June 1989, Page 35a

Arabs and Islam

by Catherine M. Willford

Peacemaker Awards, "Days of Rage" at NAAA Convention

At the 17th annual convention of the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA), ambassadors to the US, El Sayed Abdel Raouf El Reedy of Egypt and Prince Bandar Bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, and representatives of Jordan and Sweden will receive awards recognizing the roles played by their countries in establishing the US-PLO dialogue. The convention, June 17-20 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, will include workshops on Middle East peace dialogue, humanitarian and economic assistance to Lebanon, and security and trade in the Arab Gulf states. A highlight of the convention will be a screening of Jo Franklin-Trout's "Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians." For further information contact NAAA's convention secretary at 202-467-4800.

PBS Postpones Intifada

A scheduled nation-wide telecast by PBS stations of Franklin-Trout's program on the Palestinian intifada has been rescheduled from June 5, the 22nd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, to next Sept. 6. The documentary was produced and directed by Jo Franklin-Trout, who has also prepared a successful four-part series on Saudi Arabia and a three part series on the Arab states of the Gulf, both shown on public television stations nationwide.

Unable to find financial backing for the project to document the current uprising in Israeli-occupied territories, Franklin-Trout provided $180,000 of her own funds. She produced what Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times described as "a powerful, well-made program" and "a catalog of Palestinian horror stories of broken bodies and villages, of deep emotional scars, of squalid refugee camps, of collective punishment, of charges of Israeli brutality."

When Vice President Chloe Aaron of WNYC withdrew her station's commitment to serve as the documentary's original presenting station, New York's WNET offered to become the presenting station, but delayed the telecast until September. It was the third time the presentation has been postponed in five months. Two days after the story was reported in the Washington Post, Faris Bouhafa, media director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), met with PBS officials Gail Christian and Barry Chase. Although Aaron made no secret of the fact that her decision to withdraw WNYC's sponsorship was because she disagreed with the documentary's contents, Bouhafa said that he has "every reason to believe that WNET is enthusiastically committed to the broadcast on Sept. 6." Christian, director of news for PBS, insists that the delay will benefit "Days of Rage," as viewership is higher in the fall. ADC will be involved in production of a panel discussion scheduled to follow the program.

NAAA Representative Testifies On Foreign Aid

Senior Consultant George Moses of NAAA testified in favor of increased aid to Lebanon and Jordan, as well as a grant of food aid to Jordan for fiscal year 1990, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Moses deplored the Bush administration's planned reduction of aid for the occupied West Bank and Gaza from $15 million to $12 million, in light of the severe economic strains resulting from the Israeli crackdown on opposition to its military occupation. Moses said private economic development has been a major casualty of the military occupation.

Palestinians are denied permission to dig new wells and sell their produce, and they are discouraged in their attempts to form cooperatives, Moses said. Palestinians are in greater need of assistance than ever before, due to King Hussein's cancellation of the Jordan West Bank/Gaza Development Program.

"Please bear in mind that the most prominent US presence in the West Bank and Gaza during the uprising has been the American-manufactured military equipment, tear gas, and munitions of the Israeli army" Moses told the senators. "For many Palestinians, rightly or wrongly, this equipment is the most tangible expression of America's intentions in the occupied territories."

Moses also described as "far too high" the $3 billion in aid requested for Israel, an outlay by US taxpayers of $710 for each of Israel's 4.2 million people. Continued US aid to Israel, despite its human rights abuses in the territories, including killings, detentions without trial, deportations and house demolitions, Moses said, attests "to our government's failure to insist that Israel uphold basic standards of decency."

The NAAA representative said his organization was again calling upon the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to fulfill its oversight responsibilities under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 by holding immediate hearings on the human rights abuses by Israel documented both by the State Department and Amnesty International.

Moses said that under the legal theory of complicity, recognized in US civil and criminal law as well as international law, failure to take vigorous action to stop these abuses "tends to create a level of guilt equal to that of the perpetrators." He described the Shamir government's call for elections in the territories as "a device for the purpose of perpetuating the military occupation." The effect, Moses said, will be "to stall any lessening of Israeli violence against Palestinians while we in the West debate the placement of ballot boxes and colors permitted for campaign posters."

NAAA, Moses said, hopes the Bush administration will adopt policies that recognize and uphold the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis, instead of "a one-sided and anti-Palestinian approach" which "undermines both Palestinian and Israeli moderates and in the end defeats any real hope for peace."

Lebanese Americans Meet with Bush

More than 4,000 Lebanese and Lebanese Americans held a rally in Washington DC's Lafayette Park while a delegation of Lebanese leaders met in the White House with President Bush on April 21. Led by Lebanese Ambassador Abdullah Bouhabib and the Maronite archbishop in the US, Francis Zayek, delegates urged the president to take action on the current crisis in Lebanon.

Outside the White House, demonstrators chanted "Syria Out of Lebanon" and "President Bush, Save Lebanon." Robert Farah, executive director of the Lebanese Information and Research Center, said the demonstration's intent was to "make the public aware of the plight of Lebanon-to get across through the media and to the administration that American Lebanese from Maine to California are really angry about the intensity of the shelling. . and the slow action of the US administration ' " Farah stated that during the meeting Bush expressed concern about "the suffering of the Lebanese."

AAI Joins Housing March, Begins Voter Registry

The Arab American Institute (AAI) has joined a national coaltion effort working to focus national attention on the plight of the homeless and the lack of affordable housing in the United States.

As part of its "Agenda for the 90s" program, AAI is planning to compile a nationwide National Arab American Voter Registry, a computerized record of Arab American electoral activity. The registry project's primary goal is to increase Arab-American Voter registration.

Catherine Willford, the circulation director for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, is a free-lance writer.