation of conflict in southern Lebanon, and continuing attacks on the civil rights of American Arabs and Muslims.

“If left unchecked, these developments could have a disastrous effect on the future prospects for peace and coexistence in the region,” said AAI President James J. Zogby. He said that he and all Arab-American leaders are “opposed to terrorism in all forms,” and that “Terrorism is to be condemned and its perpetrators and organizers brought to justice.”

In addition to the bombings in Israel, Zogby said this terrorism includes the collective punishment of Palestinians in the occupied territories, and the infringement of the civil rights of Arab and Muslim Americans who were being accused of sponsoring terrorism. “It is imperative that anti-terror campaigns—whether carried out by Israel, the Palestine National Authority or here in the United States—be respectful of internationally recognized norms of human rights and the rule of law,” Zogby said.

He and other Arab-American leaders are calling for an emergency appropriation of $100 million to the West Bank and Gaza to help Palestinians affected by the Israeli blockade. The $100 million would come from the United States, the World Bank and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). “Emergency funds have to be made available to the Palestinians to create 100,000 public works jobs to get them through to June,” Zogby told a Washington Times reporter March 27. “People need money in their pockets; they have to feed their families…This requires an emergency crisis response.”

During the March 29 summit meeting, Zogby said that the $100 million given to Israel to help fight terrorism is important, but helping the Palestinians is also crucial to peace. “While we understood efforts by the administration to restore Israeli confidence in their security and the peace process, we are concerned that little has been done to similarly boost Palestinian confidence in the benefits of this process,” he said.

The United States has not yet agreed to provide the $100 million in aid to the Palestinians.

—Geoff Lumetta

Naila Asali Elected New ADC Chairperson

The Board of Directors of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) elected Naila Asali as chairperson of ADC to succeed Hamzi K. Moghrabi. Asali, who has been on the ADC Board of Directors for several years, is a civil rights activist both at the local and national levels.

“I have full confidence in Naila Asali and I wish her success in her new position,” Moghrabi said. “I know that she will lead ADC toward the fulfillment of its goals. As my term has come to an end, I thank [members of] the Arab-American community for their support of ADC and I trust in their continued support under the leadership of Ms. Asali. I remain fully dedicated to the mission of the ADC and will continue to promote its goals to the best of my abilities. I am content that the ADC is now in good hands and I lend my full-hearted support to Naila and to the ADC staff.”

Asali is currently the president of Harmony, Inc., a real estate development company in Illinois. She has held a variety of positions—from accountant to software consultant to research assistant. She has a Certified Public Accountant degree from the University of Illinois and a master’s in mathematical systems from the University of Illinois in Springfield. Her first degree was in chemistry from the American University in Beirut.

—Geoff Lumetta

ADC Issues 1995 Report on Anti-Arab Racism

Discrimination against Arab Americans continued unabated during 1995 and peaked in the days following the Oklahoma City bombing, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) annual report on racism.

The ADC issued a final version of its 1995 Report on Anti-Arab Racism: Hate Crimes, Discrimination and Defamation of Arab Americans. A preliminary copy of the study was submitted to the Department of State to be included in its report on the U.S. implementation of the United Nations Convention on Racism.

According to the ADC report, the problems confronting Arab Americans “range from the indignity of racial, ethnic and religious slurs to discrimination in the workplace to life-threatening hate crimes.” The report added that 1995 saw “the largest outbreak of anti-Arab harassment, threats, intimidation and violence in response to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City” in April 1995, as the media rushed to point the blame at Arabs and Muslims. “At least 222 incidents of harassment were reported in a three-day period,” the ADC said. Although the prime suspects in this act of terrorism are neither Arab nor Muslim, efforts to pass a counter-terrorism bill in the aftermath of the bombing “brought a renewed threat of unconstitutional restrictions on the civil liberties of Arab Americans.”

ADC reported incidents of police brutality and harassment by police, airlines and enforcement agencies. “To a great extent, it appears that when discrimination takes place against Arabs and Muslims, courts have difficulty identifying it as discrimination,” the report argued. “Courts also often fail to treat anti-Arab or anti-Muslim discrimination with the same gravity with which they would treat discrimination against other minorities or ethnic groups.”

Stereotyping and defamation in the media and the corporate world only serve to compound the problem of anti-Arab racism by perpetuating negative images of Arabs, evident in films such as “True Lies” and “Executive Decision,” products such as an Arab monster Halloween mask, and slanted news coverage of Middle Eastern issues, the report said. Such images not only serve to denigrate Arabs and Muslims, “but also contribute to a climate of suspicion and distrust for Arab Americans and Arabs residing in the United States.”

Copies of the report can be purchased for $4 from ADC by calling (202)244-2990.

—Geoff Lumetta

ADC in Multiethnic Dialogue With Los Angleles Press

The Media Image Coalition (MIC) seminar led by the Los Angeles chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) brought organizations representing several ethnic communities into dialogue with representatives from the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, Time magazine, and Eastern Group Publications. The seminar, entitled “Multicultural Los Angeles: Who and What You Need to Know,” was held in February at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

ADC past president and MIC co-president Don Bustany introduced the educational seminar for journalists and journalism students. He described its goal as an attempt “to communicate to the press what we percieve as problems in your perception of us.”

Joe Hicks, executive director of Multicultural Collaborative, accused the press of underreporting multiethnic efforts and of overemphasizing the negative. He spoke of a recent charity effort organized by a group of Hispanic youths. The event, to which the press was invited, went unreported. “If those same kids had been involved in a violent gang action, you can bet the press would have been right there,” Hicks said.

Sonny Skyhawk, president of American Indians in Film, saw the press portraying American Indians as a “vanishing race.” He reminded the audience that in Southern California alone there are 250,000 Indians. He added that throughout the United States there are 29 Indian colleges, and one Indian senator. “Far from being a vanishing race, we are very much a presence,” Skyhawk said.

Dr. Fadwa E1 Guindi, an anthropologist and past ADC president, offered examples of anti-Arab bias taken from recent issues of the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and other Southern California metropolitan dailies.

“Press biases are not always obvious,” said E1 Guindi. “Electronic media biases are more obvious. But language creates a strong reality which then takes on a permanence.

“In our homelands, we thought that we had 6,000 years of recorded history,” she pointed out. In America, however, we find that we are only a reference point for Israel called ‘Israel and its neighbors.’ Israel has existed only since 1948.”

Referring to recently published stories, El Guindi observed that “some stories try to be positive, then introduce a backhanded insult.”

As an example, citing a recent positive story about the Christian Arab community in the San Gabriel Valley, she said, “Arabs are defined by their religion. If you find good Arabs, the implication is that they must be Christian. But what was the religious background of the (alleged) Oklahoma bomber?”

She also pointed to some biases in language usage: “Palestinian terrorist” versus “Israeli freedom fighter,” “conservative Jew” versus “Islamic fundamentalist.”

“According to F.B.I. statistics, Arab Americans have the lowest crimes rate of all American ethnic communities,” Dr. El Guindi said. “But, you wouldn’t know it from the media reportage.”

Referring to Skyhawk’s observation of press interest in Indian reservations and colorful headdresses, E1 Guindi also observed that “The Palestinians are going to be situated in enclosed areas, like reservations. The tourists can photograph them in their colorful keffiyehs.”

A separate panel on the press discussed the “Responsibilities of the press—to its readers and shareholders.”

Mark Barnhill, assistant managing editor of the Daily News, noted that there is a problem with “lazy journalism.”

He admitted that most reporters are overly reliant on police blotters, the courts, and the government for stories and seldom reach past their basic contacts. Also, since the dailies get hundreds of press releases each day, many events that might be of interest are lost. His advice—“Just keep calling.”

Sandy Banks, assistant city editor of the L.A. Times, agreed that news reportage is slanted to the interests of the main body of readers and also reflects mainstream society’s attitudes. In her opinion, newspapers feel a severe identity crisis as a result of competing with the electronic media. She suggested that community leaders express their concerns directly to editors.

The keynote speaker was Rabbi Lee Bycel, president of the Los Angeles Commission on Human Relations. He used coverage of the civil disturbance by Ethiopian Jews in Israel to support his assertion that many reporters fail to understand the subtle and complex issues involved. In his opinion, reporters need more human relations training. He suggested the various ethnic communities work harder at supporting each others’ interests with the media.

“If I, as a Jewish leader, call an editor’s attention to an Hispanic issue, it’s going to make an impact,” he said. “In the best of democracies, every individual is valued and included.”

—Kari Sprowl