Focus on Arabs and Islam

Participation by Hassan Abdul Rahman, Director of the Palestine Information Office in Washington, D.C. in a Capitol Hill forum on "U.S. Foreign Policy and Developing Trends in the Middle East" July 16 marked the first time that a PLO officer has appeared in his official capacity under formal Congressional sponsorship. Invitations to the forum, sponsored by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), were extended to all members of Congress by five members of the House of Representatives. Other participants in the forum were Retired Ambassador Andrew I. Killgore, a PHRC Board member and President of the American Educational Trust; Henry Schwarzschild, a board member of the PHRC and of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Jerry Segal of the Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

New Publications

PHRC began distribution this month of its 150-page book Israeli Settler Violence in the Occupied Territories. 1980-1984, documenting an 18-month inquiry into the subject. It may be obtained from Resources for Change in the Middle East, 2000 Florida Avenue, N.W., Suite 406, Washington, D.C. 20009.

Four new publications have been issued this summer by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The Iron Fist. Israel's Occupation of South Lebanon, 1982-1985 by Joseph Schechla comprises 63 pages and is Number 17 in ADC's issue paper series. The other publications are how-to-do-it manuals entitled Political Action Guide: You Can Make Your Opinions Heard in Congress; Legal Guide: Your Basic Rights; and Living Memories: How to Do An Oral History. All of these booklets may be obtained from ADC National Headquarters at 1731 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20009.

The Link, published by Americans for Middle East Understanding, Inc. devotes its May-June issue to "The Middle East on the U.S. Campus." The entire issue, edited by Naseer H. Aruri, professor of political science at Southeastern Massachusetts University and former president of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, spotlights highly visible campaigns by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) to intimidate both university faculty members and campus organizations by compiling "lists" of faculty members and frequent campus speakers considered unfriendly to Israel. The Link may be obtained from Americans for Middle East Understanding, Room 771, 475 Riverside Drive, N.Y., N.Y. 10115.

Convention Reminders

The ADC National Convention will be held September 5-8, 1985 at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The Middle East Institute will hold its annual national conference September 27-29, 1985, at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C.

—Richard Curtiss

Focus on Israel and Jews

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) circulated a memorandum to U.S. news media this month to demonstrate that the Lavi Aircraft research project is "no threat to American export markets." The memorandum lists 74 American contractors already involved in the project and states that 50 percent of Lavi research and development is being done in the U.S. through $700 million in signed contracts.

American aircraft companies such as Northrop have objected to U.S. support for the Lavi project, arguing that it will compete with U.S.-built planes and will threaten American jobs. Until the Lavi project was first funded by Congress last year, Israel had to spend all of its U.S.-provided military aid funds on American-made products.

The Near East Report, AIPAC's newsletter, criticized the Administration for making a distinction between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestine National Council (PNC), which functions as the PLO's parliament. Israel has refused to meet with either the PLO or the PNC, while the United States has not ruled out a dialogue with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation including PNC members. The Near East Report argued that "the PLO views the PNC as its policymaking body" and the "PNC wrote the infamous PLO 'Covenant' which still calls for the destruction of Israel." The newsletter claimed that the U.S. distinction is a "fiction (which) advances Arafat's goal of gaining at least indirect U.S. approval."

Unlike most American Jews, Dr. Jerome Segal of Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP) believes that the U.S. should meet with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation and that neither the PNC nor the PLO should be excluded. On July 16, as part of a panel discussion on U.S. policy in the Middle East (reported above), Segal told congressmen and their aides that the PLO should state that it does not seek the dismantlement of Israel and that the Palestine National Charter would be superseded by a peace agreement. Israel, on the other hand, he said, should support Palestinian self-determination and agree to meet with the PLO. His comments were the first by a representative of an American Jewish group which is not anti-Zionist to Congressmen in support of U.S. negotiations with the PLO. Asked to explain why his views were so different from AIPAC's, Segal said "AIPAC follows and defers to the Israeli Government and does not take an independent stance on the kind of policy which would best serve Israel's long-term interests."

Meanwhile, the Washington Jewish Week expressed satisfaction with the Final Document passed by the UN Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi. At earlier conferences in Mexico City (1975) and Copenhagen (1980), Arab delegates and their supporters succeeded in including statements in the Final Document texts which referred to Zionism as a form of racism. At Nairobi, Arab states, the Soviet Union, and their allies wanted the Final Document to cite Zionism, among other things, as an obstacle to the advancement of women. But afterthe U.S. and Israel threatened to walk out of the conference, the anti-Zionist delegates—including the PLO representatives-withdrew the proposal. (Iran was the only country which continued to insist on including the anti-Zionist paragraph.) The Jewish Week called the Nairobi resolution "a limited but significant victory" and praised the Reagan Administration for "four and a half years of disciplined work ... opposing the big lie [that Zionism is a form of racism] at all international meetings."

—Andrea Barron

Andrea Barron is a Ph.D Candidate in International Relations at the American University's School of International Service and writes frequently about the Middle East.