From: Mazin Qumsiyeh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [AM] Update on Palestine 1) Al-Awda/PRRC received as of today checks and donations through Paypal totaling $2778 for the emergency fund for Palestinian families with demolished homes. At the end of this week or early next week, we will write a check to the ICRC to send to the Rafah aid and other home demolitions. If you have not donated yet, please do so. For details, see http://al-awda.org/rafah_fund.htm 2) Mai Masri's excellent film about children under occupation ("Frontiers of Dreams and Fears") at Yale Thursday night attracted 70 students and was very well received. Congratulations to the Yale student organizers. 3) I attended the dinner honoring key donors to ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) in Washington DC Friday night. The dinner was attended by 300 people and we were able to network with some very nice and key people. ANERA has a field staff of 33 employees in the West Bank and Gaza. For details on ANERA, see http://www.anera.org/ 4) The lectures by Father Simon Harak (on Iraq) and Dr. Zahi Damuni (on Palestine) Saturday at Yale were excellent. The attendance (26 people) was not as much as we would like to see but all who attended were impressed and inspired. Thanks to Middle East Crisis Committee and Al-Awda Connecticut for sponsorship. The article below from the New York Times summarizes other activities from studens. Kudos to all and keep-up the good work. These three quotes are perhaps appropriate: "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison "You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others." Henry Drummond And yes, actions do speak louder than words. Thank you for your actions and let us push to the next level. In solidarity, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D. National Treasurer of PRRC Co-coordinator, Media Committee ___________________ Arab Students Rediscover Voices Silenced on Sept. 11 By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO The New York Times January 28, 2002 WASHINGTON--When hijackers rammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Arab students at Johns Hopkins University were in the middle of plans to remember the intifada's start in Israel's occupied territories and the 1982 massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila. A national group, Students for Justice in Palestine, was organizing an investment divestiture campaign against Israel, similar to the one that had isolated South Africa under apartheid. But on campuses across the country, the carnage and shock of Sept. 11 silenced political activism among Arab students, and it is only now returning to the forefront. This weekend, hundreds of Arab students from around the country gathered here for their first post-Sept. 11 meeting to pick up their banners again. The roster of causes students are organizing around has expanded in the interim, from opposition to Israel to newer issues of discrimination in housing and jobs, the profiling of Arab men at airports and due process for an unknown number of largely unidentified Muslims being detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The students worry about new rules for student visas and the escalation of hostilities in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Students and panelists at the conference, which ended today, said that while issues demanding their attention might have grown, so had the hesitation among students to be identified with Arab causes. Several students expressed concern that working for Arab or Islamic causes could hurt their chances for employment, and they wondered whether they should avoid mentioning their passion for those issues in job interviews. Heba-Alla Nassef, a senior at New York University who is majoring in political science and Middle Eastern studies, recalled watching the planes fly into the twin towers and praying that Arabs were not involved. "We had to cancel some of our events," she said. "A lot of people were worried about getting involved, saying they were Arab. I was, too." Angela Migally, a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, said the war on terrorism had "a chilling effect" on donations to Palestinian causes. She said that her group at Penn wanted to contribute to a charity that said it built playgrounds in Bethlehem but that students feared the foundation might turn up on a list of terrorist fronts and that contributors might draw unwelcome attention. "There is no transparency in how they're going about tracking these organizations," Ms. Migally said. "I think they're just really trying to hit hard on anything with Islam in the name. It's more of an appearance of trying to crack down on terrorism." She added that students had no way to investigate charities and ensure that donations were not diverted for terrorism, and, she said, an explanation of the government's criteria for labeling a charity a terrorist front would help students. "We are so-called profiled people," Ms. Migally said. "How can we help our country reduce terrorism? It's very difficult." Samar Malek, a senior majoring in civil engineering and president of the Middle Eastern Students Association at Johns Hopkins, said her group was just getting around to an intifada teach-in. "I think we put it off too long," Ms. Malek said. "Everyone had to put on this defensive nature after Sept. 11. We were afraid. Hopkins is not hostile, but when we have had speakers, they've been hissed down." At N.Y.U., the Arab Student Union recently held a membership meeting. Ms. Nassef, its president, said the meeting drew attention, but not the kind she feared. Non-Arab students turned up, she said. "They want to learn about Arab culture." Middle Eastern studies programs have also reported heightened interest among students. To a student who asked whether championing her people's causes would keep her from finding work in a post-Sept. 11 job market, Alia Malek, a lawyer for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said it might. Ms. Malek, a panelist, said she was not speaking for her agency but as "a mad Arab." Ms. Malek, who once worked documenting accusations against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, said some prospective employers "crucified" her for the project. But at the Justice Department, she said, "A Jewish lawyer interviewed me and he loved, loved, loved, that I worked in the West Bank. He thought it showed that I was really committed to civil rights." "I don't really want to work in a place where being principled will be an obstacle to me," she said. http://www.nytimes.com GRAPHIC: Photo: Arab students held a conference over the weekend in Washington. Alia Malek, left, and Carol Khawly, lawyers, talked about civil rights issues. (Linda Spillers for The New York Times) _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
