WESPAC Foundation

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We tried to stop the war on Iraq, but did not succeed. Helping Iraqi refugee students complete their college education is one small thing we can do in recognition of the grave injustice our country perpetrated in Iraq.

It was a year ago, summer 2008, when the Iraqi Student Project (ISP) was presented to the Westchester community, at the Wespac Pleassantville office. Now, a year later and with the generous help of many people, Mustafa Ahmed, an Iraqi refugee student will arrive in mid-August to attend Manhattanville College. Mustafa, whose picture is here, will join four other young Iraqi refugees continuing their academic careers in colleges throughout the Hudson Valley region. Taif Jany continues at Union College in Schenectady. Ali Raad continues at Fairfield University.

The new arrivals, along with Mustafa, will be Raed Ibraheim Al-Abbasee at Bard College and Randa Mohammed at TCI in New York City. Thirty other Iraqi students will be studying in colleges across the country. Here are pictures of Raed, who will be at Bard, and Randa, who will be at TCI, in NYC.

These Iraqi refugee students are among more than 2 million who have fled Iraq for safety in Jordan and Syria. Their education was interrupted as they fled with their remaining family from the war, the occupation and sectarian violence. In most cases, family members were killed or kidnapped and held for ransom. Others were forcibly evicted from their homes. The war will not soon be over for the Iraqis who cannot return to their homes, nor for the Iraqi widows, for the wounded, for a broken society, or for the American military families who have lost a daughter or son. The Iraq war is not over. Like Viet Nam, this war will linger in an American society negotiating its own post trauma disorder.

With the important help of Connie Hogarth (director of the Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action at Manhattanville College), Manhattanville offered a tuition waiver to an Iraqi refugee student, and accepted Mustafa Ahmed.

The ISP/Westchester Support Group was organized and we have been working hard throughout the year to raise the necessary additional funds Mustafa needs to cover costs for room and board, health plan, texts, college fees and a monthly stipend -- in all over $8,000 a semester. We had a successful event in June at Mirene Ghossein's home (see previous blog entry and click here to hear some of the wonderful Middle Eastern music that was performed there and see some pictures). Generous financial support came from many, including an empowering grant from the Glickenhaus Foundation. Seth and Sarah Glickenhaus.

Many Wespac members have helped this project develop and all of you can be part of the continuing support group for Mustafa:
* You can be responsible for helping him adapt to a new culture.
* You can organize speaking events for him at local high schools.
* You can host him in your home during school holidays.
* You can invite Mustafa to see the neighborhoods of New York City with you as the guide.

We'll keep writing about the Iraqi Student Project, but you can also learn more about how you can contribute at www.westchestersupport.org.

The support group gathers around Mustafa with a clear commitment to help as needs arise throughout the next four years.
We can now greet Mustafa as he arrives at JFK from Amman, Jordan on August 22. He will report to Manhattanville College on August 26th.

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People often say the Palestine/Israel issue is sooooo complex.  (I usually say it is simple – one nation illegally occupying another), but a few recent Kafkaesque incidents might make me change my mind. 

1. The Free Gaza movement sent a ship loaded with humanitarian relief supplies – the Dignity – from Cyprus towards Gaza.  While the ship was still in international waters, the crew of an Israeli gunboat boarded it, and kidnapped the crew and passengers, taking them to Israel.  There they were detained in an Israeli jail for about a week and then deported – charged with having entered the country illegally.   As if it were their choice to visit Israel  (advertised by the Israel Tourist Board as “You’ll love Israel from the first shalom.”)
2.  Leila El-Haddad, a Palestinian citizen, tried to return home with her two very young children to Gaza from the United States.  She flew to Cairo where, after being held more than 36 hours at the Cairo airport, she was “deported” to the United States – a country for which she did not even possess a valid visa, much less citizenship.  I think everywhere else in the world, people are deported back to their home countries.   
3. The Viva Palestina convoy, a UK-US organized effort to bring humanitarian relief to Gaza, was finally allowed to enter the Rafah, Egypt border crossing after 10 days of bureaucratic delays and maddening negotiations with the Egyptian authorities.  The 100+ Palestinians waiting at the gate to the Rafah crossing to return home were attacked and beaten by the Egyptian police --- apparently just for  trying to go home to Gaza.  
4. International Solidarity Movement volunteers  and British citizens Jenny Linnell and  Natalie Abou Choukra tried for more than one month to leave Gaza to return to the UK.  They repeatedly went to the border after having been assured by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry that their documentation was in order and they would be allowed to cross.  Each time, they were denied passage.  When they finally were able to make it from the Gaza border to the arrivals hall at the Rafah crossing, they were told to go back to Gaza, assaulted by the Egyptian police and informed, “We will make sure you never get out.”  British consular services were astoundingly inert until Parliamentary inquiries were made.  [Linnell and Abou Choukra finally made it out of Gaza in mid July].  

I guess the first moral of these four stories is – if you are Palestinian, you can’t get into Gaza.  If you are a foreign national in Gaza, you can’t get out.  If you are a foreign national trying to enter Gaza, the Israelis may kidnap you and pretend you wanted to enter Israel illegally.  

The second moral is – if your government is a Western power, don’t count on them to stand up for your rights as a citizen.   If your government is Palestine, it doesn't exist for the rest of the world. 

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Here is an update on just one of the projects of the Wespac Middle East Committee:

A year ago, in July of 2008, the Iraqi Student Project (ISP) was presented to a large and welcoming crowd at the WESPAC Pleasantville Office. Now, a year later and with the generous help of many people, an Iraqi refugee student will arrive in mid-August to attend Manhattanville College. The work in the interim months has meant that ISP support groups have developed throughout the Hudson Valley, with a tuition waiver secured at Nyack College in Rockland County, Bard College in Dutchess County, TCI in Manhattan, and here in Westchester at Manhattanville.

The Iraqi refugee students are among the more than 2 million who have fled Iraq for safety to Jordan and Syria. They have had their education interrupted, their families' lives threatened, and their livelihoods destroyed by the effects of the American war. Most have fled to Syria and Jordan with few resources, any savings long since exhausted.

In the first months of 2009, with the help of Connie Hogarth (Connie Hogarth Center at Manhattanville College), Manhattanville's President Berman generously agreed to offer a tuition waiver. Now Mustafa Abdulkareem Ahmed will leave his family, who have been living with refugee status in Amman, Jordan, to begin his studies here this fall.

The ISP/Westchester Support Group www.westchestersupport.org, with the help of the Wespac Middle East Committee, has been working hard throughout the year to raise the neccesary additional funds for Mustafa to fulfill U.S. Government requirements to attend college here -- room and board, health plan, texts and college fees amounting to $8,000 a semester.

Early this month Mirene Ghossein generously offered her home and wonderful cooking for a special ISP fundraising event. Over 60 people attended and listened to some of the best world-renowned Iraqi and Syrian musicians in the lovely ambiance of Mirene’s home. Traditional Iraqi ‘Maqam” music was performed by Gaida, vocalist, with oud accompanist Anwar; then Amir El Saffar, santoor player, was accompanied by Omar on the oud. Some guests had never heard a santoor before, and Amir's CDs were quickly sold out, with half the proceeds donated to support our ISP student. Please go to www.westchestersupport.org to hear this wonderful music. And much thanks to Chuck Bell of “No War Westchester” for designing and updating the website.

Ali Raad, a current student with the Iraqi Student Project, came down from Fairfield CT with a member of his support group. Afghan, Pakistani and Palestinian students studying at Manhattanville College were also present, and will help to welcome Mustafa next semester. Felice Gelman spoke about the work done for Raed, the Iraqi student who will be coming to Bard College this fall. Doug Hostetter, director of the 1990s Bosnian Student Project and active with the Rockland County ISP group, spoke to the gathering, as did also Daniel Marshall, on behalf of Raghda, the young Iraqi woman who will attend TCI College in Manhattan. Najim Chechen, Iraqi sculptor from Orange County came in support. So did Tara Kyle, a Manhattan filmmaker who has worked with ISP and Iraqi refugees. Many members of the WESPAC Middle East Committee turned out, continuing to give real support to the prospect of having a local student from the Iraqi Student Project become a reality.

What began at WESPAC a year ago is coming together, and we will see five Iraqi refugee students in the entire Hudson Valley region this fall!

Please visit: www.westchestersupport.org

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A few weeks ago Israel dropped leaflets warning people living along the eastern border that Israel decided the 300 meters next to the border (on the Gazan side naturally) should be a no man’s land. Imagine, if you can, how you would read a leaflet like this if you received it!

 During the invasion, Israel added automated watch towers along the border fence, in addition to the watchtowers which were constructed when the border fence was built. These automated towers are gold domes that, when activated, open up like a flower and fire machine guns. They are remotely controlled, fired by soldiers watching a computer screen, maybe in Tel Aviv. Just another step in turning war into a video game. It makes it so much easier to kill people.

We learned that, although Israel states in its leaflets that the "buffer zone" of annexed land is 300 meters, it depends on the topography and acquifers. In some areas, it is as much as 1500 meters (about a mile). Farmers tending their fields outside, but near, the "buffer zone" are also being shot at. We visited with a farming family, the Abu Rijelas, living near the border. Their house is about 350 meters from the border. 300 meters from the border is a road which all the schoolchildren must use when they walk to or from school.

In addition to worrying about their children being shot on the way home from school, the Abu Rijelas have other things to worry about. Two years ago, the husband was kidnapped by the Israelis, and sentenced to 6 years in jail. His wife has only spoken with him twice since then. This is now a family of tough, smart women. The oldest daughter is at the university, studying communications, and the mother has returned to the university to study psychology. Their house had been damaged by a missile strike during the Israeli attacks, and they said, the fields were full of fragments of white phosphorus. When we walked around outside, we quickly found one, scraped it with a stick and it burst into flame. This kind of debris should make plowing and planting a scary exercise even if automated machine gun towers weren’t shooting at you.

The Abu Rijelas also lost their wheat crop when the Israelis fired incendiary shells onto their land, setting the fields on fire. They felt lucky their house wasn't burned as well. Israel also used the invasion of Gaza as an opportunity to demolish forty homes near the border and plow under all the orchards in front of them. Forty demolished homes equals about 400 homeless people, I would guess about 10% of the population of the little farming village. It’s difficult to imagine how this wanton destruction could possibly be justified. The farmers association, the Center for Rural Improvement, has made a videotape document the conditions entitled "Eye on the Border

ISM (the International Solidarity Movement) has been accompanying farmers as they attempt to farm their fields. This deters, to some extent, the wanton firing on farmers. The farmers have been trying to plant wheat or very quick growing crops like peas or spinach, hoping to harvest them before even more land is annexed. A farmer was killed at the end of January. Further information can be found at "Farming Under Fire". Although Gaza appears to be intensively farmed, with almost every open space planted with something, the farmers' association we met with, the Agricultural Development Association (PARC) estimates that about 60% of the agricultural land in Gaza is unusable -- either polluted by chemicals like white phosphorus, bulldozed, or in areas where farmers will be shot by Israelis if they farm.

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