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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, pages 48-49 Southern California Chronicle Activists Challenge L.A. City Council’s Expensive June Junket to IsraelBy Pat and Samir Twair
HISTORY WAS made June 25 in Los Angeles City Council chambers when 16 citizens protested the $225,000 purported public relations junket Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made to Israel in mid-June. In tow were three other council members, Dennis Zine, Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel, as well as a gaggle of children, spouses and other city officials. While it’s nothing new for Mayor Villaraigosa to travel, this time his trip was to launch agreements with the Israeli government on water conservation and security of Los Angeles’s port and international airport. This set a precedent for the nation’s second largest city to contemplate granting a foreign power control over its sensitive ports of entry. The expensive junket also hit a sensitive public nerve. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez criticized the trip as Villaraigosa pandering to win Jewish votes in the next election. Newspaper editorials voiced cynical objections, as did local radio talk show hosts. The City Council was broadsided June 25 when polite dissidents stood up one at a time during the public comment session to protest the council’s negotiating with a foreign power before seeking bids from American security services. As council members largely ignored the testimonies by talking on cell phones or drifting in and out of the chamber, Greta Berlin of Women In Black admonished the city officials: “Please put down your phones and listen to what I have to say. I’ve witnessed what Israel does at its airport in the name of security. My 80-year-old Holocaust survivor friend was subjected to a cavity body search and I was detained and interrogated for eight hours because both of us advocate justice for the Palestinians. Now our mayor wants Israeli security to turn LAX into this apartheid system where Jews, dignitaries and the rich stand in one line and everyone else in the other line?” Averred Lillian Laskin of Democratic Westside Progressives: “There are plenty of security consultants in the U.S. to secure our ports without seeking advice from Israel, which has a murky reputation on human rights and labor relations.” Marcy Winograd, co-founder of L.A. Jews for Peace, wondered: “Why is it these security agreements you signed are making me increasingly insecure? Is it because these consulting agreements are really just a foot in the door to more extensive security agreements with a foreign power implicated in espionage scandals?” Jeremy Rothe-Kushel questioned the efficacy of Israeli security firms, pointing out that Israeli firms were in charge of security at Logan Airport in Boston and the Newark airport on Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorists were allowed to board the doomed passenger planes. Human rights attorney Patricia Barry dropped a bombshell when she stated that federal regulations and the L.A. City Charter probably will pre-empt any agreements Villaraigosa and other council members signed. “Section 370 of the City Charter stipulates the principle of competition,” she explained, “and that all contracts exceeding $1,000 must have bids from vendors. The mayor excluded this and arbitrarily gave the security contract for our port and LAX without asking for bids from local vendors.” At the close of the proceedings, Councilman Zine insisted on addressing the dissenters before they left the chambers. “I paid for some of my trip and it wasn’t a junket,” said the councilman, who described himself as an ex-cop of Lebanese Christian heritage. “We did go to Bethlehem and we did talk to some Arabs.” However, although in June 2007 Zine led a city council delegation to Lebanon for a Sister City ceremony between Los Angeles and Beirut, he has yet to condemn Israel’s 2006 blanket bombing of southern Lebanon. Peter Thottam, one of the June 25 speakers, plans to research just who Zine’s political backers are. Carol Smith of the National Lawyers Guild is researching documents to verify if there was a misuse of L.A. Department of Water and Power, international airport and port funds to finance the costly trip. Free Gaza Fundraiser
“Any of us going on this boat trip to Gaza knows full well we could be shot out of the water by the Israelis, but we all agree we’d rather die for a valiant cause than sit in front of our TVs.” So said Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement, which plans to sail up to three boats Aug. 5 carrying medical supplies to the people of Gaza, who have been living with dire food, power and medical shortages as a result of the siege imposed by Israel since June 2007. On July 12, Prof. Mahmood and Nancy Ibrahim opened their Los Angeles home—with a backyard filled with fig, lemon and olive trees and colorful drought-resistant shrubs, resembling a bit of Palestine—for a fund-raiser in honor of the courageous voyage. Monir Deeb, who hails from Gaza City and will be on the boat trip, described the mission as the most innovative idea since the first intifada to bring the plight of the Palestinians to world attention. “Israel claims it evacuated Gaza in 2005,” he pointed out, “yet it still occupies it by imprisoning 1.4 million Gazans by land, sea and air while depriving them of food, water, electricity and fuel. Adding insult to injury, the world witnesses this and does nothing.” When asked if Israel has issued any warnings against the forthcoming voyage, Deeb said an unnamed Israeli source dismissed it with the comment: “If they want to spend their summer vacation in Hamastan—go ahead.” Deeb said the group has purchased one vessel, named Free Gaza, and possibly will launch two other boats, named S.S. Liberty and Riad Hamad. For more information, visit <www.freegaza.org>. Just Vision Expands Operations
“The most important story in the Middle East isn’t being told,” said Ronit Avni of Just Vision, a grassroots nonprofit that unites Palestinian and Israeli peace builders. “It’s something more powerful than bullets or bombs; it’s about people who’ve lost everything but the courage to face their enemies and talk.” The occasion was a June 5 reception coordinated by Mary Ellen Bennett in the Beverly Hills home of Dr. Robert Siegal and Theresa DeBell. “Our short term target is the media, but educating people on both sides is our ultimate goal,” continued Avni, who produced the critically acclaimed documentary “Encounter Point,” which has been screened in 200 cities across the U.S. and in the Middle East since 2006. The film deals with intense interactions between Palestinian and Israeli survivors of violence and their efforts to build a society in which both groups coexist in equality. Avni announced that two Fall pilot workshops, on “Best Practices and Lessons Learned,” will be offered in Los Angeles and Washington, DC to assist facilitators experienced in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in promoting mutual understanding. Using “Encounter Point” as a tool, the workshops are intended to train facilitators to work with educators to engage in conflict resolution in a non-polarizing way. For more information, visit <www.justvision.org>. USOMEN Hosts Fundraiser
Whenever the Southern California chapter of the U.S. Organization for Medical and Educational Needs (USOMEN) stages its bi-annual fund-raising dinner, all factions of the Arab-American community come together to help the charitable group meet its goals. Founded in Los Angeles in 1961, USOMEN has chapters in three other areas of California and is a co-founder of American Near East Relief Aid (ANERA). Over the past nine years it has raised more than $600,000 for hospitals, clinics, orphanages, schools and universities in the Middle East. More than 450 supporters gathered at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel June 7 for an “Empowerment Through Education” dinner. The keynote speaker was political analyst Dr. Mounzer Sleiman, who appears regularly on Arab news broadcasts. Arab actress and activist Raghda traveled from Cairo to receive the 2008 Moustapha Akkad Lifetime Achievement Award. A highlight of the evening was an exuberant performance of debke dancing by eight youngsters trained in the traditional steps by Haitham Aranki. The spirit of the evening was reunion—friends who hadn’t seen one another since the 2006 dinner shared news and reveled in being together. Congratulations are in order to Aranki, who volunteered countless hours to arrange a successful event that also honored 38 high school and university graduates. More information is available at <www.US-OMEN.org>. Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles. |
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