January 1991, Page 32

Personality

Albert Mokhiber

By Janet McMahon

Albert Mokhiber is a busy man. On a morning in early November, the newly appointed president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) was fielding press calls about a CNN broadcast the previous night detailing ADC's complaint that Northwest Airlines, through the Israeli security company it had hired, was strip searching Arab-American women en route from Detroit to Yemen.

"It's difficult to have Israelis search us not only on the West Bank, but in Detroit as well, " Mokhiber commented between calls.

The hectic pace does not faze him. Indeed, he seems in his element. As I listen to his rapid and energetic speech, I realize that I am hearing a native New Yorker—albeit from Niagara Falls, not Manhattan. It is clear that his energy and enthusiasm, and the fact that he is universally well-liked, will serve him well in his new position.

The Targets of Terrorism

When the flurry of calls finally dies down, Mokhiber is quick to point out that Arab Americans "are more concerned than anyone" about terrorism, since most of the Middle East-related terrorist acts committed in the US, according to the FBI, have been directed at their community. Among these was the October 1985 assassination of ADC's Southern California Coordinator Alex Odeh, who was killed by a bomb rigged to explode when the door to his ADC office was opened. An attempt to bomb ADC's Boston office was foiled by police, two of whom were injured as they dismantled the bomb, while arsonists caused serious damage to the organization's national headquarters in Washington, DC.

Ironically, all of the bombings cited are believed to be the work of former followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born Israeli racist agitator and former Mossad agent who was assassinated in New York only three days after Mokhiber was interviewed for this report.

"Arab Americans," the ADC president points out, "are unique from most other targeted ethnic groups " in that they are subjected to two kinds of discrimination: "across-the-board, racially motivated" prejudice, of the kind aimed at one time or another at virtually every minority group in this country; and also "politically motivated" discrimination, intended to dehumanize Arabs and keep Arab Americans from exercising their constitutional rights.

Mokhiber believes that overt racism can no longer be carried out with impunity in the United States, that most racial stereotyping is unintentional and, once confronted, quickly regretted and corrected-on the corporate as well as the individual level. In these cases, Mokhiber's policy is "to make lemonade out of lemons." He further asserts that those whose unthinking racism is brought to their attention, "once turned around, are turned around for good. "

ADC President Albert Mokhiber

On the political front, however, "the growing level of sophistication in combatting the problem has led to a growing sophistication in abusing Arab Americans, " as exemplified by the Northwest Airlines incident. As the director of ADC's legal department since 1984, where 40 percent of his workload consisted of civil. rights cases, Mokhiber is keenly aware that "once that delicate area of free speech is transcended, " the danger of violating another's human rights becomes real.

"It's difficult to have Israelis search us not only on the West Bank, but in Detroit as well."

Yet he is just as aware of the need to be "responsible, not paranoid," adding, "We're not in the business of stirring up hysteria." His legal and civil rights background is again apparent when he asserts that "what people store in their minds and feel in their hearts is protected. It's actionsthat distinguish your rights from my rights. We would never stop JDL [the extremist/terrorist Jewish Defense League founded by Meir Kahane] from speaking or demonstrating, but we would certainly utilize every legal remedy to protect ourselves from violent acts."

One senses that these are not mere words to Mokhiber, but the expression of a deeply felt and carefully reasoned belief in the constitutional protection of an individual American's right to freedom of speech.

Arab Americans and the Civil Rights Act

Mokhiber was also part of a three-man team which in 1987 successfully appeared before the Supreme Court in St. Francis College vs. Al-Viazraji, which held that Arab Americans are eligible for protection under the Civil Rights Act. Under his leadership, ADC, in conjunction with the Arab-American Business and Professional Association, is petitioning the Small Business Administration (SBA) to include Arab Americans in the list of groups eligible for minority business status. Based on the 1987 Supreme Court decision, Mokhiber argues that "if Arab Americans are entitled to the protections of the Civil Rights Act, they are entitled to the benefits."

But, he notes, the Arab-American community is "not monolithic," and, even if the opportunity were presented, not every Arab American would choose to take advantage of special minority programs such as the SBA's. The needs of third-generation Arab Americans are not the same as those of recent immigrants, who "do face certain economic and social disadvantages. " It is ADC's job to respond to the needs of the community, "which we did. Obviously," Mokhiber adds, "we hope the need for minority status is temporary."

In fact, Mokhiber hopes the need for ADC is transitory: "My long-term goal (I'd prefer it to be short-term, but I'm realistic) is to wipe out the need for ADC's existence."

Ambitions for ADC

In the meantime, Albert Mokhiber has ambitious plans for ADC. He hopes to bolster the organization's contingent of lawyers so it has the "necessary firepower" to protect aggressively the constitutional and civil rights of Arab Americans. He speaks, too, of expanding ADC beyond the legal arena to address other community concerns, and of having ADC serve as a "springboard" for young Arab-American journalists, bankers, lawyers and other professionals.

Mokhiber also intends to continue and strengthen ADC's commitment to working "in conjunction with other ethnic, human and civil rights organizations. " His ultimate wish would be for ADC to be able to "curtail or close the door so that no ethnic group after us has to suffer the same injustice."

Janet McMahon is the managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.