Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2009, page 70
Bulletin Board
Upcoming Events, Awards and Announcements, & Obituaries
—Compiled by Adam Chamy
Upcoming Events
The AET Book Club will host a discussion with journalist and Washington Report contributor Ben White about his latest book, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, Tuesday, July 21, at 7 p.m. at its store located at 1902 18th St. NW in Washington, DC. For more information e-mail < This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > or call (202) 939-6050, ext. 2.
The Sabeel International Young Adult Conference will take place July 22 to Aug. 2 in Palestine. For more information, or to register, call +972-2-532-7136 or visit <www.sabeel.org>.
The 8th Annual National Organizers’ Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will be held in Chicago, IL, Sept. 12 and 13. For more information visit <www.endtheoccpation.org>.
The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin will be on view through Sept. 13 at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibit features objects given to the tsars by Ottoman and Safavid delegations during the 16th and 17th centuries. For more information, call (202) 633-4880 or visit <www.asia.si.edu>.
The 10th Christian Peacemaker Congress will take place in Denver, Colorado on Sept. 17 to 29, on the theme of “Restoring Balance: Peace Through Right Relationships.” The conference will include updates from CPT’s work in Palestine, Colombia, and around the world. For more information, visit <www.volny.cz>.
The 5th Annual Taybeh Oktoberfest will be held in Taybeh, Palestine Oct. 3 and 4, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information visit <http://www.taybehmunicipality.org>.
Iqraa, an all-volunteer running group dedicated to supporting education for Palestinian youth, will compete in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC on Oct. 25 and the half-marathon race sponsored by Under Armour in Baltimore, MD on Oct. 10. Iqraa runners commit to fund-raising for education projects selected by its NGO partner, United Palestinian Appeal. For more information visit <http://www.iqraadc.org>.
The 18th Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference, sponsored by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, will be held Oct. 15 and 16 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, DC. For more information visit <www.ncusar.org> or call (202) 293-6466.
Awards and Announcements
Ron Amen, 63, an Arab-American interfaith, intercultural and human rights activist from the Detroit area, has received the Community Peacemaker Award from the Wayne State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Ray Hanania, Palestinian-American journalist and radio talk show host, is the recipient of the 2009 Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. The award was established in 1999 by the family of the late Dr. Mohammad T. Mehdi to recognize journalists who dedicate themselves to challenging injustice in society and reflecting the principles of fairness, truthfulness and courage.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has awarded Anna Baltzer, a public speaker and organizer for justice in Palestine, the 2009 Rachel Corrie Memorial Award. ADC also awarded Ibrahim Dayeh, vice president of its San Diego Chapter, the 2009 ADC Annual Activist Award for his dedication and committment to ADC and the Arab-American community.
The Woodrow WilsonInternational Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, in collaboration with the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan (FFFP), has named Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi as a Public Policy Scholar. Beginning in September Lodhi will spend nine months in residence at the Wilson Center researching a book about the internal and external challenges Pakistan has faced since 2001.
Obituaries
Amos Elon, 82, died of leukemia May 25 in Tuscany, Italy. One of Israel’s most provocative and critical writers, he helped chronicle Jewish history during his 30-year career as a foreign affairs correspondent and editorial writer for Haaretz. Born in Vienna, he immigrated to Palestine with his family in 1933. Citing his young age, Elon said he never considered himself “an ideological Israeli,” and as a journalist helped provide a more balanced view of the Arab-Israeli conflict. His numerous works range from biographies and memoirs to political studies on Middle Eastern affairs. Beginning with the 1967 war, Elon become a resounding critic of the Israeli government’s policies. His most famous book, The Israelis: Founders and Sons (1971), disapproved of the mythology that had grown to surround the country’s Zionist founders. Elon reframed them as idealistic European pioneers ruthlessly blinded by an ancient claim for Palestine but ignoring the fate of indigenous Arabs. A contributor to the New York Review of Books, he wrote extensively about the Arab-Israeli conflict over the years, with increasing negativity. In 2004, citing continual disappointment with developments in Israel since 1967, he sold his home in Jerusalem and moved permanently to Tuscany.
Khaled Hussein, 73, a Palestinian convicted of involvement in the Oct. 7, 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, died June 22 of a heart attack in a jail in Benevento, Italy, near Naples. While he did not participate in the actual hijacking by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front—during which Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly Jewish passenger from New York, was shot and killed, and thrown into the sea, along with his wheelchair—in 1987 Hussein was tried and convicted in absentia for helping plan the attack and providing logistical support, and sentenced to life in prison. He was arrested in Greece in 1991 on charges of arms trafficking and extradited to Italy five years later.
