September/October 1993, Page 62

Arab-American Activism

By Catherine M. Willford

Arab-American Organizations Mobilize Swiftly to Protest Israeli Bombardment of Lebanon

Arab-American organizations reacted swiftly to Israel's bombardment and invasion of Lebanon in July, holding demonstrations, meeting with administration officials and planning relief efforts.

The Council of Presidents of National Arab-American Organizations met with National Security Adviser Martin Indyk on July 28 and with Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Edward Djerejian on July 30. During both meetings, Arab-American leaders expressed outrage and frustration with the continued assault on the Lebanese people by Israeli forces. Before the U.S.-brokered July 31 cease-fire, more than 500,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians were displaced and thousands were wounded, according to U.N. relief agencies in south Lebanon.

The Council members urged the administration of Bill Clinton to resolve the root cause of the conflict—the Israeli occupation of Lebanon—by joining with the United Nations to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, which has called for Israel's immediate and unconditional withdrawal since it was enacted in 1978.

Following the meeting with Djerejian, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President Albert Mokhiber stated on behalf of the Council, "As Americans of Arab descent we are ashamed that our tax dollars are being used to wantonly slaughter and 'ethnically cleanse' whole communities in southern Lebanon and create a devastating refugee crisis in Beirut." The Council called on the U.S. to enforce immediately the U.S. Arms Control Export Act of 1961, which prohibits the use of U.S. military equipment in aggressive acts except in the case of "internal" security—since the initial Hezbollah attacks cited by Israel as a pretext to launch its air strike campaign occurred in occupied Lebanese territories and not in Israel proper—and to cease all military and financial aid to Israel.

During the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, ADC held demonstrations in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Representatives of the Jewish Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Peace joined the demonstration on Friday, July 30 to light Sabbath candles and to express their opposition to Israel's practices in Lebanon.

Save Lebanon has organized a campaign to collect pharmaceuticals and emergency medical equipment and supplies, as well as milk for children and tents to house the displaced. Save Lebanon will ship materials and provide grants to the Lebanese Red Cross and Amal Association for Relief. "It is now the time to translate the shock and anger into positive action to help concretely the families and children victimized by this latest Israeli aggression," said Save Lebanon Executive Director Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna on announcing the campaign. For information contact Save Lebanon at 918 16th St. NW, Suite 9011, Washington DC 20006 or call (202) 429-2505.

ADC Protests ADL Surveillance

On June 22, a coalition led by ADC protested the alleged nationwide spying and surveillance network of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL). As more than 60 protesters marched in front of the Washington, DC headquarters of ADL, ADC President Albert Mokhiber stated, "We are here to break the myth that the ADL has been spying on fringe groups." Representatives from the National Conference of Black Lawyers Women's Strike for Peace, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Young Koreans United, the Washington Peace Center and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission participated in the protest, expressing their outrage that files seized in a February San Francisco police raid on the office of an ADL employee showed a pattern of "monitoring and infiltrating" mainstream progressive organizations, as well as extreme right-wing and racist organizations.

"ADL is an organization with multiple personalities," said Mokhiber. "One day it wears its hat as a defender of civil rights. The next day it puts on its defender of Israel hat and wantonly violates the very rights it claims to defend."

Marching with a sign calling herself a "pinko, feminist, Irish tree-hugger who believes in the First Amendment," ADC Dallas Chapter member Ellen Barfield remarked cheerfully, "If I wasn't spied on already, I should be in the files by tomorrow." During the protest, Myra Lensky Boland of ADL spoke to the police assigned to the demonstration and took pictures. As they were being photographed, demonstrators smiled and waved.

AAI Urges Census Reclassification for Arab Americans

In testimony given June 30 before the House Subcommittee on Census, Statistics and Postal Personnel, Arab American Institute (AAI) Director Helen Samhan urged the U.S. House of Representatives to create a new multi-ethnic category for Arab Americans and others from the Middle East, thereby achieving official recognition as a minority group in the United States.

According to AAI, such recognition would be important for Arab Americans because it could result in a more accurate (and higher) count of Arab Americans in the next census, planned for the year 2000. An increased count would affect funding for social agencies which serve Arab-American needs and could help secure civil rights and protection from discrimination.

At present, Arab Americans are categorized in the census as a "white, non-European" ethnic community—a status, according to AAI Director Samhan, which is "both inadequate and harmful to Arab Americans." She pointed out that while the Bureau of Census classifies Arab Americans as "racial sisters" of Europeans, U.S. immigration policy extends preference to Europeans, but not any Middle Eastern group.

Samhan noted that while Arab Americans have experienced civil rights abuses and discrimination based on national origin and religion, Arab Americans have received no protection as a class because they are not counted as a minority group.

Rather than ask for a racial category, Samhan argued for a new classification, "Middle Eastern," based partly on language and partly on geography, which she compared to the Hispanic or Asian classification. "When you consider that Arab Americans and other Middle Easterners (Iranians, Turks and Afghans, for example) have common roots geographically, share for the most part a common language or script and common religious heritages, and often face similar discrimination and exclusion," said the AAI director, "there is no discernable reason why a new category of 'Middle Eastern' could not be added to the census in order to ensure that Arab Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern origin are adequately accounted for in the census."

AAUG and Bir Zeit University Co-Sponsor Conference

The Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) and the West Bank's Bir Zeit University cosponsored the conference "Palestine, the Arab World, and the Emerging International System: Values, Culture and Politics" from July 5-8. The conference, held on the campuses of Bir Zeit and An-Najah University in Nablus, was chaired by Dr. Ibrahim Abu-Lughod. Among the more than 500 guests and participants were former Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka, Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij, Knesset member Abdel-Wahab Darawshe and the consuls of France, Britain and Belgium.

In his welcoming remarks Bir Zeit President Dr. Hanna Nasir praised the decision to hold the conference in Palestine as a means of breaking the isolation of Palestinian academics. The plenary addresses of the conference were delivered by Lord Ian Gilmour, member of the House of Lords and former British secretary of state, and Dr. Edward Said of Columbia University. Said praised the secular and democratic nature of the Palestinian struggle, but stressed that the Palestinian leadership must address U.S. public opinion outside of the State Department in order to garner widespread support for the national struggle.

For the first time in its history, Bir Zeit University conferred an honorary degree, citing Dr. Said for "his steadfast support of the Palestinian people and Palestinian education. "

ICNA Provides Emergency Relief to Midwest

In the wake of record floods in the Midwest during July, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) established a relief camp at the Des Moines Islamic Center. According to ICNA, this was the first effort by any Islamic organization for relief in the U.S. The main focus of the relief project was supplying drinking water and offering transportation assistance to disabled families and the elderly.

By July 26, ICNA Relief had distributed over 18,000 pounds of canned food, bottled water and baby formula. The Muslim community of Dallas, the Islamic Council of Iowa and Mercy International, U.S.A. assisted in the relief program.

Stevens Awards Committee Honors Halsell, Shaheen

Author-journalist Grace Halsell of Washington, DC, and Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, professor of mass communication at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL, were honored July 9 in Philadelphia for their work in fostering American-Arab understanding.

Dr. Shaheen, an internationally recognized authority on stereotypical portraits of Arabs and Muslims in the mass media, received the 1993 Janet Lee Stevens Award. The award is in memory of Janet Lee Stevens, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student who was killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Dr. Shaheen is the author of The TV Arab and is currently working on two new books—The Comic Book Arab and The Hollywood Arab. He is the sixth recipient of the annual award.

Ms. Halsell received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the first of its kind to be conferred by the committee. Among the works cited by the award committee at the presentation were Ms. Halsell's two books which focus on the Middle East—Journey to Jerusalem (1981) and Prophecy and Politics (1986).

The awards were presented by Dr. Thomas Naff, professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Stevens Award Committee.

Later in the ceremony, Ms. Halsell also was honored by "The Friends of Grace Halsell Committee," composed of individuals and organizations who assembled a fund to help her continue her work. Committee Chairman Robert L. Norberg, director of the Aramco Services Company office in Washington, DC, presented Ms. Halsell with a check and a scroll inscribed with the names of the committee members.

Catherine M. Willford is the circulation director of the Washington Report.