| September 2000 - Return to Monthly Index MiddleEast.Org 9/06/00 |
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"RIGHT OF RETURN"...BEHIND THE SLOGAN
MID-EAST REALITIES - "Washington Scene" - www.MiddleEast.Org - 9/7/00:
This year the slogan is "the Right of Return". A couple of years ago at the time of the 50th anniversary of the 1948 war -- the "nakba", the "disaster" -- the slogan was "the Quilt"*.
But it doesn't matter actually. The Arab Americans are more confused, disunited, stumbling and bumbling, then ever. They are full of dillusions, simple-minded in approach, miserably lead, co-opted by the regimes, and babes in the political woods. And how they love to scream and shout at any and everyone who tries to explain the complicated realities to them, especially their own extraordinary failings and weaknesses.
The following MER Flashback article tells what happened when the Arab
Americans exhausted themselves with "the Quilt". And in the days
ahead we will have a variety of commentaries about what is really
going on with "the Right of Return" -- not the slogan which was accepted
a long time ago by nearly everyone (except the Israelis of course) but
the underlying realities. So make sure you and concerned friends
get MER regularly -- just email to INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org if you don't
already receive MER directly.
MER FLASHBACK:
WASHINGTON SCENE: ADC AND "THE QUILT"
"I WENT AND SAW... IT WAS
SO PATHETIC...
I DIDN'T EVEN
STAY...
IT WAS SO DEMORALIZING."
Palestinian student,
Columbia University
MER - WASHINGTON - 5/18/98:
For months the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination (ADC) has been touting
"the Quilt"*, its major effort in this the 50th anniversary
year of Israel's creation and the Palestinian "disaster". Last Friday
ADC culminated its grand effort by unveiling "The Quilt" outside the U.N.
But no one seemed to notice, hardly anyone even came (even though it took
place the day after Israel's latest shooting of hundreds of Palestinians),
and actually the police outnumbered the protestors many times over.
It really was rather "pathetic" to quote one student activist. Though he had gone planning to participate, "It was so demoralizing...I didn't even stay" he dejectedly concluded.
Those seeking more background about all this, and why it is politically
significant, should refer to the MER April article titled:
"Deir Yassin Remembered and 'The Quilt' --
always too late, too little, too weak,
and too co-opted"
available at the website: www.MiddleEast.Org.
NOTE TO READERS: These matters relating to organizations in Washington are important not so much because of the inividual incidents but because these "client organizations" increasingly spung up the efforts, monies, and hopes of many, nearly always channeling everything in unimportant, non-controversial, and inconsequential directions.
Furthermore, because of the growing censorship combined with the behind-the-back rumor-mongering engaged in by ADC, AAI (The Arab American Institute), and what are now a stable of Washington-based "client organizations" -- both Arab and Jewish -- MER is paying considerably more attention to the Washington scene. Just like there are "client-regimes" in the Middle East itself, there is now a network of well-funded and controlled "client-organizations" as well, both in the region and in Washington.
Simply said: honest, principled, sophisticated people truly concerned about the Middle East want to, and need to, know about these things. So MER will be paying more and closer attention. Upcoming: "The Co-opting of Muslim organizations."
---------------------------------------------
From previous MER article:
"It's so unfair... After 50 years the Israelis have nuclear weapons,
the Mossad, Hollywood, a kosher White House, and their own Assistant
Secretary of State; wile the Arabs have corruption, secret-police,
pathetic Arab-American organizations, Arafat, and the 50th
anniversary quilt!"
---------------------------------------------
"The ADC Convention Program is designed to suit diplomats
and well-known Arabs and is tasteless."
21 ADC "Chapter Presidents"
in letter demanding changes
recently sent to ADC in
Washington
* "The Quilt" was sewn from patchs and meant to
symbolize Palestinian villages that are no more.
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