Upcoming Events, Award, Obituaries

—Compiled by Matt Horton

Upcoming Events

Nonviolence International will hold a conference Dec. 27 to 30 entitled “Celebrating Nonviolent Resistance,” at Bethlehem University in Palestine. For more information visit <www.celebratingnv.org> or call (202) 244-0951.

The National Network for Arab-American Communities will host its 4th Annual Conference and Annual Arab-American Resource Corps Training at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI from Jan. 17 to 20. For more information, call (313) 843-2844.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University in Chicago, IL will host Kathy Kelly, founder and director of Voices in the Wilderness, for a Feb. 28 lecture on “Following the Beatitudes into the Crisis in Iraq.” Fr. Elias Chacour, educator, peacemaker and Melkite priest from Ibillin, a Palestinian village in Israel, will lecture March 23 on “Faith: Source of Conflict or Peace?” On April 27 and 28, the Center will hold a conference on “The Clash of Fundamentalisms,” to address, among other things, fundamentalism, religious-based violence, religious views on peace and justice and “scapegoating” in academia and the media. For more information, visit <www.northpark.edu/centers/middle>.

Zajel Youth Exchange at Al-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine extends an invitation to join them July 12 to 30 for “Meet Palestine,” their International Voluntary Work Camp 2006. The international summer work camp will bring together 20 young people from around the globe who are interested in creating a better world. Zajel is specifically targeting people who are working with organizations led by young people that address issues concerning humanity and social justice, and strongly encourages highly motivated and serious young men and women to apply. For more information or to apply, visit <www.youth.zajel.org> or call + 972-9-2345113.

Award

Tanya Ali Haj-Hassan, 20-year-old Stanford University senior from Amman, Jordan, has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. Haj-Hassan, a human biology major, is co-chair of the Stanford Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, as well as vice-president of the Muslim Student Awareness Network. With help from a university research grant, she conducted a research project on neonatal mortality in Jordan, where she plans to work on health care and alleviating poverty after completing her education at Oxford.

Obituaries

Major-General Bashir Mahmoud Nafeh Hammad, chief of military intelligence in the West Bank, was killed when Rawad Jassem Mohammed Abed, an Iraqi associated with Abu Musab al-Zaqawi, blew himself up in the bar at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Amman, Jordan. Born in Qalandiyah Refugee Camp, Nafeh rose in the Fatah Tanzim during the first intifada, was deported by Israel, and returned with the PLO leadership as part of the Oslo accords. He was a close associate of Mohammed Dahlan, former chief of the Preventive Security Service (PSS) in Gaza, and served as Dahlan’s top ally in the West Bank. Also killed in the blast at the Grand Hyatt was Nafeh’s close associate Colonel Abed Mohammad Alloun, a former director general in the PA Ministry of Interior and liaison between the PSS and foreign intelligence agencies, including the CIA, MI6 and Shin Bet. Both Alloun, a native of East Jerusalem, and Nafeh were intimately involved in negotiations with Israel, primarily on security arrangements, including logistics for the Gaza disengagement.

Also killed in the Grand Hyatt blast were Jihad Fattouh, an attaché at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo and brother of Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh; Mosab Khorma, deputy chairman of Cairo-Amman Bank in the West Bank and Gaza and former CEO of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company (PALTEL); and prominent East Jerusalem businessman Bashar Qaddoumi.

Dr. Ralph Braibanti, distinguished Duke University professor and expert on Western-Islamic relations, died Nov. 24 at the age of 85. Born in Danbury, CT, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II and for two years in the subsequent occupation of Japan. He received his B.A. from Connecticut State and his Ph.D from Syracuse University, where he began his teaching career in 1947. In 1953 he transferred to Duke University, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. An honored and respected intellectual, Braibanti authored a number of books, directed 39 doctoral dissertations, and contributed countless writings to journals, books and newspapers. He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pakistan Studies and the Journal of Arab Affairs, and founded both the American Institute of Pakistan Studies and the Islamic and Arabian Development Studies Center at Duke University. Dr. Braibanti also was responsible for the donation of over 6,000 books on Islam to the Islamic Studies Center at Duke University. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Lucy Kauffman, two children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ambassador Ashraf Abdel-Latif Ghorbal, former ambassador from Egypt to the United States, died Nov. 29 at the age of 80. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he attended Cairo and Harvard universities. His first diplomatic post was in 1949 with the Egyptian delegation to the United Nations. Following the 1967 war, Ghorbal served as chargé d’affaires of the Egyptian Interests Section in the United States, which was based out of the Indian Embassy, and later as ambassador until 1984. He was a key member of the Egyptian negotiating team at Camp David in 1978 which resulted in the 1979 peace accords. Following his retirement, Ghorbal returned to Washington in 1987 as a visiting professor at Georgetown University.