DECEMBER 2000, Pages 59-62

Southern California Chronicle

Academics Discuss New Dimensions of an Institutionalized Intifada

By Pat and Samir Twair

Alternatives available to the Palestinians were discussed by Prof. Mahmood Ibrahim and Dr. Adel Samara at an Oct. 15 panel sponsored by the Arab American Press Guild. “Palestinian Statehood, the Right of Return and Jerusalem” was the title of the panel moderated by AAPG President Samir Twair.

Professor Ibrahim said the renewed intifada is no surprise in light of a withering Palestinian economy and Israel’s division of the West Bank into zones which are crisscrossed by bypass roads enabling Israeli troops to encircle Palestinian cities with tanks.

“The surprise,” stated the Ramallah-born historian, “will be the consequences of this uprising. Will it be in vain, or used as a springboard to a widespread Arab national movement?”

Dr. Samara, who received his Ph.D. in economics from Exeter University and directs a research center in Ramallah, said an Arab national movement must be rebuilt from scratch.

Professor Ibrahim stressed that when the intifada began in 1987, it took months to institutionalize the uprising. “The entire Oslo movement was created to circumvent the intifada,” he averred, “just as the [Oct. 17] Sharm el-Sheikh meeting has been called as a new Oslo to pre-empt the [Oct. 21] Arab summit.”

It’s no secret,” the UCLA-educated professor continued, “the uprising of the past two weeks has created a resurgence of pan-Arabism. Arab regimes view the situation as dangerous. People are protesting in the streets of Amman, Cairo, Rabat, and Damascus. Now they are demonstrating against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. Tomorrow, they could be demanding greater freedom in their own countries.”

Responding to AAPG board member Yusef Ayoub Haddad’s offering of a biblical and Qur’anic interpretation of Arab Christian and Muslim claims to Jerusalem, Professor Ibrahim argued that it is not religious interpretations, but those who hold power, who make a difference.

“There is a universal unacceptability of taking land by force,” he observed, “and Israel’s failure to live up to international agreements to return Palestinian land must be highlighted repeatedly.”

U.N. Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to return to its June 4, 1967 borders, does not accept Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, he pointed out.

“No matter how hard the Israelis have tried to Judaize East Jerusalem,” Ibrahim said, “it remains an Arab city. The denial of permits to drive cars, withholding identity cards, bulldozing homes, preventing Palestinians from entering Jerusalem for medical visits or to visit religious sites prove Israel is not sincere about making Jerusalem a united city. Arab-populated areas do not receive adequate water, sewage, sanitation or electrical services.

“Being a humanist,” Prof. Ibrahim commented, “I am more concerned about the rights of refugees than about places.”

So far, he pointed out, negotiations have not dealt with the right of return for refugees living in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Dr. Samara countered that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has rejected even moral responsibility for Palestinian refugees. On the other hand, the Arab position is full of contradictions ranging from resettling Palestinians in other countries to offering compensation to Arab regimes which create jobs for refugees.

Samara, who has authored 10 books outlining strategies to rebuild Palestine’s economy, said the leadership of Palestinian leftist groups should reconcile with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to create a united national movement.

In response to a question of whether Israel might unleash its missiles and wipe out Palestinian centers, Dr. Samara stated: “Israel won’t re-occupy Palestinian cities because this would be tantamount to invalidating Oslo, which invalidated [U.N. Resolution] 242.”

Concluded Prof. Ibrahim: “The new uprising must be institutionalized and must happen every day. It cannot be as intense as it was the first two weeks. Palestinians should mobilize their resources as they did in the first intifada. The boycott of Israeli goods and reliance on national resources is an important element of this mobilization, which must extend outside Palestine as well.”

Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Tested

When the Los Angeles Muslim-Jewish dialogue group signed a code of ethics last December, its goal was to make joint public statements repudiating any outbreak of violence. However, after five days of bloody clashes in the Israeli-occupied Gaza and West Bank, members of the dialogue group and its crisis management committee did not meet or denounce the bloodshed.

Salam al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and a member of the dialogue group, sent e-mails to his fellow members inviting them to make a joint statement. When his messages went unanswered, al-Marayati called an Oct. 3 press conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California with Rabbi Steven Jacobs and Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.

Rabbi Jacobs, Sokatch and Dr. Maher Hathout, senior adviser to MPAC, concurred in denouncing Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon for provoking the Palestinian uprising Sept. 28 when he walked on the Muslim’s sacred Haram al-Sharif.

Neither Jacobs nor Sokatch, however, endorsed Dr. Hathout’s call for an end to U.S. financial aid to Israel and Egypt.

When one reporter asked why more Jewish members of the dialogue group weren’t present, Rabbi Jacobs replied: “I don’t think anyone on the board of rabbis would object to being here. There is no question that what Sharon did was pandering to the right wing in Israel. He made his entrance on the noble sanctuary just hours after his political rival [former Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanayahu was cleared of bribery charges. It was an obvious act of pandering, proving he could go anywhere.”

Rabbi Jacobs stressed the importance of sending a fact-finding mission from Los Angeles to investigate the causes of the violence. “If the State Department doesn’t support such an inquiry,” he said, “we should still organize an interfaith mission with Rev. Jesse Jackson and be seen there together.”

Dr. Hathout adamantly called upon President Clinton to establish immediately an investigative body of Muslims and Jews to pinpoint the persons responsible for the violence and those who are using excessive force against the Palestinian people.

Two weeks after the press conference, on Oct. 17, the dialogue group convened for its monthly meeting, attended by most of the members.

Concluded al-Marayati: “Our two communities are polarized at this difficult time, but there still is civility. Our task isn’t to hammer out a solution to the Middle East crisis, but we need to be there if a hate crime occurs here and address it.”

As the Palestinian death toll exceeded 130 on Oct. 24, however, the Southern California Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that it was withdrawing from the dialogue group.

“Regrettably, we note that our Jewish partners in the group have rejected the issuance of a joint statement condemning the ongoing bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” a CAIR press release stated. “We feel that if the group cannot reach consensus on such a clear-cut issue as this, our continued participation in the dialogue is impossible.”

Referring to the impasse on a joint statement deploring Ariel Sharon’s “visit” to the Haram al-Sharif and the subsequent loss of life, CAIR noted that some Jewish members argued the dialogue should not become involved in this “foreign” issue.

“To them we state the issue of the holy sites in Jerusalem is close to the hearts of all Muslims around the world, not just to Palestinians or Arabs,” the CAIR release explained, calling it unacceptable to accede to Jewish demands not to condemn Sharon’s visit as the incident that sparked the violence.

CAIR also cited the offensive views of some members who claimed the Palestinians were chiefly responsible for the ongoing violence.

“At this time, we feel that the dialogue is futile because most of its Jewish members have adopted a position of defending Israel at all costs. In this case, the cost was objectivity and fairness.”

The next day, the dialogue group issued the following statement: “Members of the Muslim-Jewish dialogue deeply regret the loss of lives in the Middle East during the past three weeks. We are determined that the strong feelings each of us have about the Middle East will not destroy our willingness to talk here at home. The Code of Ethics provides a framework for the dialogue in these times of difficulty and disagreement. Differences of opinion are to be expected—and respected. We are united in our opposition of stereotyping and scapegoating in every form, and call on our elected officials and the media to join us in this commitment. Our determination to building an environment of mutual respect between Jews and Muslims in Los Angeles is an encouraging step for continued dialogue. We stand against intolerance in America that leads to hate crimes against any person.”

St. Nicholas Cathedral Marks 50th Year

The weekend of Sept. 23-24 was a red letter occasion for the more than 2,000 parishioners of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral as they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the elegant Los Angeles landmark.

When the cornerstone was laid in 1948 by members of the St. Nicholas Orthodox Society, it was in an affluent neighborhood where Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty lived. Over the past 30 years, however, the area has become one of the most dangerous, gang-ridden sections of the metropolis.

But tradition was too strong and the mosaics, murals and marble interiors were deemed too precious to relocate. The cathedral undertook serious outreach programs to improve the lot of impoverished Latino immigrants living in the area, and today St. Nicholas Cathedral is a shining example of urban renewal.

Some 15 years ago, when the congregation decided to remain committed to St. Nicholas’s original site, an 8:30 a.m. Sunday service in Spanish was initiated. The Very Rev. Michel Najim, dean of St. Nicholas, also conducts a 9:30 a.m. service in Arabic and a 10:30 a.m. liturgy in English.

“And,” he quipped, “if Chinese moved into the neighborhood, I would learn Chinese so we could bring them into the church.”

The Antiochian Church has been growing by leaps and bounds in the West, as evidenced by the numbers. In 1968, there were 16 churches in North America. Today, there are 250 in the U.S. and Canada.

The Antiochian Church dates to the time of the Apostle Peter, who established the See of Antioch in Syria where followers of Jesus first answered to the name of Christians. There are some 5 million Antiochian Christians worldwide, with high concentrations in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait. Ignatius IV, the patriarch of Antioch and all the East, presides at the church’s headquarters in Damascus.

The mother parish of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America is St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn, founded in 1895. Arabic-speaking immigrants from Syria began meeting in Los Angeles during the 1920s in the home of Father Elias Sady. In 1924, the Antiochian priest founded St. George’s Orthodox Church on property adjacent to his house.

When construction began on St. Nicholas Cathedral in 1948, parishioners volunteered their weekends to helping carpenters. The interior, however, was left to master craftsmen. Dominating the apse is a 16-foot mosaic of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus created by Italian artist Franco Learnaduzzi. Beneath it is the sanctuary mural of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Los Angeles’ St. Nicholas Cathedral is recognized as one of the continent’s most elaborate Antiochian cathedrals. Elaborate icons and stained glass windows depict the apostles. Even though it is designated as a Los Angeles landmark, Father Najim commented: “I would like to see this cathedral named as a tourist site, and its photos included on brochures of Los Angeles.”

Before he came to St. Nicholas in 1987, Father Najim was dean of the theological school at the Antiochian university in Belamond, Lebanon. In addition to his duties in Los Angeles, he teaches seminarians at the Archdiocese Antiochian House of Studies in Pennsylvania.

The majority of converts to the Antiochian church, he explained, are evangelical Christians drawn to the church because it adheres to the oldest apostolic traditions.

In the spirit of Christianity, St. Nicholas has opened the doors of its social hall as a school for neighborhood children. Classes are offered daily to 130 Latino children from kindergarten through the fourth grade. Each Tuesday evening, four deacons and one assistant priest conduct a tutorial math program for neighborhood teens. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, breakfast is served to low-income families in the area and gifts and clothing are distributed.

Arab American Day Festival

California Congressman Tom Campbell was honorary chairman of the fifth annual Arab American Day Festival, attended by more than 30,000 people Sept. 23 and 24 in Garden Grove.

Led by a contingent of Arab-American teenagers carrying “Campbell for California Senate” signs, the congressman told a throng of several hundred listeners that a bill he and Michigan Rep. David Bonior signed was to be voted on the following Tuesday. (The bill condemning the practice of using secret evidence to convict an individual passed.)

“The secret evidence law has been used 26 times and has put 25 Arabs or Muslims in jail,” the senatorial candidate stated.

Regarding the soon-to-be up-in-flames peace process, he said, “All people have a right to their own country and the city of Jerusalem can be shared.”

Campbell said he looks forward to the day the U.S. will begin to be known for its compassion and not for starving children. Foreign aid, he stated, should not go to wealthy nations but should go to Africa and other impoverished areas.

The Garden Grove police chief, mayor and city councilman were introduced. Congressman Ed Royce took the podium and said it is time to talk to Iran and begin trade between the U.S. and Iran.

ADC Panel on Right of Return

“The United States and Israel are blowing up Arafat as the legal person to sign away their rights, but the rights of restitution and compensation still stand.” So said Dr. Elaine Hagopian, professor emirita of Simmons College, Boston, at a Sept. 10 panel discussion on the “Right of Return.”

“Washington and Tel Aviv are telling Arafat to sign and seal the refugee file, but even if he signs, [U.N. Resolution] 181 is still in effect; the right for restitution and compensation may not be argued.”

The scholar, who traveled from Boston expressly to participate in the panel sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said she is deeply interested in the problem because “the people who are the source of it have the sympathy of the world”—not their Palestinian victims.

Referring to the failed round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Camp David, Professor Hagopian said some of the recommendations put forward were absurd and not even on the level of U.N. Resolution 242. “Yet Clinton says [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Barak is making great concessions.”

From an historical perspective, she said, the initial goals of the Zionist movement were to acquire Palestinian land, get rid of the Palestinian population and resettle the Palestinians elsewhere so they could never reclaim their property.

She noted that Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, accepted U.N. Resolution 181’s partition of Palestine. By May 14, 1948, however, when he declared Israeli nationhood, Ben-Gurion referred to 181 as the basis for a Jewish state but failed to mention a Palestinian state.

The U.N. General Assembly felt so responsible for Palestinian refugees, Hagopian said, that it established two agencies for them. In September 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte called for U.N. Resolution 194, establishing the right of Palestinians to be repatriated to their original homes and mandating compensation for those who didn’t return.

The real irony, she stressed, is that since 1952 the Palestinians have been without a protective agency. When Israel bombs them or strikes their camps, the U.N. High Commission on Refugees does not register a complaint because, it argues, if the U.N. provides Palestinians assistance through its Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA), the UNHCR cannot give them protection also.

Even if Israel and the U.S. persuade Arafat to sign away their rights, however, restitution and compensation cannot be swept away, Hagopian said. Nor will the Palestinian people accept any agreement that does not include the right of return.

“Arafat is good to Israel and the U.S. only for his signature. This is a stupid move,” she argued. “You can’t bottle up a people as refugees and expect them to be peaceful.

“Arafat is scared to death of the refugees and the prospect that they will mobilize and turn to Europe [for support],” Hagopian said. “The right of return movement has a chilling effect on him.”

Regarding the original U.N. resolution, Hagopian said, “If Israel had accepted 181 and lived up to the partition plan to live democratically, Israel today would be a bi-cultural state. However, Israel has spent so much time cleansing the land of Palestinians, it is not ready to bring them back.”

What does she see for the future?

“The Palestinians should argue for one secular democratic state. Perhaps,” she sighed, “after 50 years, both can learn to live with each other, perhaps in a federated state.”

Michel Shehadeh was moderator of the program at which Nader Abuljebain and Jordan Elgrably, executive director of the Sephardic/Mizrahi Artists and Writers Internet, also spoke.

Brice Harris Addresses MEF

As part of the United Nations Association National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Prof. Brice Harris led a delegation to Yemen and Syria this summer. The group’s trip to Quneitra in Syria was the topic of a program he offered Sept. 17 at the association’s Pasadena office.

“Two years ago we got the Israeli perspective of the Golan,” stated the Occidental College history professor. “This summer, we listened to the Syrians’ view.

“Israel claims it is occupying the Golan for self-defense,” Professor Harris said. However, he pointed out, “the headwaters of the Yarmuk River are in the Golan, and it would be difficult for the Israelis to say they captured the Golan in 1967 because they want Syria’s water.”

While negotiations over the Golan have almost been concluded, the sticking point is Israel’s refusal to allow Syria access to the Sea of Galilee. Israel, he explained, wants to stick to the 1923 Mandatory Line established by the French and British.

Syria rejects the 1923 border as having been created by two foreign occupying powers. Damascus insists instead on adhering to the 1949 truce agreement line, which would allow it access to the eastern littoral. Prof. Harris says this often is referred to as the 4th of June line—the demarcation that stood until June 5, 1967, when Israel seized all of the Golan after a cease-fire had been called.

“Syria argues that Egypt’s Anwar Sadat got back all of the Sinai,” Professor Harris pointed out, “and Syria cannot accept less than Egypt received.”

He showed slides of Quneitra, a Syrian city which was deliberately destroyed when the U.N. ordered Israeli troops to withdraw. Demolished buildings, hospitals, and houses, ransacked churches and collapsed public buildings have been left as rubble so the Syrian government can show foreign visitors Israel’s deliberate destruction of a city the U.N. ordered it to evacuate.

As long as Israel refuses to acknowledge the 4th of June line, Professor Harris said, negotiations will remain at a stalemate, while Israeli settlers continue to prosper from wineries and ranches they’ve built on the fertile Golan soil.

Syrian Boy Scouts

St. Ephraim’s Syrian Orthodox Church was the setting for a dinner and annual initiation ceremony for new members of the Aramaean Syrian Scouts. George Khoury was in charge of the program which featured 24 cub and 45 explorer scouts performing marches and flag presentations.

Archbishop Eugene Kaplan presided over the event, which also paid tribute to Bishara al-Mechammil, who organized a scout troop in Fayrouza, Syria before World War II.

Saudi National Day

The 70th National Day of Saudi Arabia was celebrated Sept. 26 by the Los Angeles Saudi Consulate with a reception in the Beverly Regent Hotel. More than 400 well-wishers heard Ambassador Mohammed al-Salloum announce that his Kingdom is seeking membership in the World Trade Organization.

“Our celebration this year,” he continued, “coincides with the selection of Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the capital for the Arab Culture Year of 2000.”

As a result, the ambassador said, Riyadh is hosting exhibits, seminars, festivals and trade shows.

The Kingdom has launched an economic reform policy, the ambassador said, by establishing a supreme economic council, the Saudi Arabian general investment authority and a tourism high commission.

Efforts to encourage privatization have included a new investment law, real estate ownership law and codification of employer-employee relations. A new tax law is under consideration as an initiative to stimulate economic activity.

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.