Two Kinds of Parades Commemorate "Desert Storm"

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Two kinds of parades commemorating the conclusion of Desert Storm were held May 19 in Southern California. The first was organized by honorary mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant, who visited Saudi Arabia last October to arrange entertainment for the troops. Participating in his "Welcome Home Desert Storm" were 4,000 troops back from the Gulf, some 2,000 veterans of other wars, and lots of military hardware.

The second parade involved critics of the first one. Among them was Father Chris Ponnet, associate pastor of Our Lady of Assumption Church in Claremont, CA. The Catholic priest chose May 1 as the date to begin a protest fast "to symbolize the evil similarities between the Soviet Union's now defunct May Day parade, displaying missiles and arms in Red Square, and Hollywood's new-found pride in American weaponry."

So while Father Ponnet fasted and Johnny Grant gathered more and more branches of the military to display their high-tech weapons, peace activists began planning a candlelight vigil at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to commemorate the lives lost in the Gulf.

Under normal circumstances, the city of Pasadena would have taken special note of 1,500 demonstrators, all dressed in black, walking four abreast in a line three blocks long. But at the same time, an estimated one million spectators lined Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards to view Patriot missile launchers, tanks, weaponry and a 47- by 82-foot American flag carried by uniformed Marines, as Stealth bombers shrieked overhead.

Participants in the Pasadena vigil remarked on the spiritual catharsis of mourning the war dead, who have gone all but unnoticed in the US. The event was sponsored by the Religious Community Against War in the Persian Gulf, with much of the organizing done by the Rev. Dr. George Regas, rector of All Saints Church.

The peace procession marched to the solemn beat of a solitary drummer, followed by four men carrying a coffin. The coffin was placed at the entrance of Pasadena City Hall and covered with flowers. Unleavened bread was distributed as Father Ponnet broke his 19-day fast and addressed the group. "There is a time when silence is evil," he said, "and when the denial of death (a death toll) is wrong."

Dymally Speaks Out

More than 1,000 guests were on hand for the May 25 banquet capping the Union of Palestinian Women's Associations' national convention in Los Angeles, and the Stouffer Concourse Hotel's rafters rocked with applause for a brief speech by Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-CA).

Rep. Dymally told his audience that he at first had considered not addressing the group because he felt he had failed the Palestinians. He was referring to his effort to get an additional $9 million added to a total of $16 million in aid proposed for the Palestinians of the West Bank.

"We lost by one vote on May 22, " Dymally said, "when that Likud Party member of Congress from New York voted against it. " Rep. Dymally said he approached Rep. Benjamin Gilman (D-NY) and told him, "You've got some damned nerve when you get $3 billion in an unquestioned check for Israel and you oppose $9 million for the Palestinians who are hurting and deserve aid.

"How can you take $9 million away from a persecuted people and then ask for $400 million to resettle Soviet Jews and $650 million to compensate Israel for Scud attacks? Where is your sense of justice?"

The convention also featured West Bankers Dr. Nahla Asali, speaking on the intifada, and Halima. Ibrahim, who described conditions of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons. More than $14,000 was raised for projects in Gaza and the West Bank.

NAAA Stages Forums

Middle East problems were addressed simultaneously from the viewpoints of a philosopher, ajournalist, an historian and a political analyst at the April 30 first Awareness Forum sponsored by the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Arab Americans.

Occidental College Middle East history professor Brice Harris urged the Palestine Liberation Organization to hold elections, form a new leadership and call Israel's bluff as to who is willing or unwilling to sit down at a negotiating table.

"World opinion is tired of the conflict, he said. "If nothing happens now, we will see creeping (Israeli) annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, an intensified economic squeeze and a slow resettlement of Soviet Jews in the territories."

Hence, Dr. Harris called for the Palestine National Council to promote Chairman Yasser Arafat to an honored position of executive president and proceed with elections for a new working leadership to widen the door for better acceptance by the American public. Harris believes the new leadership should make a clear statement on the pre-1967 boundaries and thereby make it obvious to the world that it is the Arabs who are ready to talk peace, not the Israelis.

Prof. Michael Emery, who teaches journalism at California State University at Northridge and who writes frequently about the Middle East, discussed "What's Next for the Palestinians."

Commenting that all is not lost for the Palestinians, Emery said: "Secretary of State James Baker resents Israel's intransigence. Don't forget, this isn't Reagan's group. This is a cold-blooded, pragmatic group that doesn't like to be pushed around. These guys come from Texas. They don't trust an Israel that puts up settlements in the middle of the night. The Palestinians are being treated equally by Baker, who gives them the same amount of time and respect that he does for the Israelis.

Dr. Joseph Kichichian, a Middle East specialist at the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp., said there is now a unipolar world in which only one power counts.

"The destruction of Iraq means no Arab government will dare take the same risk of standing up to the US," Kichichian said.

According to Kichichian, the New Arab Order consists of the conservative Gulf states plus Egypt and Syria. Terming this the "GCC plus two," he noted that many Arab countries have been left out.

"The haves versus the have-nots is a reality, " he continued. "In Saudi Arabia, per capita income is $20,000, in contrast to $600 in Yemen. This is an untenable situation for the GCC plus two."

Jerusalem Physician Accuses Israelis

While world attention was focused on the Persian Gulf, the Israelis have been turning up the heat on Palestinians by depriving them of health care as a weapon to halt the intifada.

This is the charge of Dr. Umaiyah Khammash, a Jerusalem-based physician and president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC). Dr. Khammash spoke in Los Angeles April 25 as part of an emergency trip to the US.

Dr. Khammash said observers from the World Health Organization and related agencies left the occupied West Bank and Gaza when the air war in the Gulf began in mid January. This enabled the Israelis to intensify human rights violations without fear of criticism, he explained.

"We are now seeing real cases of malnutrition," Dr. Khammash said. "Whereas some malnutrition occurred in the Jordan Valley in the past, approximately 40 to 45 percent of Palestinian children under six years of age suffer malnutrition in Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem."

The direct reason for this is the absence of cheese, meat and milk in the diet because of the indirect cause—a 75 percent unemployment rate and lack of money to buy food.

Another cause of death among children is the absence of immunizations, owing to extended curfews and the inability of medical personnel to open clinics closed by the Israeli government. An outbreak of measles in March left 10 children dead.

The UPMRC is attempting to get delegations from Physicians for Human Rights and Physicians for Social Responsibility to investigate the deteriorating health system in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. In the meantime UPMRC, which comprises more than 1,000 health care professionals, including 350 physicians, has mobile units that offer home care treatment.

Anyone caring to donate to Palestinian Medical Relief Committees can send checks to Friends of UPMRC, PO Box 450554, Atlanta, GA 30345-0554.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.