Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2009, pages 42-43
Southern California Chronicle
AFSC Programs Focus on Women and War, And the Damage Combat Wreaks on Humans
By Pat and Samir Twair
 |
|
|
|
“MOTHERSPEAK” was the title of the third program in a series on “Women and War: Searching for Peace” sponsored by American Friends Service Committee”“Los Angeles. Five women and one man spoke at the May 3 event examining all negative aspects of war.
Firsthand opposition to military recruiters in her Santa Clarita neighborhood was outlined by caterer Patty Domay, who concentrates on teenagers in a nearby Latino barrio. She succeeded in halting the recruitment of 17-year-old Marcos, but Rubin, the middle son of a widowed mother, signed up for $5,000.
Rossana Cambron of San Gabriel Military Families Speak Out wept as she admitted she couldn’t prevent her son from joining the military. “I didn’t buy my children toy guns,” she said, “but the system doesn’t provide education to go on to college or affordable wage jobs—so what alternative but the military do minorities have?”
Cambron now needs help getting her son adjusted to civilian life when he comes home from Iraq. Writing workshop retreats are available to returning soldiers, but the $700 cost is not covered by the government.
Suhaila Nasir, who with her husband, Dr. Musa Nasir, and Steve Sosebee founded the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) in 1990, discussed the ravages war wreaked on her family. Her mother was born in 1906 in Haifa, Palestine, and became a British subject during the British Mandate in 1914. When Nasir’s attorney father’s three homes, law practice and library were confiscated by Jewish terrorists in West Jerusalem, her parents fled to Jordan.
It was not until 1998, Nasir said, when her 92-year-old mother became a U.S. citizen, that she finally felt she no longer would have to flee invading armies.
 |
|
|
|
Cole Miller is the founding director of No More Victims, an organization that provides medical treatment to Iraqi children maimed by U.S. incursions. He receives medical reports on children injured by the U.S. military and then obtains visas for them to receive care in the U.S. The first child Miller helped was a little girl whose arm was blown off during an attack on her town. He made a poster of the injured girl and captioned it “Is Maiming Her Worth Getting Saddam?” Miller can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >.
Vivien Sansour, a native of Bethlehem and a founding member of al-Harah Theatre in Palestine, read her poem entitled “Forgive Me Father,” which tells the story of an Israeli soldier writing to his mother during the latest incursion into Gaza.
Susan Galleymore, author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror (Pluto Press 2009), made international headlines when she decided to visit her 22-year-old son, a U.S. soldier stationed on a military base in the so-called Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad.
“My son had e-mailed me not to try to see him in Iraq,” Galleymore said, “but I had to tell him to his face not to do anything in Iraq that he would be ashamed of or it would haunt him the rest of his life.”
She went on to interview many Iraqi mothers, then traveled to Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Afghanistan and back to the U.S. collecting the stories of mothers whose lives were ravaged by war.
The gold-plated pistol of Uday Hussain, his ghost and those of his victims, U.S. soldiers, and an existentialist tiger play key roles in Rajiv Joseph’s black comedy “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” which made its world premiere from May 10 to June 7 in Los Angeles at the prestigious Kirk Douglas Theater.
Joseph found inspiration for what is arguably the best drama so far about the Iraq war in an Associated Press item about an American soldier shooting and killing the most valuable animal in the Baghdad Zoo, a rare Bengal tiger. In 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts selected Joseph’s play as one of two inaugural “Outstanding New American Plays.”
The central character, Musa (Arian Moayed), a topiary artist turned Iraqi translator for the U.S. military, is haunted and distracted by the cultural transactions he must interpret between Americans and Iraqis as the ghosts of his pre-war life taunt him.
Kevin Tighe was awesome as the ghost of the slain tiger.
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” is certain to be performing soon in major U.S. cities and perhaps in London’s West End. Don’t miss it.
SAWA Presents al-Ataa Awards
 |
|
|
|
The Syrian American Women’s Association (SAWA) was founded in Los Angeles in 2000 by the late Dr. Sawsan Abdin Kosi with the goal of assisting underprivileged children who suffer from hearing loss. At its annual banquet May 10 in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, President Ilham Kalioundji announced that in the past year the organization has paid for five cochlear implants and fitted 230 hearing aids for Syrian youth.
Under the theme of “The Gift of Sound and Joy,” SAWA presented its Golden Heart award to husband and wife Dr. Abdallah and Daad Farrukh. Farouk Ubaisi presented SAWA’s al-Ataa award, which recognizes Syrians in the theater-film industry, to Syrian actress Jianna Eid.
Noting that it was Mother’s Day, SAWA president Kalioundji expressed thanks that this year 230 young Syrians will be hearing their mothers’ voices, but added that there is much more work to be done for Syria’s estimated 15,000 hearing-impaired children.
A short film was shown on the medical achievements of Dr. Farrukh, a Lancaster neurosurgeon who has given extensive support to SAWA over the years. Also on hand from Syria was Dr. Mazen Hameidi, who performs the delicate cochlear implants in Damascus.
Levantine Center’s 8th Year
 |
|
|
|
The gardens of Dr. Robert Siegel and Theresa DeBell’s Beverly Hills home were transformed May 23 into a Middle Eastern courtyard for a celebration of the Levantine Cultural Center’s eighth year.
More than 300 public programs have been presented by the center’s founder-director Jordan Elgrably, and the very best in Turkish, North African, Iranian, Arab and Armenian entertainment was offered at the birthday bash.
Guests in fanciful Middle Eastern attire partook of Arab delicacies while Tony Khalife,
Gor Mkhitarian, Naked Rhythm and many other stars performed. Words of welcome were offered by Reza Aslan, Shiva Rose and Niloufar Talebi.
A highlight of the evening was a tribute to the late humanitarian and peacemaker Wally Marks Jr. (see “In Memoriam,” p. 71). An award of appreciation was presented to his widow, Suzanne.
Mustafa Barghouti in L.A.
 |
|
|
|
Less than 24 hours before he was to address members of Congress in Washington, DC, Palestinian leader Dr. Mustafa Barghouti spoke June 7 to an audience of more than 200 at the Islamic Center of Southern California.
The president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees warned that the American people are oblivious to the reality that full-scale apartheid is in force in Israel/Palestine.
Barghouti presented a PowerPoint program of shocking photographs of the destruction of Gaza during Israel’s latest three-week assault on the coastal enclave. During the question-and-answer session, Dr. Barghouti said he was open to one state or two states, but would never accept scattered Bantustans falsely labeled a state.
The main problems Palestinians face, he said, is a factional approach that doesn’t put the national interest first, and an unjustified competition between the two [factions] that doesn’t exist. Criticizing external intervention by outside nations, Dr. Barghouti argued that no single party should monopolize the Palestinians.
Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.
