Mrs. Noha Ismail

By C. Patrick Quinlan

Noha Ismail, a Palestinian-American librarian, made the editorial page before she started making news in her adopted state of Minnesota. In the course of an organizational visit to Minneapolis-St. Paul by ex-Senator James Abourezk, chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune learned that FBI agents, acting on an anonymous phone call, had been asking Mrs. Ismail's neighbors whether they had any reason to believe she was a terrorist.

After the Star and Tribune published an editorial on manipulation of U.S. Government agencies to harass critics of Israel, Mrs. Ismail received an apology from the FBI. The issue taught people in the Twin Cities something about what Arab Americans who speak out may suffer from anonymous tormentors who understand how to activate the bureaucracy to crush the individual. It may also have demonstrated to Arab Americans that such intimidation, when exposed by honest journalists, will not be tolerated by mainstream Americans.

The FBI incident was not the beginning of Noha's work for Middle East peace in Minnesota, however, although she had never before identified with confrontational tactics. Instead she advocates peaceful solutions and is identified with a pragmatic but aggressive approach her colleagues would call "Minnesota style." Its ingredients: Present the facts; correct every media error; keep your friends informed; and emphasize face-to-face presentations.

It works in Minnesota, where residents say there has been a change, as a result of determined work by concerned citizens like Noha Ismail, in press, radio and television coverage of Middle East events.

Born in Hebron, in British Mandated Palestine, Noha was still a child when her family took her to Alexandria. In Egypt she grew up, as she puts it, as both an Egyptian and a Palestinian. She took degrees from the University of Alexandria and from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

She returned to Egypt after her American university experience in 1970, but subsequently emigrated to the U.S. with her husband and their two sons. She is now employed as a senior librarian with the Hennepin County library system. Her husband, Ismail, works as an engineering consultant and businessman.

In Minnesota, as throughout the United States, women like Noha Ismail have taken leading roles in Middle East peace efforts. There have been protest appearances on the state capitol steps, a sit-in at Senator Rudy Boschwitz's office, and sponsorship of talks by national figures. These have included James Ennes, a former career naval officer who wrote Assault on the Liberty; Former California Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, whose call for meaningful U.S. dialogue with the Palestinians ignited potent opposition to his Senatorial election campaign; and Former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Andrew, Killgore, now president of the American Educational Trust.

Noha Ismail exhibited her "Minnesota style" at a dinner hosted last year by the Palestinian-American community. Guest of Honor was Minnesota Republican Congressman Bill Frenzel, who has one of the safest seats in Congress in an affluent suburban district. Noha, as head of ADC's Minnesota Committee, welcomed the congressman warmly. She also pointedly reminded him, however, of his consistently pro-Israel voting record. Initially Frenzel responded with cool formality. During the course of the evening with Palestinian-American physicians, professors, engineers and businessmen, however, the congressman gradually but perceptibly' became aware of "the other diaspora." The discourse, initially merely civil, eventually became warm. A wall was breached.

Mrs. Ismail noted some of the same barriers failing when, in 1985, she attended the Nairobi conference on women's concerns as part of a Minnesota contingent that also included Jewish members.

By personal example Noha Ismail and her husband illustrate two success stories: the first is the timeless saga of the American immigrant. The second is that of the Palestinian diaspora, perhaps even more inspiring because in addition to the usual problems of a new language, culture and mores, the Palestinians have faced subtle but tangible political discrimination, an obstacle few other recent U.S. immigrant groups have encountered.

Rather than rest on her well-earned laurels, however, she now is deeply engrossed in what may prove to be still another success story in mid-America as—quietly, patiently and persistently—she goes about enlisting her fellow citizens and the media in a long-term struggle toward a balanced Middle East policy.

C. Patrick Quinlan is a retired foreign service officer who, after serving in Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt and Nigeria, was U.S. Consul General in Salzburg, Austria, and Chief of the US Mission in Oman Currently he lectures on Middle East affairs, is a former president of the Middle East Peace Now of Minnesota, and is a board member of Interfaith Peace Makers of Edina, Minnesota, and of the Minnesota International Center.