Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1998, Pages 65-69

California Chronicle

Faisal Husseini and Syrian Ambassador Walid Mualem Visit Los Angeles for Major Speeches

By Pat and Samir Twair

The future of Jerusalem, the pending announcement of a Palestinian state and alternatives to the failed peace process were foremost on Faisal Husseini’s mind when he made a whirlwind tour of Southern California May 13 to 17.

In an exclusive interview with the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, the Palestine National Authority’s minister without portfolio in Jerusalem said that Jerusalem could become the black hole of the Middle East if the Israelis continue to block all Palestinian efforts for statehood.

Stating that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been allowed to fatally wound the peace process, Husseini said “all that is left is for the United States, the Palestinians or the Israelis to shoot the final bullet into it.

“At this point, the PNA must make the decision to announce the establishment of a Palestinian state no matter how Israel reacts,” he added.

The Palestinians must first have worldwide support for statehood, Husseini stressed, pointing out that the Palestinian leadership is working hard to gain international approval.

“We are preparing for the inevitable reaction by the Israelis, who will invade our cities when we announce statehood,” he said. “They will try to regain control of all our land and lay siege to it, but we will be ready.”

Husseini is a living symbol of Jerusalem. His father, Abdel Qader Husseini, was the military leader of the Palestinians in 1948 and was killed that year in a pivotal battle with Israeli forces. His great-uncle, Haj Amin Husseini, was Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti from 1921 to 1948. A family guest house in East Jerusalem is Orient House, a building in which Husseini receives foreign dignitaries, to the immense displeasure of the Israeli government. He headed the Palestinian team to the Middle East peace conference in Madrid and has been a central figure in peace talks with the Israelis.

“As Palestinians, we chose the peace process because we thought it was the best choice,” he said. “But this is not the only option. Other decisions would be painful and expensive, but they are available. The Israelis should be aware that Netanyahu is dead wrong if he thinks peace is the only option. When we chose the peace process, we did so to save the blood of our children and the blood of Israeli children. We want a better future for all the people of the Middle East and everyone should understand this.”

In addition to being interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and speaking at the University of California at Irvine, Husseini met with leaders of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and appeared on Jewish network television. He also met with members of the Arab-American community at the Jerusalem Restaurant in Anaheim, where the program was in Arabic.

After listening to several very long poems, the crowd was restless. The soft-spoken diplomat commented that he felt as if he were back in Ramallah. He cautioned those on hand to learn English and participate in the American system. “How many of you here called the White House or wrote a letter to Hillary Clinton praising her for publicly stating there should be a Palestinian state?” he asked.

He warned that statehood could come in many forms. Referring to what he called the Bosnian and Armenian experiments, he said Armenia remained within the Soviet Union for 75 years before it gained independence. “Israel is trying to fragment the Palestinians into small cantons much the way the Serbs are separating the Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim Serbs.”

Husseini’s visit was capped with an appearance at the annual honorary reception of the Dar El Tifl Committee at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel. Dar El Tifl is an orphanage for Palestinian children. The Dar El Tifl Committee is chaired by Dalal Muhtadi, Husseini’s niece.

“No matter what the Israelis have perpetrated over 31 years of occupation, East Jerusalem is still an Arab city,” he declared. “Despite deportations, over-taxation, isolation of our institutions and forbidding West Bank and Gazan Palestinians from entering Jerusalem—even though Jews from anywhere in the world are welcome—we are still there on the ground.”

When asked why the Palestinians are willing to settle for 13 percent of the land when they originally expected 30 percent, he replied: “We agreed to the U.S. figure of 13 percent because we would have been blamed for halting the peace process if we insisted on the 30 percent. We need that 13 percent to link our areas.

“We must be ready for that moment—which will come sooner or later—when we will have full independence. New maps are drawn in each century. Maybe we lost our opportunity in the 20th century but we will take it in the 21st century and we will have a Palestine on the map.”

Activities of the Dar El Tifl Committee during the last year were reviewed by Muhtadi, who explained the organization will also start functioning under the name of International Children Foundation. DETC/ICF is co-sponsoring the Orphan's Welfare Association in Sidon, Lebanon, which is a boarding school and rehabilitation center for 800 orphaned, blind and handicapped children; the Mercy Association for Children in Gaza, which cares for 30 orphaned infants; the Care for Martyrs' Families Association in Amman, which houses 65 orphans; and Dar El Tifl, which has sheltered and educated 1,500 orphans annually since 1948.

DETC/ICF has established an office in Anaheim and completed its Zakat Project of raising $12,000 for the four above-mentioned orphanages. In one month, it raised $21,000 for food, which board member Anwar Zatar traveled to Iraq to distribute to 4,607 families. The organization is working on phase two of sending powdered milk and phase three of transporting medical supplies to Iraq. It also sponsors a Young Scientist Project which identifies gifted students in Palestine and enables them to carry out experiments at al-Muntada Center in Ramallah.

For more information, write to DETC/ICF at 800 S. Brookhurst #1G, Anaheim, CA 92804 or e-mail: detc@nayzak.com

Muslims Unite for Jerusalem

An overflow crowd of more than 1,200 Muslims from 40 masjids and organizations in Southern California set an historical precedent when they staged an emergency program on Jerusalem in the Sequoia Conference Center in Buena Park. Keynote speakers for the “United for al-Quds” program were former Congressman and author Paul Findley and Ousama Mohammad, executive director of the Islamic Association for Palestine.

Thanks to the careful planning of Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Southern California Council on American-Islamic Relations, the five-hour program ran smoothly and professionally.

Findley noted the session was the largest assembly of Muslims he had ever addressed. He emphasized the importance for Muslims to flex their political power and to battle malicious, harmful negative stereotypes that are victimizing them throughout the United States.

The author of They Dare to Speak Out distributed a handout he has prepared as an introduction to Islam. He urged the audience to make copies and give them to uninformed friends or neighbors. One word of advice was to forget about recommending books on Islam because people don’t read much, but would read a flier.

Commenting that Americans believe in human rights, decency and justice for the underdog, Findley said this is the approach that should be used to tell the Arab side of the Middle East controversy. He pointed out that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has a magazine subscription list of 50,000 but the hard core of zealots that propel the Zionist cause in the U.S. is probably fewer than 5,000 individuals. Muslims should follow their example of organizing an effective network by spending time and money to support their cause.

“Because of the dogged persistence of this tiny band of Americans, the U.S. government provides the critical lifeline of financial, economic, military and political support to a nation that routinely violates America’s most cherished principles,” Findley said. “Where Israel is concerned, America puts principle aside.”

“Our government’s complicity in the dreadful oppression of Arab human rights is one of the worst chapters in American history—a chapter that, so far, is little known by our citizens.”

Ignorance of what is truly happening in the Holy Land is the Muslims’ biggest enemy, he continued. Americans have no knowledge of the Palestinian diaspora and their forced expulsion from their land because of media censorship and the barrage of pro-Israeli propaganda from Christian Zionists. While Jews reportedly number no more than seven million in the U.S., there are 160 million Christians in the country and an estimated eight million Muslims. However, the Muslims virtually have no presence at all in politics, either locally or nationally.

“No Muslim serves in Congress, the president’s cabinet, the Supreme Court, federal courts or in any statewide elective office,” Findley said. “To my knowledge, only one Muslim is a member of a state legislature anywhere. To a sobering extent, the U.S. Muslim giant is asleep.”

Findley told the audience to take advantage of this election year and volunteer in campaigns of candidates they like. “And when I urge you to do this, I mean you, not the unnamed legion you expect to act on your behalf.”

He called on Muslims to get into the habit of taking the initiative and spreading the truth about Islam.

“The Israelis do dreadful things to Palestinians, most of whom are Muslims,” he said. Even when Americans hear about atrocities perpetrated against Palestinians by Israelis, they don’t protest and demand that they stop because they’ve been trained to rationalize Israeli brutality as the only means of handling “bloodthirsty” Muslims out to overrun them.

Findley urged the audience to seek opportunities to speak before church groups and emphasize the common goals of all monotheistic religions.

He asked the audience if any had written Hillary Clinton a thank-you note for her statement on Palestinian statehood.

“That was truly an historic statement. It is the first time any wife of a president has spoken for Palestinian statehood. Before you go to bed tonight, write that thank you to Hillary and a note to your congressman and your two senators asking them to speak out as Hillary did. All you need is a few words in each note.

“Think of it. Consider the impact if 500 people from the Los Angeles area were to write a letter to Hillary. If a similar flood comes from other parts of the nation, Hillary will surely tell her hubby, and President Clinton might even get up enough courage to support Palestinian statehood himself.”

Another rousing speech was offered by Osama Mohammad, who is editor of Azzaitouna and Muslim World Monitor newspapers.

“The Israelis have failed miserably in one thing: controlling the minds of the Palestinians,” he declared. “They can take our land and our resources but our attachment to al-Quds remains. The land of Palestine has been irrigated by the blood of Palestinians for centuries and it is theirs. The Zionists went to Egypt and Jordan and made treaties with the governments, but it is the people who will decide.”

He said it is time that all Islamic centers in the country open their doors to discuss the issue of Jerusalem.

Syrian Ambassador in L.A.

Syria’s ambassador to the U.S., Walid Mualem, traveled to Los Angeles for two events marking Syria’s 52nd year of independence. The Syrian Arab American Association hosted a dinner April 24 in the Biltmore Hotel, where the diplomat outlined Syria’s stance on Middle East peace efforts.

Harking back to Israel’s 1967 invasion and usurpation of the Golan Heights, Mualem said Damascus has focused on liberating the Golan since 1970.

“I can’t imagine any people in the world who would rest until their land was completely liberated,” he stated. “We started the October 1973 war for this reason, despite the odds of fighting an enemy that vastly outarmed us. You here in the U.S. know who is stacking the deck. And Washington should be confronted on all the support it gives to Israel.”

Turning to events leading to the Gulf war, the Syrian envoy said he was present in 1990 when President George Bush met with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Geneva to discuss Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. He recalled Assad commenting to Bush that it was not logical for the U.S., which had emerged as the sole superpower in the world, to only flex its muscles and that it should also extend the olive branch. At that time, Bush promised that after Kuwait was liberated he would send Secretary of State James A. Baker III with a peace initiative with Israel that included the Palestinians, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

This transpired in April 1991 when Baker traveled to the Middle East with the American Initiative, which evolved into the Madrid conference dealing with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 for the Palestinians, Jordan and Syria and U.N. Resolutions 425 and 426 pertaining to Lebanon.

The Syrians went to the Madrid conference, but two years later, at a coordination meeting in Beirut, Arab diplomats were astounded at the news of an accord that had been worked out in Oslo between Israel and the Palestinians. Members of the Palestinian delegation said the Oslo papers had been drawn up behind their backs.

Mualem said that later when Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat visited Assad in Damascus, the Syrian president warned him: “This is your problem but I warn you that every line in the Oslo accord calls for another accord.” Assad further cautioned the Palestinian leader that the Oslo accord was “very mysterious and when a document is mysterious, it usually is in favor of the stronger party.”

Talks growing out of the Madrid conference continued between the Syrians and Israelis who, Mualem said, had concurred by 1995 that Israel was to withdraw completely to the June 4, 1967 border and both understood the principles of security arrangements. After the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, President Clinton talked to the new Israeli prime minister, Simon Peres, who said he was ready to resume the talks at the point they had stopped.

Mualem, who was the chief Syrian negotiator in the talks, said that after Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Damascus, the Syrian and Israeli teams met in Maryland, where they had agreed on about 70 percent of the points under discussion. When Peres ordered the bombing of Lebanon and more than 100 civilians were killed in the U.N. encampment at Qana, Syria pulled out of the talks. The impasse subsequently was set in stone when Binyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister of Israel.

“At last the whole world can see how Israel has cornered the Palestinians and is now trying to corner Lebanon by offering to withdraw from Lebanon but with conditions,” Mualem continued. “Resolution 425 clearly states Israel is to immediately withdraw from Lebanon without conditions.

“When Israel puts conditions on Lebanon to provide security measures, it means the Lebanese army is to be situated there to protect Israel.

“When Israel tells the Lebanese government it must open its arms to the South Lebanese Army, it means the Lebanese Army is to embrace the SLA traitors who cooperated with the enemy and became mercenaries of the enemy.

“When Israel tells Lebanon to disarm the Hezbollah militia, it is telling Lebanon to disarm its own resistance forces.”

Mualem suggested that Israel does not want Lebanon to resume its traditional role as the financial hub of the Middle East.

“In my opinion,” he concluded, “Israel only understands the language of resistance. Israel does not comprehend the language of peace negotiations. We spent five years talking to the Israelis, trying to convince them to recognize Resolution 425. It was only through the resistance of Hezbollah, which cost Israel too many fatalities, that Israel began to look for a way out. So why don’t we apply this model of resistance to other occupied Arab lands? Who knows, maybe this could lead us to the liberation of Jerusalem.”

Nizar Qabbani Remembered

Syria’s most famous contemporary poet, Nizar Qabbani, died April 30 in London at the age of 75. Even though his political satire and criticism of authoritarian regimes had distanced him from his native Syria, in death Qabbani was returned to Damascus on a flight arranged by President Hafez al-Assad. His coffin was carried from the family home to Bab as-Saghir cemetery in the Old City where more than 10,000 joined the funeral entourage.

The poet, whose work combined eroticism, cynicism and exaltation of women, was remembered in Los Angeles at a May 21 program at St. Anne’s Melkite Church. The Arab American Press Guild, Syrian Arab American Association and al-Sharq Cultural Association sponsored the event.

More than 200 admirers of Qabbani attended the event, emceed by Samir Twair, who noted the maverick poet also was a diplomat who served in Syrian embassies in Cairo, Ankara, London, Madrid, Beijing and Beirut from 1945 to 1966.

Dr. Nabil Azzam performed an original composition on the violin while verses eulogizing Qabbani were read by local poets Hasib al-Jouhari, Selwa al-Said, Suhad Rashad, Soleiman Saddi, Hassan Hassoun, Issa Batarse and Samer Saba. Poet Mouatha Kifah al-Aridi also sang. Writers discussing Qabbani’s unique contributions to Arab literature included Salah Kanakri, Dr. Mary Yacoub, Dr. Adli Tadrous and Yusef Ayoub Hadad. Presidents of the three sponsoring organizations present were Mu’taz Chichakly, Yousef Elia Haddad and Nakhle Bader.

Qabbani’s first published work was Childhood of a Bosom, printed in 1947 after his illiterate mother sold her jewelry to finance the costs. The erotic descriptions outraged conservative Syrians but Qabbani was free in other lands to champion the cause that national and social liberation must go hand-in-hand with sexual liberation. The love of his life was an Iraqi, Balquis, for whom he left his first wife. The couple wed in 1973 in Beirut, where Balquis served as a cultural attaché in the Iraqi Embassy. She was killed in a 1981 explosion at the embassy and in her memory Qabani later wrote one of his best-known works, entitled “Balquis.” In 1990, Qabbani visited Los Angeles and addressed more than 1,000 admirers. He extemporaneously recited a poem, “Disneyland,” expressing his admiration for a theme park he never had expected to see. One of his most famous works was written at the onset of the intifada and was entitled “Children of Stones.”

Shared Jerusalem Ad in Los Angeles Times

It took more than nine months of preparation, but on June 1 a half-page ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times bearing the headline “Southern California Christians call for a shared Jerusalem: Jerusalem at peace cannot belong exclusively to one people, one country, or one religion.”

The ad was spearheaded by the Rev. Darrell Meyers, pastor of St. Marks Presbyterian Church in Van Nuys and a founder of the Middle East Fellowship of Southern California. Co-signers of the ad included Churches for Middle East Peace and Baptist, Presbyterian, Unitarian and United Methodist churches to name a few.

The ad states that “Jerusalem should be open to all, shared by all…two peoples and three religions.” It notes: “We urge the United States government to call upon negotiators to move beyond exclusivist claims and create a Jerusalem that is a sign of peace and a symbol of reconciliation for all humankind.”

Rev. Meyers said one-fourth of the responses to the ad were from angry Zionists, one-fourth were from Jews congratulating him, and the other half asked for more information.

The ad appeared in 1,095,000 issues of the L.A. Times. Rev. Meyers is hoping many readers will clip the ad and send it to their representative in Congress, stating that a shared Jerusalem is the just solution for the holy city. A full-page ad calling for a shared Jerusalem appeared in The New York Times at Christmas 1997 and another ad is planned for Boston.

Afif Safieh Addresses NAAA

As Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom Afif Safieh arrived in Los Angeles May 22 for a talk to the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Arab Americans. Safieh, who sat in on most of the recent round of Middle East talks in London, predicted that Israel would be casting Albright in the role of bad guy because of her exasperation over Binyamin Netanyahu’s refusal to budge from limiting an Israeli withdrawal to 9 percent of the West Bank.

Five bilateral talks were going on May 4 and 5 in London, Safieh said, and Netanyahu’s was the only dissenting voice. What the peace process needs, Safieh opined, is a gradual de-Americanization in favor of Europe taking a greater part. “The Americans wouldn’t be excited about this but…” he commented, shrugging his shoulders.

Turning to the 50th anniversary of al-nakba (the catastrophe) as Palestinians characterize the creation of Israel that triggered the demise of their country, Safieh questioned how planting forests justifies uprooting an entire people. “It is time for justice, when after five decades to be a Palestinian means belonging to a shattered family without a homeland forcibly displaced time after time…stateless with no identity papers.”

Echoing the sentiments of many Palestinians 50 years after al-nakba, Safieh said: “Our enemies thought we would fade into oblivion, that we would forget our attachment to our roots. But five decades later we’ve defeated this idea and we are back on the political map.”

Safieh said a Palestinian entity has emerged, in contrast to the past when Palestinian authority was dispersed abroad, and its people living under Israeli occupation. Best of all, he said, the “majority of influentials speak of the legitimacy of a Palestinian state. Even General [Ariel] Sharon and dear Henry [Kissinger] speak of its inevitability.”

Turning from the achievements to the challenges, Safieh discussed the economic strangulation Israel is imposing on the Palestinians. He noted that only 65 percent of Gaza has been returned and the West Bank has been divided into Zone A, in which 3 percent is under total Palestinian control, Zone B, in which 27 percent is under divided control, and Zone C, in which 70 percent remains under Israeli military control. The Israeli grand design, he said, is to put the Palestinians into Bantustan-ettes. However, he averred that 13 percent is not the final installment. “We expect 100 percent return of the land of pre-June 4, 1967.”

Noting that “Netanyahu’s dream is our nightmare,” the diplomat predicted “the battle for Palestinian human rights will either be won or lost in Washington, DC.”

Safieh said it is shameful for any democracy to have a Congress that campaigns more in Israel than in the U.S. The power of the pro-Israel lobby is incredible to this Palestinian, who noted his surprise when he saw Vice President Al Gore applauding for Israel on an issue contrary to the administration’s policies.

Taking a philosophical bent, Safieh said the Palestinian movement started on campuses in Egypt, the Gulf and Jordan and it is redefining itself. “It is said there are several global tribes today: the Jews, the Anglo-Saxons beyond the British Isles, the Indians, the Chinese and the Palestinians.

Addressing the Palestinian-Americans in the audience, he said: “You have a special function. You live in the heart of a new Roman Empire and you must translate and transform our national aspirations.”

Referring to Netanyahu as a pyromaniac on a powder keg, Safieh urged the audience to keep the faith, not to be resigned to facts on the ground and to work to link American aid to American advice given to Israel.