Al-Quds Editor Says Future of Palestine Is in Hands Of the People, Not of the Palestinian Authority

By Pat and Samir Twair

“The only solution for the Palestinians is the intifada. We have reached the point that our people are facing tanks and the little generals [Palestinian youth] are going to make the final decision.”

So said Abdel Barri Atwan, editor-in-chief of Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper, who flew at his own expense from London to address a Jan. 27 meeting of more than 16 Arab-American organizations at La Mirada Holiday Inn.

The outspoken Atwan addressed the audience of 500 in English for 10 minutes and touched upon the then-upcoming Feb. 6 Israeli prime ministerial election.

Noting that Palestinian Authority President Yassir Arafat was trying to help Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak win the election, Atwan stated: “Barak has a lot of Arab blood on his hands. More settlements have been built, more Palestinian land has been taken than during [Binyamin] Netanyahu’s regime.

“Our people—and I am one of them—won’t accept any compromise over the right of return,” he said to a cheering audience. “When we have the right to return to Haifa, Jaffa, or Acca, it will be like getting back our land. Whether we return is secondary, but we must have the right of return. If any Jew in the world can go to Palestine, then Palestinians must have the same right.”

“We have gone beyond the peace process, we are in a war of independence. The best example of liberation is south Lebanon, where the determination of the people defeated the myth of Israeli invincibility and paved the way for the Lebanese to liberate their land.”

The first question from the audience was if Atwan has received death threats.

Yes, he replied: “So what, tuz. If there are 300 Palestinian martyrs, let me be the 301st.”

Following the talk, Tareef Nashashibi, president of the Arab American Republican Club, commented that Atwan’s speech was good, but that he failed to suggest a solution for the plight of the Palestinians.

“It’s time for Arab Americans to wake up and smell the killing fields,” he said. “We must become active in mainstream U.S. political campaigns and raise money for candidates or we’ll never be able to change the situation.”

Michel Shehadeh, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), emceed the program, which was endorsed by the Arab American Republican Club, Arab American Democratic Club, ADC Palestinian Right of Return Task Force, U.S. OMEN, International Action Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Arab American Press Guild and nine other Arab-American organizations.

Orthodox Jews Support Israel

Days after right-wing extremist Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel, the Orthodox Union called for a rally to support solidarity with Israel on Feb. 11 on Doheny Drive in West Los Angeles. Even though consuls representing other nations are forbidden from participating in political demonstrations in the U.S., Israeli Consul General Yuval Rotem was announced in the Los Angeles Times as a key personality at the event. Another scheduled speaker was Rep. Henry Waxman.

Queen Noor Speaks in Pasadena

Americans love romantic tales about royalty marrying commoners. So it was no surprise that 1,500 of them flocked to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium Jan. 31 to hear Jordan’s Queen Noor deliver a speech as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series.

The American-born widow of King Hussein told her audience that she intends to live in Jordan and dedicate the rest of her life to the foundation in her husband’s name which promotes education, health, the environment and peace.

When the Princeton-educated royal was asked if it was difficult to live in a country where women can’t speak their minds, she assured her listeners that women in Jordan have a strong voice and are equal with men under the constitution.

The statuesque and dignified queen also managed to get in a few points about the injustice done to the Palestinians, mentioning “Palestinians in refugee camps who try to hang on to the hope of returning home after 50 years.” She called on all people to put faces on refugees, victims crippled by land mines, and young people being cut down in the West Bank and Gaza.

Noor praised efforts to establish an International Criminal Court to address the gravest crimes committed by governments or individuals. She stressed that no regime or person will be immune from prosecution by the court, which requires the endorsement of 60 countries before it becomes a reality.

PAF Fund-raiser

The Palestine Aid Fund hosted a fund-raiser Jan. 20 at the Sequoia Center in Anaheim under the direction of Mutaz Herallah. More than 600 Arab Americans turned out to hear keynote speaker Abu Ali Shaheen of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli government prevented Shaheen from departing from Palestine, however, forcing him to address the group via the telephone.

Mahmoud El Farra, who was in charge of the construction of the Gaza Airport, discussed the conditions under which Palestinians are living during Israeli military occupation.

A highlight of the evening was a performance of Palestinian folk dances by the Al-Audeh Dance Troupe.

Muslims, Catholics Meet in Orange County

More than 20 Muslim and Catholic priests, nuns, imams and leaders of Muslim cultural centers convened for their second annual summit Feb. 12 to 14 at the Center for Spiritual Development in Orange. The purpose of the interfaith session is exchanging firsthand knowledge of each religion.

Among those on hand were Archbishop Alexander J. Burnett of Seattle and Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America. On the second night of the summit, a Persian banquet was served to delegates at the Orange County Islamic Center.

Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini, founder of the Islamic Education Center of Orange County, delivered a conference paper entitled “Surrendering to God.”

His main points were that Islam is about surrendering one’s will to the will of Allah, and that submitting to and relying on Allah does not mean humiliating the individual self or denying sophisticated human intellect so much as trusting in the knowledge, wisdom and fairness of the Creator. The human being is a universal creature, he emphasized, and moving through the universe is one of his or her characteristic privileges. Imam Qazwini’s fourth point was that those who surrender are protected by their faith.

“Those who submit are blessed with Allah’s grace and do not change their diversity,” he stated, “but follow God’s guidance in coping with their diversity and handling their differences ethically and practically.”

Imam Qazwini closed by quoting a statement of Imam Ali, the successor of the Prophet, who said : “I am defining Islam as no one has defined it before me: Islam is submission, submission is conviction, conviction is affirmation, affirmation is acknowledgment, acknowledgment is performance of obligations, and the performance of obligations is good deeds.”

Charles Elachi to Head JPL

Charles Elachi, a Lebanon-born scientist, has been selected to head NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After an eight-month national search which considered 74 candidates, Dr. Elachi, who has been with JPL for 30 years, was selected for the prestigious appointment.

Elachi has headed JPL’s earth and space science programs since 1994 and has participated in dozens of missions—from probing the clouds of Venus to searching for ancient trade routes and buried cities in the Middle East.

In an interview with the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,, Elachi said he is proud of early Arab contributions to astronomy and looks forward to the nearly 30 missions JPL will conduct for NASA in the coming decade. These include establishing a permanent robotic presence on Mars, plans for human exploration on Mars, examining the ice of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and eventually bringing samples from other planets back to Earth.

The new JPL director received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He gained international recognition as an innovator in the field of remote sensing in 1990 when the technology he developed was used to probe the surface of Venus and describe the patterns of El Niño events.

Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Spotlighted

Rabbis and spokesmen for the Muslim Public Affairs Council serving on the Los Angeles Muslim-Jewish Dialogue group appeared in a Feb. 7 panel discussion sponsored by the Los Angeles World Affairs Council in the Beverly Hills Hotel. A record crowd of last-minute attendees probably was prompted by the election the previous day of Ariel Sharon as prime minister of Israel.

Although moderator Joe Hicks, executive director of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, repeatedly reminded the audience that even in disagreement, all questions were to be civil, his apparent apprehension of hostile queries was groundless.

Hicks prefaced the discussion by explaining that the Dialogue was established in 1999 through the development of a code of ethics—which has been put to the test since the onset of the al-Aqsa intifada last September.

In his opening remarks, Rabbi Steven Jacobs noted that even the label “Judeo-Christian tradition” excludes Muslims and that the term should be Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.

“There have only been two times that Jews flourished in history,” he stressed, “in Muslim Spain and Türkiye and in the United States.”

As the spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California, Dr. Maher Hathout said the Dialogue is the result of a real need for spiritually inclined people to seek a common ground so as to understand each other’s perspective.

“In reference to Sharon’s election, a reporter asked me what the future of the Dialogue will be,” Dr. Hathout commented. “I replied this is what the Dialogue was made for.”

Addressing the faith-based initiative of President George W. Bush, Dr. Hathout called it a “slippery slope” that lessens the separation of church and state.

Rabbi Jacobs concurred, stating that churches, mosques and synagogues can function without government involvement. “This is a very dangerous road to travel,” the leader of Temple Kol Tikvah declared. “When [convicted Watergate criminal] Charles Colson stood with George W. Bush and embraced him and said that in his 25 years of prison ministries, the only way to help prisoners is for them to embrace Jesus—I was scared. This statement eliminated Muslims and Jews,” the rabbi said.

When asked to assess the value of the Dialogue, Rabbi John Rosove said many of his images of Islam had been shallow and wrong and he has found it helpful to learn more about Islam. He encouraged all Jews in the audience to find a basic primer on Islam and to read it. Likewise, he urged Muslims to learn about Judaism.

“We know enough about each other and now we are trying to identify areas of social justice that appeal to us,” said Dr. Hathout. “We expect the Dialogue to address tax cuts, the national budget and the faith-based initiative.”

“Right,” agreed Rabbi Jacobs. “Some want us to disagree. Instead, we should be talking about the threat of nuclear war. It is not our problem to discuss past violence.”

When asked why more mainstream Jewish institutions hadn’t joined the Dialogue, Dr. Hathout responded: “Either we’re the oddballs of our two communities or it’s natural that we start out small. We’re not here to discuss the Middle East.”

Interjected Rabbi Rosove: “Something of the scope of the Dialogue must begin outside the established community.”

In reply to a query about starting a Dialogue between youth of both communities, MPAC directorSalam al-Marayati said: “That’s where we want to go. But first we need to set examples for our youth. We don’t have many examples right now.

When asked if the Dialogue will make an impact on the conflict in the Middle East, al-Marayati responded: “We want to make an impact on Los Angeles and the U.S. first. If we can advance human rights, we will have made a great contribution.

Added Rabbi Rosove: “Although I have visions of peace and justice in the Middle East, it is not up to us. The Israelis and Palestinians must find a way for peace. We can’t dictate what they should do.”

Muslim Youth Convene in Pomona

Under the theme “Unity Through Diversity,” more than 250 Shi’i and Sunni youth from throughout California gathered Feb. 17 at Assadiq Foundation in Pomona for the first annual conference of the Muslim Youth Association.

Imam Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini, founder of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, delivered the keynote speech on the conference theme, “Unity Through Diversity.”

He urged all the youth present to send a message to all Americans that Shi’i and Sunnis in the U.S. are brothers and are not divided. Differences are natural among humans and the opinions of others must be respected, he said.

In closing his speech, Imam Qazwini called the Feb. 16 bombing of Baghdad by U.S. and British planes unfathomable. “Why,” he asked rhetorically, “should Bush be sending missiles to Iraqi widows and orphans and not food and medicine?”

Later Imam Qazwini told the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,: “We Muslims supported George W. Bush in his presidential campaign. Why did he bomb Iraq without consultation? If his goal was to take out [Iraqi President Saddam] Hussain, fine, but why strike sites where civilians are concentrated? Why?”

Soha Yassine was mistress of ceremonies. The first session dealt with the topics of youth activism and youth and marriage. The second part of the event also featured a panel on the question, “Should Muslims Participate in American Politics?” Moderated by Dr. Talib Aziz al-Hamdani. Shahab Razfar represented the opposition while Salam al-Marayati argued for the affirmative.

Al-Marayati expressed admiration for the large turnout of Muslim youth, saying those present had the responsibility to take an active part in the political system and ultimately to make a difference in U.S. foreign policy.

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