December 1995, Pages 69-76

Arab American Activism

NAAA Calls For Investigation Into Palestinian's Death

The National Association of Arab Americans urged the administration of President Bill Clinton to investigate the death of Palestinian-American Azzam Musleh in Jericho. Musleh, a resident of Dallas, Texas, died on Sept. 29 while in the custody of Palestinian authorities. Members of his family allege that he was tortured.

NAAA executive director Khalil E. Jahshan called upon President Clinton to order an investigation by the State Department and the Justice Department to "assure the Palestinian-American community in the West Bank and Gaza that your administration is concerned about their safety and security."

The Palestinian Independent Commission on Citizen's Rights is examining the details surrounding Musleh's death, according to Jahshan. He said this will help ensure that Palestinian security officials are held accountable for their actions. Jahshan also urged PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to publicize the results of the investigation and bring the guilty parties to justice.

—Geoff Lumetta

Arab-Americans Criticize Giuliani

The Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) called upon New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to apologize for asking Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat to leave the United Nations 50th Anniversary celebration concert in New York City. AAI President James Zogby said the mayor was "inhospitable and uncivil" and he asked Secretary of State Warren Christopher to renounce the action. "The act is reflective of taboos of the past and not in any way helpful in an era of peace," Zogby added.

Chairman Hamzi K. Moghrabi of ADC asked why the late Yitzhak Rabin was not asked to leave for his acts of "state terrorism" and his "iron-fist policy of crushing the bones of the children of the intifada."

Moghrabi also called for a meeting with Giuliani but received no response. Instead, Giuliani only increased the impression of double standards by declaring in a later press conference that Arafat has been implicated in the killing of "dozens" of American citizens abroad. (The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who attended the concert, was Israeli chief of staff on June 8, 1967, when Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked a U.S. naval intelligence ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 171 U.S. Naval and U.S. National Security Agency personnel.) The U.S. State Department denounced Giuliani's action, saying Arafat is "the leader of the Palestinian people" and "he should be given the respect the Palestinian people deserve."

—Geoff Lumetta

Canadian Arab Federation Applauds Ruling for Free Association

The Canadian Arab Federation successfully blocked the deportation of Issam Al Yamani, who was branded a security threat by Canadian authorities because of his membership in a splinter group of the PLO. A Canadian federal court found the deportation ruling by the Canadian immigration minister and solicitor general to be in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees Canadian civil rights. The court also found that the section of the Immigration Act that restricts association membership is illegal. "This ruling clearly demonstrates the need to re-examine some aspects of our immigration and Secret Service systems and initiate a process of reform," said a federation spokesman. The federation has been battling against Yamani's deportation since 1991.

—Geoff Lumetta

AAUG Members Hear Warning on New Immigration Bill

Immigration lawyer Denyse Sabagh warned delegates to the Oct. 20 National Convention of the Arab American University Graduates that if they don't stop new immigration laws presently under consideration by Congress, future generations of Arabs may never be allowed to become U.S. citizens. Sabagh, who is president of the largest group of immigration lawyers in the country, said the legislation pending on Capitol Hill will severely restrict Arab-Americans and other immigrants from bringing family members into the country. It also will limit the number of political refugees entering the country and make it more costly for employers to apply for citizenship for their employees. "This is a huge step backwards for us and other immigrants," she told the AAUG audience.

Two bills, one introduced in the House by Lamar Smith (R-TX), and another introduced in the Senate by Alan Simpson (R-WY), are part of a Republican effort to slow the flow of immigrants. Calling the bills part of a campaign that portrays immigrants as a drain on society and the national economy, Sabagh said Arab Americans should "put a human face" on the immigration issue and let their congressman know that immigrants are productive and vital to the country. "Most of the ethnic organizations haven't raised their voices on this," she said. "If we stand up and say, 'we're out here and we count,' it's really going to make a difference."

—Geoff Lumetta

Ashrawi Addresses NAAA Group

Palestinian human rights leader and former spokeswoman for the Palestinian peace delegation Hanan Ashrawi was the featured speaker at an Oct. 13 breakfast hosted by the NAAA Foundation. Some two weeks after the signing of the Oslo II accords, Ashrawi discussed the current situation in Palestine and the agreement's implications for the future.

The latest agreement, she maintained, allowed Israel's "politics of domination" to continue, and Palestinians are growing increasingly skeptical and less supportive of the peace process. The agreement "requires a tremendous amount of goodwill and dedication to implement," she added, especially in the face of Israel's continued raising of obstacles such as Hebron and its refusal to release all Palestinian prisoners as agreed.

At the same time, Ashrawi noted "an increasing sense of realism about the need to move ahead with the peace process," and observed that elections would be a clear indication that such progress is possible. "I'm amazed at the amount of patience and goodwill people have," she said. "The worst thing is a sense of apathy and helplessness, and that's why elections are so important."

—Janet McMahon

Activists Speak Out Against Embassy Move

Carrying signs and shouting "Stop the move," some 50 protestors gathered on the Capitol steps Oct. 25 to protest a congressional bill to relocate the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by 1999. The protestors demonstrated outside while the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert and members of Congress were attending the "Jerusalem 3,000" ceremonies inside.

The protest was one of a number of late October events denouncing efforts to move the embassy before the conclusion of negotiations on the final status of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians as called for in the Oslo accords. Nevertheless the bill, sponsored in the Senate by Majority Leader Bob Dole and in the House by Speaker Newt Gingrich, passed by a landslide, with only 5 senators and 37 representatives voting against the measure.

The American Muslim Council pointed out that East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international law and that Israel's presence there is in violation of United Nations resolutions. Council spokesman Khaled Saffuri said the congressional action would "pre-empt a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" and "deny Palestinian rights to the city." According to the American Muslim Council, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been expelled from the Old City since 1967, while 160,000 Israeli settlers have moved into settlements constructed in East Jerusalem.

Executive director Khalil E. Jahshan of the National Association of Arab Americans said Congress did not seek to learn the Arab or Muslim position at any time during the debate. An attempt to include Arab voices, through a conference sponsored by the League of Arab States, was cancelled in May when Secretary of State Warren Christopher told the League that the meeting was not necessary. But Jahshan blamed Arab leaders for their silence as much as Congress for not seeking their opinion. "The absence of the Arab world from this debate was unjustified and intolerable," he said. Only Saudi Arabia and PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat issued public statements denouncing the vote.

Moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to the new location in West Jerusalem will cost the U.S. government well over $100 million, according to the congressional estimates. This money is mandated to be taken from the State Department budget over the next three years.

Chairman Hamzi K. Moghrabi of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said the new location is on land that belongs to Arabs. The Islamic Trust and eight Arab Americans, he said, are the rightful owners of the property, which was confiscated by Israel. "How can we build our embassy on land confiscated from American citizens by a foreign country?" Moghrabi asked. "It not only defies logic, but also makes a mockery of our dedication to upholding human rights, democracy and self-determination."

Although Arab-American groups were unable to affect the vote, leaders continue to impress upon Senate and House members the implications of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital before final status negotiations. Rashid Khalidi, a spokesman for the fledgling American Committee on Jerusalem, told a group of Senate staffers that making Jerusalem the Israeli capital is not uniting Jerusalem, as senators were led to believe, but instead is further restricting the access Muslims and Christians have to the city. He said Israeli policies in Jerusalem aim at making more room for Israeli Jews and at pushing Arabs out of the city. "Palestinians can't build anywhere, while Israelis build everywhere," Khalidi said. So-called unification will merely "continue the oppression of one side by another," he said "and this is unacceptable."

—Geoff Lumetta

ADC Condemns Farrakhan's Anti-Semitic Remarks

Remarks about Jews and Arabs made by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in October brought condemnation from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). ADC Chairman Hamzi Moghrabi said many Arab Americans have "strong reservations" about the Nation of Islam after Farrakhan's statement referring to Arabs, Jews, Koreans and Vietnamese as "bloodsuckers." Moghrabi said the ADC does not tolerate racism and defamation "whether it is directed at Arabs or Jews" and that the Nation of Islam's leader's remarks are not representative of the "spirit of tolerance and peace advocated by Islam."

The ADC, however, did support the "principles and spirit" of the Million Man March and acknowledges the socio-economic problems the march was meant to address, Moghrabi said. He declared that, in spite of Farrakhan's rhetoric, the ADC will continue to cooperate with efforts by African Americans to improve their communities and promote social justice.

—Geoff Lumetta

Arab-Americans Condemn Assassination

Despite the set-back Yitzhak Rabin's assassination will mean to the peace process, President James Zogby of the Arab American Institute said the traumatic event will cause Israel to examine its radical factions and possibly act to restrict their violence. "Israel is just finding out what Arabs have known all along—that there is a large, fanatic element in Israeli society that claims divine authority" to commit acts of violence, Zogby said.

He added that the Hebron massacre in 1994 by Baruch Goldstein was passed off as the action of a "lone fanatic" despite the memorial built over Goldstein's grave by Jewish settlers who honor him as a "hero of the Jewish people." "This is not an isolated faction and Israelis are now going to have to face up to that," Zogby said.

Executive director Khalil Jahshan of the National Association of Arab Americans said Jewish fanaticism does not stop at Israel's borders and that Jewish extremism in the United States also needs to be addressed. "We blame the rhetoric of hate within the Jewish community here and in Israel" for inspiring this assassination, Jahshan said.

While both Arab-American leaders condemned the assassination, they also said it would be unrealistic to expect sympathy from Palestinians whom Rabin spent most of his career suppressing. His orders to "break the bones" of children throwing stones during the intifada and his harsh policies against Palestinians in Lebanon earned him the enmity of many Arabs. Zogby noted, however, that it was Rabin's tough stance against Arabs that gave him the clout with his people to negotiate peace. "Despite his hardness, Rabin realized that Israel must take a different path," Zogby said. "He later demonstrated political growth and sensitivity that was unthinkable for previous leaders."

Both Zogby and Jahshan said Rabin's provisional successor, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, has been underestimated within Israel and that he can be a strong force for peace. "If he decides to dedicate himself to the goals of the peace process, he will be better serving his country," Jahshan said. "But if he decides just to concentrate on being elected prime minister, then I don't think he will get very far." Although Israeli elections are scheduled for November 1996, Israeli officials may choose to hold them earlier due to the assassination.

—Geoff Lumetta