pull quote: "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." [from the arabic] ============================================== ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 13:35:48 EDT Subject: Iraq, Albright, Rafeedie, and the UC Berkeley Graduation. Some of you may have heard about Fadia Rafeedie, a young Palestinian woman who, as something like the valedictorian of her class, spoke at UC Berkeley's graduation last week. You may also have heard that the keynote speaker for the convocation was Madaleine Albright. Albright's speech was interupted by many different flavors of protests on everything from Columbia to Iraq. Below is Fadia's explanation of what happened, and the transcript of her impromptu speech. I think her bravery and poise are inspiring. Sonia ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Fadia Rafeedie Subject: Transcription of convocation address Dear Friends, I've been wanting to extend my thanks to everyone (Sawsan, Ali, Rania, Wael, Nader, Zahi, Randa, Nabella, Kathy, Sherry, Rima, and everyone else) for supporting me before and after Berkeley's convocation last Wednesday "featuring" the so-called "Keynote Speaker of the Millennium, Madeleine Albright." Things have been so crazy, though! I've been on a mission to respond to every single email that pops into my inbox about what happened, but the task is so exciting and overwhelming at once, that I decided to leave it alone for a while so that I could submit a more impersonal but comprehensive 'report.' Below I've included my meandering address, which, when transcribed, sounds superficial and poorly organized. (It was.) I'll narrate the succession of events, which I think reads like a drama, and within it I outline some of the reasons why I think that Wednesday was a collective victory for the forces of opposition against the Iraqi sanctions in particular, and the Arab community - in solidarity with the Left in this country - more generally. First, even for the people who were at the Greek Theatre that afternoon in the blinding sun, you cannot *imagine* what the audience looked like from our vantage point on stage. It was like fireworks! The images are imprinted in my head forever. At the moment when the administrators announced, after we were all sitting on stage, that they'd change the schedule around so that Albright spoke first and not last, I knew that the "powers that be" were frightened of what was to come - embarrassment and exposure to a woman whose administration and policies deserve it. As soon as she stood up on the thick block at the foot of the podium to reach the microphone, a 15-foot bright red and black banner - signature of the International Socialist Organization -- unfurled itself in the distance, directly across from her in the center of the theatre, with the clearly written slogan, "Madeleine Albright is a War criminal." Then, in unison, hundreds of voices (or at least they sounded like it), interrupted her before she could begin, with chants of "end the sanctions now! end the sanctions now!" The 'security' forces, dressed in loud yellow jackets, were quick to rip down every poster that surfaced in the crowd and escort the protesters outside of the theatre, but there was NO WAY to get at all of them. As I said, it was like fireworks! When the red banner went down, another one to the left of the crowd flew up about the situation in Columbia. Then the officers tore that one down, dragged out the audience, and scanned the crowd for the sources of the consistent cries of protest. Albright was stumbling and bumbling through her speech there was no way that anyone was listening to her babble about stopping war criminals in Kosovo, preventing the "buying and selling of human beings" in Latin America, achieving so much as a Secretary of State wearing a skirt, etc. etc. etc. There were just too many people screaming out that she was a war criminal, that she was occluding any mention of Iraq, and that she was a liar. The hypocrisy laden in every sentence she uttered was truly unbearable to have to endure, especially since I was caught off guard about having to speak after and not before her, as is tradition at Berkeley. She tried - successfully, unfortunately - to win the audience to her side, but I'm convinced that they supported her more out of nationalistic fervor in response to a group of what they perceived as disruptive and 'foreign' objectors than because she was actually convincing or inspiring. Anyone, even a Nazi, I would argue, would have garnered support from the audience, because it was incredible how successful the protesters were in silencing her! So after the Columbia banner went down, another one spread itself out in a different part of the theatre about how she's supporting imperialism. There was still more chanting, heckling, and booing. >From the distance, one protester wearing a conspicuous red shirt completely shut off all movement in his body, forcing the officers to drag him - slowly, awkwardly, and painfully - down a long, long isle of stairs to the left of the theatre. No one at that point was even looking at Albright. They were watching this poor guy's body slouch in the distance, his head buried in his chest and his shoulders extending over his ears as his arms were flailing. Right from the start, two of my friends from ADC-SF, Eyad and Senan, were 'escorted' out. They both looked at me from the distance as they left, and I was fuming. Part of me wanted to just get up and leave with them so as not to dignify what this woman was saying while I was sharing the stage with her. But I knew that a spoken statement would have more effect. I decided then that the best thing to do, despite the fact that she was going to flee on her broomstick before she had a chance to hear me speak, was to deliver an impromptu address since my original speech was now obsolete. In any case, after seeing all that, there was no way I was going to rattle off about how much I loved my brother Ramiz, how grateful I was to my parents, how I wished my grandmothers a happy mother's day, how we were leaders of the future, etc. etc even though all of that would have been, and was intended to be, appropriately delivered under the expected circumstances. It was a true pleasure to hear (or actually, not) the rest of Albright's speech, because just when I thought all the protesters were ejected, another group would whip out their own banner, unfurl it, and start chanting. Their resources seemed inexhaustible. By no means was her address uninterrupted at any stage of the game. I know that Berkeley had a Madeleine Albright Unwelcoming Committee website and meeting the week before the event, but my understanding was that it was disorganized and a bit splintered. The activists there decided to just work independently of each other, and I think that was - in some ways - their strength. The message of opposition was the same, but the faces, slogans, posters, and styles were all different. It worked out to be a symphony of voices of dissent, and in some ways, I was happy to see the disgruntled audience members exasperated at what they saw as another "Berkeley spectacle." As I said before, the support they gave to Albright came more out of sympathy for her and respect for a national symbol than out of any true understanding of what she stood for. The loud condemnation continued to the very end of her hackneyed speech, but she received a standing ovation nonetheless. Happy with her victory (which was in some ways a great PR stunt for her), she descended from the block at the foot of the podium, turned to the students and faculty sitting (actually, now standing) most near her, and smiled as she shook each of their hands in self-congratulation. She was going in a row until she got to me. I stayed sitting, my hands clasped in my lap, and gave her a serious, angry look. Her smile turned into the frown of scorn which she wears more naturally, then she withdrew her hand, and turned around to walk away. "Insirfi," I thought to myself. [I had been asked by university administrators a day earlier to meet with her for a half hour before the ceremony. I told them that I'd prefer not to, and I told them that if I was in any photo opportunity with her, it would be a result of the fact that we were merely sharing a stage together as mutual honorees. I was not intending on shaking her hand, only to be captured and coopted by a photographer. They didn't press me to comply either way.] Okay, then she left abruptly, briskly, and riding a wave of glee from INSIDE the theatre. Outside, with the well-mobilized protesters who'd been there for hours before her clandestine arrival - and here's the greatest victory of all - she had to leave sprawled across the back seat of her car like the criminal that she is, ducking for her life, and dashing off into the distance. Things quieted down a bit after that. We heard two more speeches - one of which was especially light and funny - but I enjoyed neither. Three of my friends were gone, and my family was looking painfully at me in the distance. It's true that my moment was hijacked by the university administration and the secret service. I had worked so, so hard on my speech You wouldn't believe how much help and support I got. It was a true learning experience, but at the same time, I was ambushed. Rania Masri was emailing me articles and tips nearly every day towards the end; my friends with the ADC-SF chapter had a special meeting where they all contributed their thoughts and opinions about style, content, tone, etc. in a roundtable discussion; and Eyad and Emily Kishawi - to whom I am most grateful and indebted - stayed up very late nights with me figuring out the best approach that got my political AND personal message across in a way that reflected my personality without compromising the more important and broad political message. (We used Iraq Under Seige as a great resource, so thanks Rania and Ali!) My poor parents, brothers, and sisters watched me flip-flop and agonize for weeks - just as I had been finishing up my senior thesis, too - about the right way to frame what I wanted to say so that I would achieve a three-point goal that would: 1. Address my class honorably, not just as a way to earn legitimacy before I launched into a myopic discussion about politics, but because I truly was grateful to Berkeley and held (hold) affection for my class. My speech was certainly not going to be a reaction to Albright, and in it I had included the story of my uncle's imprisonment in the Zionist jails, and how we were graduating together this summer, etc. etc. 2. Educate my class and the general public about what's happening in Iraq, hopefully with the ripple effect that the media's presence would provide; and 3. Confront Albright as a symbol of power and try to emulate, though the circumstances were much different, the sensational and inspiring event at Ohio State where she was caught off-guard and humiliated for being, again, the criminal that she really is. I had wanted to ask for help from this list and another one, but I honestly think that the flood of opinions would have confused me even more. Besides, I was a bit paranoid that I was going to somehow be prevented from speaking. The university, also unlike custom, never released a public statement about my speaking at commencement. They kept saying that I was going to "share the stage" with her. Only a sensationalist journalist at a local paper seemed to make public that the University Medalist was really the antithesis of what Albright stood for. However, he was just after a news story. What he did was talk about me, then talk about her, and then quote some law professor at Berkeley who said that you couldn't have chosen more polar forces than this even if you were casting a play. He said that the lineup was the kind of thing to make "officialdom shudder" and that I was a "rebel with a cause." This was all without my mentioning a word about the plans I had for my speech. I myself didn't have a clear idea of what my speech was going to be, particularly since I was working on it literally until the last minute. I should say that Ibrahim Alloush gave me a piece of advice that proved prophetic for what was going to ensue later. He said, "you don't have to rant and rave to be a good revolutionary, even though that is absolutely necessary sometimes." I don't - by any stretch of the imagination - take credit for the turn of events at convocation on Wednesday. They probably wanted her out of there as quick as possible to circumvent the flurry of stunts that audience members had planned. (The longer she stayed, the more protracted the embarrassment, I think.) That the movement of resistance was successful in subverting an entire program and turning it on its head is in itself a victory. Still, it's significant to note that the materials I had submitted to the Committee on Prizes when I was competing for the medal were unequivocally pro-Palestinian, anti-sanctions, anti-Oslo, etc. etc. They chose Albright to be our commencement speaker precisely the day before they chose me to be the Medalist. I'm not even sure the 8-person committee, which was composed of professors, knew of the senior class council's decision. They are definitely more concerned with choosing the person who most fits the description of University Medal than worrying about the lineup at graduation. Or, it would be that the professors really DID want someone to counter Albright and they thought a Palestinian would be perfect. I don't know there are too many theories. Maybe she and I were both chosen independently of each other and the lineup was random. In any case, what I think made the university a bit wary of me was that I refused to submit my speech to them. (That decision was also one that agonized me for weeks, because there was ramifications for each option, and I had no way of predicting which would be the most effective to achieve the goal of saying what I wanted the way I wanted.) I shared the beginning and end with them, but didn't elaborate on the middle part. It wasn't because I was hiding anything from them, necessarily. It's just that they didn't have a right to read it in the first place, and I wasn't finished composing it anyways. Of all universities to check freedom of speech, Berkeley should never be one of them. More than that, I think I threw up a red flag when I declined the opportunity to meet with Albright beforehand. The coordinator of student activities was also well aware that I had no respect for Albright or her policies. I should say that Eyad predicted precisely what happened: that once the university really knew what I felt about her, they wouldn't have the audacity to remove me as a speaker, but they'd just change the schedule so that I spoke last, just as the reporters were packing up to leave Albright's speech-writers had access to all the information I had submitted to the Committee on Prizes because she was ostensibly interested in my "story" (didn't you know? all Palestinians have "stories" because we're like performers in a circus), and she even said she wanted to include me in her speech. That, I think, was an unsuccessful attempt to preempt me and force me to be nice and gloating in her presence. Okay, for whatever reason, it turned out that gave a speech as the "p.s." of the program, since in my hands was an obsolete message which would have had bad timing and a stiff delivery if I delivered it in its present state. That's one big long introduction to explain why the heck what I've included below is so discursive and anti-climactic given what you might have been expecting. I'm embarrassed, almost, to share it with you. There are grammatical errors (lots of sentences that end in prepositions!), a couple factual errors, no organization, many examples of poor diction, and in general unintelligent-sounding. Still, I think what was important was the delivery, since I was trembling, angry, and calm when I spoke. I disagree with one reporter's assessment of it as "rousing and militant." It was more of a sad, serious, sincere, half-exasperated, half-informative address that I gave completely off the cuff. After working all those weeks with my awesome friends on solidifying a message, though, it wouldn't be completely accurate to say it was an extemporaneous delivery. I learned so much from the people who helped me with my speech, and in many ways, I was saying their words but with my voice. Thanks to everyone. The support I received afterward vindicated the injustice (almost) of having the rug swept from under my feet. Many, many people lined up to extend their congratulations. Most of them were strangers. "Courage" is the word I heard most often. Some Iraqi women came to me crying afterwards, happy that I was able to speak (some of) the truth. Even the chancellor of the university, who really, really legitimized what I had to say before I opened my mouth because of the astounding and exaggerated introduction he included when he awarded me the medal, said that he agrees the sanctions should be lifted, that he was proud of me, and that he wanted to meet my parents. All of today and yesterday, I've been receiving so many, many emails of support from Arabs, non-Arabs, Muslims, non-Muslims, friends, strangers, university administrators, professors, etc. etc. If you're interested, I could post some of the highlights of the mail I've gotten. The best part of what happened was that everyone who went home that night had no choice but to mention the protesters, Iraq, the sanctions, etc., and many of them had no idea what was happening in the first place. I only received 3 letters of intense criticism of what some graduating seniors saw to be my "lack of tact" in politicizing their convocation and giving legitimacy to people whom they thought were disruptive and disrespectful protesters. One of the letters appeared in our campus newspaper and was especially biting. She basically said that I had an outstanding academic record but that I lacked a key social technique: "tact." Yikes. (Whatever.) My friend Nadine lined up a radio interview with me, which I think went well. I have a reporter with another local newspaper for Tuesday. And the coverage has been pretty good at the local level. I'm extremely inexperienced when it comes to media stuff, but Emily's helping a lot with that! The ADC-SF crew has been really outstanding. They were calling, writing, supporting, and standing with me in solidarity through every single aspect of this. Poor Maad recorded the speech but was so nervous and excited that it's a bumpy viewing! :) My favorite graduation card was the one that they all signed for me. It had snoopy on the cover and read, "2, 4, 6, 8, You're Someone to Congratulate" but they had scribbled in, "Fadia's graduation day anthem: 1,2,3,4 end the sanctions, end the war, 5, 6, 7, 8 end the sanctions, end the hate!" My friends were so courageous on Wednesday truly a reflection of their spirit and dedication to this struggle. I love each of them dearly. We're totally hoping to use the momentum from Wednesday to continue forward with our huge anti-sanctions campaign, which is supposed to culminate in a series of outdoor advertisements on billboards and buses in San Francisco commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the imposition of the sanctions. Here's where you can find some stories: 1. Berkeley's website has a press release with pictures and a sugar-coated summary. I think it summarizes my position pretty well albeit briefly. It's at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/features/2000/05/11_convoc.html 2. The local press in Southern California interviewed me the day before the convocation, so the writer - a sympathetic Egyptian by pure coincidence - wrote a glowing report without knowing what actually happened that day. Still, it's a good article and it's at http://www.inlandempireonline.com/news/stories/051200/grad.shtml 3. My school newspaper had a report of it all, but I think the protesters were trashed throughout. It's at http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=2561&ref=news I can't believe that I said she's the perpetrator of horrible "things"! What terrible word choice 4. Then there was the Oakland Tribune, which said that I was the "main course" (sensationalism!) and included lots and lots of information about the sanctions, which was nice. 5. I think many of you have already seen the SF Chronicle's report. Okay, here's the text of my speech. Forgive it, please, for all of its mistakes!!! And forgive me - even though I haven't yet forgiven myself - for talking about U.S. policy as though it's "our" policy, or the government as though it's "my" government, or the people of Iraq as "them" instead of "us." That was just the more effective route. There are many more errors ! Chancellor Berdahl: Please join me in congratulating our 2000 University Medalist, Fadia Rafeedie: Fadia: Thank you, that was way too generous, Chancellor Berdahl. It makes me sound, you know, a lot better than I am. And uh you know I just feel.. I had a speech and it's right here. It took me so long to draft it and I kept re-drafting it, and this morning I changed it again, but I'm just going to put it to the side and I'm going to talk from my heart because what I witnessed here today, I have mixed feelings about. I don't know why I'm up here articulating the viewpoints of a lot of my comrades out there who were arrested, and not them. It's not because I got, you know, straight A's or maybe it is. Maybe that's the way the power structure works, but I'm very fortunate to be able to give them a voice. I think that's what I'm going to do, so if you give me your attention, I'd really appreciate it. I was hoping to speak before Secretary Albright, but that was also a reflection of the power structure, I think, to sort of change things around and make it difficult for people who are ready to articulate their voice in ways they don't usually get a chance to. So I'm going to improvise, and I'm going to mention some things that she didn't mention at all in her speech but which most of the protesters were actually talking about. You know, I think it's really easy for us to feel sorry for her, and I was looking at my grandmothers who are actually in the audience - my grandmother and her sister - who weren't really happy with all the protesters, and I think they thought that wasn't really respectful of them, and a lot of you didn't, I don't think, because you came to hear her speak. But I think what the protesters did was not embarrass our university. I think they dignified it. Because secretary Albright didn't even mention Iraq, and that's what they were here to listen to. And I think sometimes NOT saying things - not mentioning things - is actually lying about them. [Applause] And what I was going to tell her while she was sitting on the stage with me, I was going to remind her and I was going to remind you that four years ago from this Friday when we were freshmen, I heard her on 60 Minutes talking to a reporter who had just returned from Iraq. The reporter was describing that a million children were dying [died] due to the sanctions that this country was imposing on the people of Iraq. And she told her, listen, "that's more.. children than have died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you think the price is worth it?" [Albright] looked into the camera and she said, "the price is worth it." And I was going to tell her, "do you really think the price is worth it??!" Since that time, 3 times that number of people have died in Iraq. I mean, we're about 5,000 here today. Next month by the time we graduate, that's as many people who are going to die in Iraq because of the sanctions. This is what House Minority Whip David Boniors calls 'infanticide masquerading as policy.' Now, I don't want to make the mood somber here because this is our commencement, but commencement means beginning, and I think it's important for us to begin where civilization itself began, and where it's now being destroyed. [applause] Let me talk to you a little bit a little bit more about the sanctions, because I think it's very important. Now, I'm a Palestinian, I would really love to talk about the struggle for the liberation of my country, and to talk about a whole bunch of other things and I see some people maybe rolling their eyes, and other people nodding these are controversial issues, but I need to speak about Iraq because I think what's happening there is a genocide. It's another holocaust. And I'm a history major, and sometimes I look back at history and I see things like the slave trade, the Holocaust you know, I see I see people dropping atomic bombs and not thinking what the ramifications are, and I don't want us to think about Iraq that way. It's already a little too late because 2.5 million people have died and yet these sanctions continue. For the last 10 years, you wouldn't imagine the kinds of things that aren't being let into this country: heart machines, lung machines, needles, um infrastructural parts to build the economy. Even cancer patients sometimes some of the medicine will be let in, but not ALL of the medicine. It's very strategic what's let in at what time, because what it does is it prolongs life, but it doesn't save it. In Iraq, the hospitals they clean the floors with gasoline because detergent isn't even allowed in because of the sanctions. These are all United States policies. And Secretary Albright - I have no conflict with HER, you know, as an individual.. I don't happen to RESPECT her, but she belongs to a larger power structure. She's a symbol. And when the protesters are protesting, it's not because they, you know, want to pick a fight with the.. with the woman who you guys all happen - well, many of you - happen to love. In fact, she was.. she was introduced as the 'greatest woman of our times.' Now see, to me that's an insult. [applause] This woman is doing HORRIBLE things. She's allowing innocent people to suffer and to die. Iraq used to be the country in the Arab World that had the best medical services and social services for its people, and NOW look at it. It's, it's being OBLITERATED. And a lot of times you might hear it's because of Saddam Hussein and I'd like to talk a little bit about that. He's a brutal dictator - I agree with her, and I agree with many of you. But again, I'm a history major, and history means origins. It means beginnings. We need to see who's responsible for how strong Saddam Hussein has gotten. When he when he was gassing the Kurds, he was gassing them using chemical weapons that were manufactured in Rochester, New York. And when he was fighting a long and protracted war with Iran, where 1 million people died, it was the CIA that was funding him. It was U.S. policy that built this dictator. When they didn't NEED him, they started imposing sanctions on his people. Sanctions - or any kind of policy - should be directed at people's governments, not at the people. The cancer rate in Iraq has risen by over 70 percent since the Gulf War. The children who are dying from these malicious cancers [and here the front row walked out of the theatre so I was blabbering incoherently] um.. and diseases, they weren't born when the Gulf War happened. The reason that the cancer rate is so high is because every other day our country is bombing Iraq STILL. We're still at war with them. They have no nuclear capabilities. In fact, just last week, the United Nations inspectors found [again] that Iraq has no nuclear capabilities and yet WE are BOMBING them every other day with depleted uranium. And what this does is it releases a gas that the people breathe. It's making them ill, and they're dying and they don't have medicine. I saw some of my friends, even, being arrested here today. One of them was Lillian. Her aunt did a documentary about this depleted uranium, and it showed that it's being MINED by Native American populations in the United States. THEY'RE getting sick. Their children are getting sick. And that depleted uranium is going from HERE, to our MILITARY, to Iraq, and it's decimating populations. This is a big deal. And I'm embarrassed that I don't even get to talk about Columbia, because I saw a few signs about that, too. And my colleague here, Darren Noy, who's also a Finalist, is very interested in these issues. We don't stand alone. I'm on stage with allies, I'm looking out at allies, we need allies, my allies have been taken away [today]. But in general, I mean, I'm speaking to a crowd that gave a standing ovation to the woman who typifies everything against which I stand, and I'm still telling you this because I think it's important to understand. And I think, that if I achieve nothing else, if this makes you think a little bit about Iraq, think a little bit about U.S. foreign policy, I've succeeded. I don't want to take too much of your time, but I want to end my speech with a slogan that hangs over my bed in Arabic. It says, "La tastaw7ishu tareeq el-7aq, min qilit es-sa'ireen fihi" and that translates into, "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." I think our future is going to be the future of truth, and we're going to walk on that path, and we're going to fill it with travelers. Thank you very much. [Standing ovation from the stage, with the faculty members, the senior class council, and the student award-winners. And, of course, standing ovation from my cheering section in the crowd.] :) ----- Two sweet examples of poetic justice came out of this, too: 1. The quote at the end of my speech about the path of truth was really inspiring to some people. Many of the emails ask me to quote it for them again. The funny thing is, I actually took it from the bottom of the PFLP's 1999 calendar reprint of the unamended PLO charter which hangs over my bed! 2. While Albright had to leave the way she did sprawled stomach-down in her car, my family and friends went to San Francisco later that evening to have a little graduation celebration at the Ramallah Club's Hall. We danced to the music of the shababeh and tableh, in a room decorated with a Palestinian flag. One of our theme songs, taken from a poster given to me as a precious gift at the party, was "Im-ma Filasteenu wa im-ma annara jeelan ba3da jeelin"!! ("Either Palestine, or the fire generation after generation.") Remember?? Ha! We had a blast, and it was the happiest day of my life in spite of and because of everything that happened. 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