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June 15, 2001/Sivan 24, 5761, Vol. 53, No.37
Exhibit touts Palestinian culture, nationalism
BARRY COHEN
Editor
LEISAH NAMM
Assistant Editor
A weekend exhibit sponsored by Friends of Palestine in a Phoenix hotel showcased Palestinian culture, religion and history, but also - and principally - Palestinian nationalism and conflict with the State of Israel.
The "Holy Land Exhibit" filled a small banquet room at the Ramada Inn on West Camelback Road, June 9-10.
"The purpose was to educate the American public about Palestinian culture and history," said Marwan Ahmad, publisher of the Arizona Muslim Voice and Multicultural Yellow Pages and local contact for Friends of Palestine, a group of Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Arab-Americans and South Americans.
An additional goal was to show how Palestinians are "struggling against" a state that "discriminates" against them, he said.
Ahmad estimated 800-1,000 people visited the exhibit. Reporters were not allowed to take photographs of items on display.
No representatives of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League or the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix attended the two-day event.
"We did not have enough lead time to find someone to attend," said Rabbi Robert Kravitz, executive director of the AJC area office. "Looking at the venue, it was not significant enough to warrant going out of our way."
Bill Straus, regional director of the ADL, agreed. "(The event) did not seem noteworthy enough," he said.
Tami Schultz, JCRC director, said she was out of town that weekend and first learned of the event Monday, June 11.
In separate conversations, Kravitz, Straus and Schultz said they learned about it through an article in the Arizona Republic.
The exhibit displayed native Muslim dress and religious objects, cultural photographs and artwork exhibiting the Dome of the Rock. The major part of the exhibit, however, portrayed a Palestinian view of life in Israel.
A display titled "Israeli Army Treatment of Palestinian Civilians" showed a photo of a soldier with his arm around a child's neck and another of a Palestinian crouched down and blind- folded.
"This is very revealing in a lot of things, in the way some of the people still have to live," said Maxine Roark of Scottsdale.
She and her husband George, who identified themselves as Christian, said they visited Israel three years ago.
"You know when we were there, it wasn't unusual at all to see the army boys with their machine guns on their backs, and then late at night, hear the rat-a-tat-tat," said George Roark. "I just wish there wasn't so much misunderstanding."
Another display, titled "Nakba 'The Catastrophe' 1948," stated: "Over 550,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes and villages in Palestine by Jewish gangs to neighboring countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Today they number over 5 million refugees living in the same conditions they did 53 years ago."
Ramesh Krishnam said he attended the exhibit to learn more about the Palestinians' perspective. "Pretty much every single day, you see this stuff on the news. It's good to hear the minority's point of view on the situation," he said.
He criticized the media, specifically CNN, for not covering the conflict properly.
"What I'm saying is, if one Palestinian kid gets killed, you don't really see the coverage. If one Jewish person dies, then it's so much magnified," he said.
"Both sides have to take the blame for what they're doing," said Krishnam.
In one corner of the room, "Marked for Extinction: Death Knell for the Palestinian People," a video produced by Lifeline World Mission, based in Fredericksburg, Texas, was playing. The narrator was identified as Dennis Harris, founder of the organization.
The video asked for financial contributions to be made to the Holy Land Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization established in 1989, based in Richardson, Texas.
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is not about politics, but about children, said Harris in a voiceover of clips showing children wounded and maimed by gunfire.
Harris also says on the video narrative: "Israel refuses to allow Muslims to worship at their sacred shrine in Jerusalem, and there is a movement to ban all religions except Judaism."
Concerning the pursuit of peace, Harris says, also on the video: "As Americans, we owe them our best efforts in support of the Middle East peace process. We owe them because the bullets used by the Israelis to enslave, imprison and kill the Palestinians have been paid for by American tax dollars."
The video ends by asking if "a people who endured the Holocaust have become the type of persecutors they once despised?"
Ahmad said the video was produced not by Palestinians but by a church group. Attempts to locate Lifeline World Mission were unsuccessful.
"I felt (the video) was a very good message to the American public," Ahmad said.
"The exhibit was directed to Israel, not to the Jewish people," he said. "We make a distinction between an Israeli who shoots a Palestinian and a Jew for his religion."
There are many "fair-minded" Jews who see the humanity behind the struggle," he added.
A local ADL spokesman said he knew the exhibit would have a controversial element and chose not to attend.
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