An unbelievable half-page advertisement appeared in the New York Times last Saturday that included key excerpts from a speech delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on September 22 at The Cooper Union, a prominent New York-based university where Abraham Lincoln once spoke. A record number of students and guests, totalling about 800, attended the session, but regrettably, the country’s two leading newspapers — the New York Times and the Washington Post did not cover the event. The Cooper Union was founded in 1859 by a famed industrialist, Peter Cooper, described as a prolific inventor, successful entrepreneur and one of America’s richest businessmen at the time.
The advertisement was sponsored by Churches for Middle East Peace (http://www.cmep.org/), but neither would the president of this nonprofit organisation, former ambassador Warren Clark, reveal the cost of the advertisement nor would the staff of New York Times respond to calls in this respect. However, a year-old announcement put the cost at more than $30,000 (Dh110,340).
The Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is a non-profit Washington-based advocacy organisation and composed of a coalition of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Its objective is to influence American policy “in ways that will bring justice and peace for all people and countries in the Middle East”. Abbas’ remarks were blunt, describing to his American audience the situation at home clearly and forthrightly: “The people of Israel live today as our occupiers and without a permanent vision of a peaceful coexistence with their very closest neighbours. Not acceptable. My people in Gaza live under siege by Israel, without freedom of travel, or of trade, with 80 [per cent] of them now reliant on foreign aid and in constant fear of being randomly bombed. They live locked in an open-air prison. Not acceptable. To date, Israel maintains Gaza’s air space, territorial waters, electromagnetic sphere, population registry and the movement of all goods and people. The relatives of the very people in Gaza that Israel just killed have to apply to Israel to obtain their death certificates. Is that a free people? Not acceptable.
“My people in the West Bank and [occupied] East Jerusalem live under Israeli occupation — with segregated highways, behind huge walls, travelling through constant internal checkpoints, a large number of them with no running water, a large number of them still in refugee camps for decades, with no right to a fair trial and no right to post bail, often physically beaten and abused upon arrest and with little hope for the future.” He added: “On behalf of the brave Palestinian people ... I still come here to deliver a message of peace and justice to Israel and the rest of the world.”
The failure of Arab-Americans or Arab governments in telling their side of the story is indeed reprehensible and unforgivable. Dr Jack G. Shaheen, author of numerous books focusing on stereotypes, such as the award-winning text Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, recalls what Cassius told his friend (in Julius Caesar): “The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Dr Shaheen, a distinguished visiting professor at New York University, opined that “only when these wealthy (Arab) nations act constructively, and only when Arab-Americans support, financially, those organisations which advocate balanced Palestinian-Israeli policies, will the United States begin to change its policies”. He underlined: “For nearly half a century, those Arab countries with the financial resources to alter media and political landscapes in the Untied States have failed to provide American citizens and policymakers with needed information about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
Important newspapers, conservative and liberal, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, he continued, share the blame for failing to publish letters, editorials, and/or Op-Ed essays critical of Israel.” He stressed: “The sins of omission and commission are important to note. What if an Arab state had constructed an enormous wall, similar to the one Israel has built (in the West Bank)? How would the American media cover this? What would American politicians say? And why do we not see editorials/articles/photo-essays and art exhibits that compare the same size of yesterday’s Berlin Wall with today’s huge Israeli Wall?”
Interestingly, the other side of the story can nowadays be found often within liberal American-Jewish organisations like Mondoweiss.net or Jewish Voice for Peace.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com
