Depriving the Have-Nots

Arab Americans have been under siege. They have often been discriminated against, particularly in many walks of American life; they are cast in the media as terrorist or religious fanatics. They are sometimes condemned by the American Public for what American Jews are praised for, namely solidarity with their co-religionists and ethnic brothers in the Middle East.

In America, the Jewish community has established a powerful and effective network of support groups and organisations that are able to raise funds and exert political influence on American Presidents and government administrations. Their aim is to ensure that America maintains its support for Israel, by continuing to supply military hardware, favourable trading relationships and financial aid.

Which underpins Israel's regional strength and puts its Arab neighbours at a disadvantage when trying to reach fair and just resolution of the region's many problems.

While this is true, it is fair to say that many in the Jewish community are deeply uneasy about these organisations unquestioning support of Israel. They feel that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians; it's bombing of civilians in Lebanon and the issues of Jewish settlers appropriating Arab land and its claim of Jerusalem as its capital shows them in a poor light as bullies who are not willing to listen to others.

These organisations have been highly effective at maintaining American support for Israel since the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Even now, when it is clear to almost every other nation around the globe that Israel is cheating on its agreements, discriminates against its Arab citizens, tramples on Palestinian human rights and uses force to maintain its hold on the West Bank and the Golan Heights. America, although it has reservations regarding Israel's intransigence and belligerence when dealing with its neighbours and Israel's foot dragging on the peace settlement, continues to support Israel at the expense of the Arabs.

Arab Americans have in the past been unable to counter this highly effective Jewish lobby in the US. Arab communities and organisations that have been established in America have been until now largely ineffective in communicating the justice of Arab claims in the Middle East or fighting ethnic discrimination in America. They have had very little effect on American policy in the region and have seemed incapable of eliciting support for their interests in Washington.

This in part has been due to the same old rivalries that have haunted the Arab cause for decades being carried over to infect Arab communities in America. And partly because of the prejudiced view of Arabs held by Americans that they have acquired by seeing them through the distorting lens of the US media, which almost always portrays them in a negative way.

But this is changing; American foreign policy can be influenced in two ways. It would be influenced if Arab heads of state could finally get together to formulate a unified and coherent policy towards the state of Israel. A policy that included measures that would seek to bring about a change in Israel attitudes and relationships with its Arab neighbours.

These measures could include the use of economic sanctions, no fly zones and Arab peacekeeping troops should Israel not abide by its agreements and commitment to the peace process.

The twenty-two Arab heads of state can meet at least once a year, to make sure that their political and economic policies are coordinated.

This would mean that they could, for example, monitor which countries in the world are supporting human rights for the Palestinians. Those that do not would then receive no major business orders from any of the Arab states.

A course of effective action such as this seems to most Arabs a rather a long way off.

A far more promising and immediate way of influencing American policy in the Middle East region is to galvanise the estimated eight million American Muslims and the two million Christian Arab Americans to take action. If organised, they would be formidable forces for change in America.

This is not as unlikely as it sounds as both groups have similar views on American foreign policy issues. Almost all Arab Americans, Muslim and Christian, dislike the United States one-sided Middle East Policy. What they have to do is put the Arab community on the American political map.

They should study the way the Jewish community organises itself to project political influence and learn from it. They too need to organise social and political societies that elicit funds from their members; they too should canvas donations from wealthy Arab Americans of whom there are many. They too should provide facts and information about their cause to politicians, the media and other influencers of public opinion. They too need to get every member of the Arab community to register to vote. Making sure in American primary elections, presidential and general elections that those registered actually go to the polling station and vote. They too should organise transportation and awareness campaigns so that on Election Day there is a strong Arab turnout. This is the path that needs to be taken to ensure more even-handedness in American foreign policy.

Research has shown that most Arab Americans live in key electoral states in America. For instance there is a huge number of American Muslims registered in California. There are also large numbers in New Jersey, New York and in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.

These are important states at polling time. In a close presidential election it would be impossible for any candidate of either party to win without the electoral votes of those states, particularly California.

And it could well turn out that it would be impossible in such an election for any candidate to win in those states without the support of the Arab community.

Arab community leaders could ensure that all members of their communities who are registered to vote are supplied with a list of the candidates who are considered best for Arab concerns in their locality and are sympathetic to the communities legitimate concerns regarding America's Middle East policy.

The Burger King incident at Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, is a good demonstration of what can be achieved when pressure is brought to bear by Arab American activists.

It started with demonstrations to highlight that all Jewish settlements in the West Bank are contrary to US foreign policy and have been for a long time. In fact every American President since Israel occupied the West Bank has condemned them as obstacles to peace. These settlements are breaking international law and are a direct violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.

Demonstrations were organised at Burger King outlets in 11 states across the United States. The demonstrators were pressing for the closure of the Burger King outlet in Maale Adumim and on the day the demonstration was held that is exactly what Burger King did, it closed its outlet in the illegal Jewish settlement. Even though several powerful Jewish organisations contacted Burger King and threatened that if they acceded to this demand Jewish Americans would boycott all the company's products.

But the management of Burger King must have done some arithmetic and worked out that it would be worse for them to alienate nearly ten million Arab and Muslim Americans than five and a half million Jewish Americans. And it is suspected that what was even more decisive in their calculation was that they have 2,419 outlets overseas of which only forty-six are in Israel with much larger numbers in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Eemirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries.

It would be a disaster for the company if these states decided to close their outlets in their countries or their citizens boycotted them.

Arab Americans and Arab states when organised can make a big difference on matters that affect them.

As can clearly be seen from the 'Burger King incident', pressure can be applied and bring about changed. This was again demonstrated when both Arab governments and Arab American communities raised an outcry to protest the Israeli depiction of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in a display funded by the Israeli government in Walt Disney's Millennium Village at the Epcot Centre in Orlando, Florida. Again pressure placed on Walt Disney forced them to change the display.

These are small victories but significant ones, for they demonstrate just how, by working together in an organised way, Arabs both in America and the Middle East can influence what happens to them and the region.

If this spirit of brotherhood and unity continues, five or ten years from now we will see a marked change in US Middle East policy bringing with it a far more balanced approached to the problems confronting Arabs around the globe.

So let us continue down the road of collective responsibility and cooperation to ensure that these small victories are translated into greater ones.