World Affairs Council of Oregon Hosts Ron Young Lecture on Mideast Peace

by Elaine Kelley

The World Affairs Council of Oregon's "Great Decisions 1997" lecture series featured Ron Young, executive director of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, in Portland on March 4. Speaking on "Middle East Peace and the Changing Political Order," Young, author of Missed Opportunities for Peace, explained his view that the peace process should be a priority for the U.S. The Israeli-Arab conflict has been a major obstacle to regional stability and progress for decades, he said, but now there is a chance for a negotiated solution to the conflict.

"The role of the U.S. is ambiguous, but Arabs and Israelis acknowledge that a significant leadership role by the U.S. is essential," he said. "Historically, there is not one example of significant movement toward resolution in which the U.S. did not play an important role."

Young said with the peace process shaky and at times apparently finished, it is important to remember what it has accomplished. "Israel has withdrawn from most of Gaza and from Palestinian population centers on the West Bank, and there's a timetable for further Israeli withdrawals," he said.

"There's an elected Palestinian government on the ground in Palestine," he continued, "and Palestinians now are cooperating on security arrangements that only a few years ago would have seemed impossible. That's part of a process of normalization that's quite an extraordinary accomplishment."

Turning to Jerusalem and "these tough issues which remain," Young said, "I believe from my experience there's encouraging evidence both from official sources and from important second-track explorations that mutually acceptable solutions to the remaining issues are possible.

"People say there is no solution, and yet our committee last January took a group of Jewish and Muslim leaders out to Gaza to listen to Israelis and Palestinians who were in discussions, and we found people talking about possible solutions that were mutually acceptable. The difference in perception between the people out here and the people over there is that the people there have to solve the issues.

"Here they can continue to fight over them,"Young said. "Palestinian Americans and Jewish Americans or Jews, Christians and Muslims here who have loyalty to one side or the other can sit and argue all night about Jerusalem. But people over there don't want to sit in Taba forever."

Young, founder of an Interreligious Committee to advance peace by focusing on the core values of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, lives in Marysville, Washington. He travels all over the country and in Israel/Palestine speaking and meeting with groups interested in pursuing the peace process in the Middle East.

Jewish and Christian Zionists Disrupt Portland Seminar on Jabal Abu Ghneim

Representatives of the Oregon Jewish Federation and a controversial Christian group called Bridges for Peace distributed flyers calling for a "United Jerusalem" at Laurelwood United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, during a March 12 panel discussion about the controversial Har Homa settlement on Jabal Abu Ghneim in occupied East Jerusalem. The panel discussion protesting the settlement was organized by Laurelwood pastor Dan Simmons, an activist in Israeli/Palestinian peace issues, as part of a 100-city teach-in coordinated by the American Friends Service Committee.

Panelists included Dr. Jan Abu Shakrah, founder and former director of the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem; Mazen Malek, who is a Palestinian refugee; and the writer, who lived adjacent to Abu Ghneim in Beit Sahour for two years. About 30 people attended in addition to the eight pro-Likud demonstrators.

The Jewish Federation group passed out transcripts of a radio program aired last October on Arutz-7, Israel's only independent national radio station. Entitled "Basic Truths on the Mideast Conflict," by Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, it claimed Israel for the Jews as an inheritance of their forefathers, and described the presence of Palestinians in Israel as the result of Jewish sins. "Because of our sins we were exiled from our Land, and foreigners came to dwell here without our consent and against our will," the transcript read. "But we never surrendered our claim to the Land." The transcript also insisted that Hebron must remain in Jewish hands "because Hevron, just as the rest of the Land, is, very simply, ours."

During the pro-peace teach-in, which included a video provided by AFSC on Palestinian housing issues in East Jerusalem, the Zionist demonstrators, carrying the flags of the U.S. and Israel, disrupted the introductions of speakers by Pastor Simmons with outbursts and accusations against the panelists.

At the outset of Dr. Abu Shakrah's presentation on East Jerusalem Arab population figures. a protestor shouted, "Lies! Lies!" Even after Abu Shakrah explained that the figures were from official Israeli government sources, demonstrators continued with personal disparagements against the speakers.

When Pastor Simmons told one particularly loud and belligerent demonstrator that he was welcome, but must either allow the panelists to speak or leave the church, the demonstrator angrily refused and shouted, "I'll leave when I'm ready to."

Mazen Malek discussed his exile from Palestine, the historical diversity of Jerusalem and recent Jewish expansions in the city amidst repeated interruptions by protestors, and the writer was denounced as a liar while relating stories of evening walks with Palestinian friends and their children in the biblical Shepherds' Field, situated at the foot of the mountain known as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

Portland Refugee Workshop

A workshop on refugees was held at Portland State University on March 15. It was sponsored by The World Affairs Council of Oregon, Portland Public Schools and the Middle East Studies Center of Portland State University, and supported by a dozen local groups, including the International Refugee Center of Oregon, the Muslim Educational Trust, the Oregon Multicultural Education Association, and the Refugee/ Immigrant Consortium of Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Presenting an "Overview of Refugee Issues and Challenges," Salah Ansary, an Afghan refugee, described the armed violence, malnutrition, and collapse of the social fabric in his country.

The workshop included panel presentations by representatives of organizations providing assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons. Rachel Lieber of Mercy Corps International spoke of humanitarian assistance in Bosnia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon, and Mercy Corps' priority of helping local organizations with training and education to provide services to their own people. Paul Duong of the City of Portland Refugee Immigrant Program and Victoria Libov of the International Refugee Center of Oregon described programs and services available for refugees living in Oregon.

Another panel consisting of refugees included Anita Chimuku of Angola, Igor Masic of Bosnia, Saad Meman of Kurdistan and Anisa Jelle Mohamed of Somalia. All described the circumstances in their respective countries and the "personal passage" of a refugee in America.

Many resources for teachers working in the public school system to educate children from diverse backgrounds were described at the workshop.

The Oregon Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, established two years ago to counter the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S., presented "Speakers Bureau Training" sessions during April on unique issues facing immigrants, refugees and undocumented individuals throughout the United States. The training was designed to prepare speakers to share information with families, organizations and communities.

Northwest Model Arab League Convenes in Lacey, Washington

The Model Arab League, a nationwide leadership development program sponsored by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations for the benefit of college and university students, held its Northwest regional meeting at St. Martin's College in Lacey, Washington, March 27-29.

The MAL offers college students in any field of study an opportunity to develop their writing, speaking and negotiating skills through advanced research and study of a Middle East country which they will represent as a delegate at the Model Arab League.

The keynote address was given by Dr. Jan Abu Shakrah, who founded and for nine years directed the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem. In her talk on "Rewriting the Arab Agenda: Putting People's Needs First in the Aftermath of the 1991 Disaster," she invited delegates to "read behind the headlines," and to find "the other side of the story the people's story." She stated that with few exceptions news reports on Israeli settlement expansion, summit meetings and shuttle diplomacy all reflect U.S. bias and focus on the leaders' and states' interests rather than on people's needs, and suggested that delegates "might begin to ask the right questions."

Final draft resolutions discussed in the Model Arab League's Palestinian Affairs Committee focused on Israel's settlement building in East Jerusalem, on the attack on Israeli schoolgirls by a Jordanian soldier, on improving the Palestinian economy and the plight of Palestinian refugees.

All delegations submitted draft resolutions condemning Israel for its settlement policy at Har Homa. The Kuwait delegation also proposed that "Arab states encourage Israel to relinquish control of the new Israeli settlements in Jerusalem to provide housing for displaced Palestinian refugees."

Model Arab League alumni qualify for study trips abroad sponsored by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. One group currently is traveling in Kuwait. Summer 1997 programs include a six-week study visit to Syria and a three-week visit to Morocco. In the fall a group from Portland State University will study in Yemen. The Council also offers summer internships and seminars.

4th Annual Muslim Educational Trust Conference

Dr. Jamal Badawi, president of the Islamic Information Foundation, was the keynote speaker at the 4th Annual Educational Conference of the Muslim Educational Trust at Portland State University on April 4 and 5. Dr. Badawi is a consulting scholar of the MET who is from Egypt and is currently living in Halifax, Canada, where he is a professor of management at St. Mary's University. He is the author of several articles on Islam and has lectured in many countries. His series "Islam in Focus" has been distributed to 35 countries.

The two-day event included lectures by other presenters, including Dr. Sulayman Nyang of Howard University and the American Muslim Council and Sr. Ama Shabazz of the Council of Islamic Schools of North America, both speaking on "The Muslim Identity and the Challenges for Assimilation." Other events included a youth workshop covering "Islamic Art and Calligraphy," a bazaar featuring books, scents and Astrolabe pictures, and a community dinner with a lecture by Dr. Abdulla Idris of the Islamic Society of North America speaking on "Islamic Education: Where There is a Will, There is a Way."