For Arabs:

Arab and non-Arab Americans representing nine different organizations worked together over the past week to help sponsor numerous activities in commemoration of the massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps one year ago.

To help coordinate their efforts and resources, organizers formed the Sabra and Shatila Commemoration Committee, which began holding regular meetings last July. Groups represented on the committee include the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, the Attiyeh Foundation, the Middle East Philanthropic Foundation and the Middle East Research and Information Project. The other participating organizations were the National Association of Arab Americans, the Organization of Arab Students, the Palestine Aid Society and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. Persons not representing organizations also took part in the planning. Together they published a 17-page "resource guide" which listed the names of various films, slide shows and reading materials on the massacre. The back pages contained names and brief descriptions of two dozen organizations in the U.S.—and the name of a person to contact—which offer educational information on the Middle East to interested persons and which provide humanitarian relief services in the Middle East. The guide was sent to all members of Congress and to Reagan Administration officials, media personnel, and church leaders, among others.

Individually, several groups held benefit dinners, such as that sponsored by the United Holy Land Fund—a group which was not among the above nine but which received support from them. Pledges were sought from the approximately 250 persons attending for the sponsorship of Palestinian and Lebanese children whose parents were killed either in the massacre or during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon during the summer of 1982. Speaking at the dinner were Paul Findley, a former Congressman from Illinois, Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League's Permanent Observer at the United Nations, and Hassan Abdul Rahman, the Director of the Palestine Information Office in Washington.

Several events were also held on Capitol Hill. A two-day photo exhibit was sponsored by the National Association of Arab Americans. It featured over 50 color and black and white enlarged photographs, including some of scenes in the Sabra and Shatila camps—both before and after the massacre—and others of the death and destruction during Israel's invasion. All of the photos—which were displayed in the rotunda of the Russell Senate building on September 15 and 16—were taken by Fadi Mitri, who covered the war first for UPI and then for Newsweek.

Vigils and memorial services were also held in Washington and around the country. A spokesman at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee estimated that 75 percent of their 44 chapters were marking the anniversary in similar ways.

For Israel:

Officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were sure to have welcomed a California Supreme Court decision on September 15 which blocked a proposed Congressional re-districting plan scheduled for a vote in December. AIPAC feared that approval of the Republican-backed plan would harm the 1984 re-election bids of eight Democratic Congressmen it considers to be pro-Israel, of which three would be incumbents who would find themselves living in the same district. The three are Anthony Beilenson, Howard Berman, and Mel Levine.

Although blocking the plan on constitutional grounds, the Court agreed that the plan's sponsor, Republican Assemblyman Don Sebastiani, would be permitted to introduce a new initiative with different wording that would accomplish the same reapportionment. Prior to the Court's action, Democratic leaders in California had raised over $2 million in an effort to defeat the plan.

Other Democrats who AIPAC believes are particularly supportive of Israel and who would be adversely affected, according to analysis in AIPAC's newsletter, Near East Report, are Barbara Boxer, Julian Dixon, Augustus Hawkins, Norman Mineta and Henry Waxman. Democrats oppose the re-districting proposal in part because it would increase the proportion of Republicans in a number of Congressional districts.

One national political action committee (PAC) which provides campaign money to pro-Israel candidates had expressed an interest in making a contribution to the Democrats. According to William Brown, the California Assembly Speaker who is on the committee coordinating the fight against the re-districting initiative, he held a meeting with representatives of the PAC on September 7, during which a potential contribution of "a very large sum of money" was discussed.

Note: A correction of a report in the Lobby Activities section of a previous issue appears below.

CORRECTION

In its issue of August 22, 1983, this publication carried a report on what the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) had announced publicly was "the successful closing of ADC's campaign against the textbook The U.S. and the Middle East, by Philip L. Groissier, published by State University of New York (SUNY) Press."

We have been told by the Publisher of the SUNY Press, William Eastman, that he did not tell ADC that he would either form or agree to the formation of an advisory committee of Arab American scholars to make recommendations on manuscripts received by SUNY; that he has not acknowledged that the issue of anti-Arab bias was a factor in SUNY's decision to not reprint the book, and that he has never told an ADC official that SUNY Press would recall unsold copies still on the shelves.

According to Mr. Eastman, SUNY Press agreed at its August 2 meeting with ADC only to "review and consider scholarly manuscripts submitted by scholars associated with the ADC as we would review submissions from any other source."

We sincerely regret having misled our readers and apologize to Mr. Eastman.