Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2000, pages 95-101

Waging Peace

Forum Discusses Iranian Elections and Impact on U.S.-Iran Relations

The Iranian Trade Association (ITA) and the American Iranian Council (AIC) co-sponsored a breakfast forum on Feb. 4, two weeks before the Iranian elections, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. After welcoming remarks from Shahriar Afshar of ITA and John Radsan of AIC, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) talked about the changing political forces in Iran.

Ambassador Robert Pelletreau, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, gave a well-received keynote address. “In revolutionary Iran elections have been electrifying events,” Pelletreau said. “They are playing a key role in bringing about an evolution of leadership and policy to reflect the changing aspirations of Iranian society.”

After discussing why Iran is important to the Middle East and the United States, Pelletreau listed steps to lesson mutual hostility and work toward reconciliation. He suggested exchanging visits by elected representatives and relaxation of existing U.S. sanctions. This would support Iranian government efforts to improve civil aviation safety standards and efforts by Iranian cities to combat environmental pollution. Such Iranian exports as pistachios and carpets should again be allowed to enter the U.S., and food and medical exports in the other direction should be eased. The U.S. should also prepare a fact sheet detailing Iranian money and assets frozen in U.S. banks and the U.S. should welcome Iranian visitors with valid visas without the humiliating practice of fingerprinting.

Lowering the rhetoric on both sides and cooperating in fighting terrorism would also be helpful, Pelletreau concluded. “An attitude of respect by the United States for the people, history, religion and civilization of Iran is most likely to stimulate a similar posture by Iran toward the United States and lead to the sort of relationship which will benefit not only the two societies and economies, but the global community as well.”

Former Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. Amir Mahalati, who currently is affiliated with Search for Common Ground, discussed sanctions. He said they force Iranians to buy Airbus airplanes when they want Boeing, and prevent works of art or carpets from entering the U.S. “Sanctions put a whole nation behind bars,” he said.

He also talked about why the Iranian election is important, not only for the process of reform but because the reform process will be institutionalized. “Who should rule is not as important as how he should rule,” Mahalati said, adding, “The elections are encouraging critical thinking on all levels.” The political liturgy is also changing in the media, he said. “No one is sacred. Everyone is vehemently criticized.”

Other speakers included Center for Strategic and International Studies co-director of the Middle East studies program Judith Kipper; National Trade Council president Frank Kittredge; American Refugee Committee president Anthony J. Kozlowski; and Abbas Edalat of the Science and Arts Foundation, U.K.

—Delinda C. Hanley

The Reformers’ Stunning Victory in Iran: How and Why Did It Happen?

At a roundtable in Washington on the eve of the Iran parliamentary elections, experts agreed that the country was amidst a quiet revolution every bit as significant as the tumultuous one which occurred 21 years ago when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran.

The specialists, brought together by the U.S. Institute of Peace, agreed that the reformers were about to take control of parliament. What turned out to be a massive landslide for change in the Feb. 18 balloting, they said, could be traced to the power of the youth vote in Iran, building on the initial surprising victory at the polls in the 1997 presidential election by reform member of the clergy Mohammed Khatami.

Assessing the reasons for Iran’s transformation were: Elaine Sciolino of TheNew York Times and a senior fellow at the Institute; Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University; Farideh Farhi, an independent researcher at the Institute; and Jon Alterman, the Middle East program officer at the Institute.

“The most remarkable thing about the election,” Ms. Farhi said, “is that it is happening at all. Only four years ago, there were threats from the conservatives. Only a year ago, people said the Guardian Council controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei would use the election to stage a conservative coup. Yet they couldn’t do it. One way or another, reform keeps creeping ahead. Things are moving fairly quickly. Even former members of the Revolutionary Guard now support reform President Khatami. Acceptance of election results is extraordinary in Iranian politics. The underlying political culture of Iran has changed—after all, a majority of voters are under 25 years old.”

Moderator Sciolino, who has reported for TheNew York Times from Iran for many years, agreed. She noted that former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had taken off his trademark turban, in an effort to gain the votes of the new generation. His goal: to move to the center and convey an image of a compromise leader capable of assuming Iran’s third most powerful post, speaker of parliament. As it turned out, Rafsanjani failed to get the necessary 25 percent of the vote in the Tehran district on election day, and will face a runoff.

Professor Bakhash—examining the success of the reform movement on the eve of the election—noted that “everyone in Iran wants to buy into the idea that they’re part of the center in the political spectrum.” A substantial majority, he said, now favor freely operating political parties, reducing the power of the Council of Guardians over security agencies and the courts, more openness in foreign affairs, and more freedom of the press, especially the state-controlled electronic media.

The role of the print media, the specialists agreed, was crucial in fueling the reformist revolution. Although the clerical hard-liners have arrested some crusading editors and tried to clamp down on newspapers and other print media, these have had a remarkable degree of latitude, comparatively speaking, since Mr. Khatami’s election. One example: the print media’s candor during the election campaign in recalling political assassinations and political corruption during the Rafsanjani era, potentially damaging to the former president’s election prospects.

Another factor was President Khatami’s gradual, step-by-step, approach to change. This, the panelists agreed, has built confidence, and many clergy previously thought to be conservatives have joined the reform movement. Institute of Peace Middle East program officer Alterman compared Iran’s politics with the Tehran traffic, as he experienced it during a recent visit. He noted a “small number of green lights,” he said, which reminded him of the cautious way politicians advocating change must proceed. Although social discontent is fairly widespread, particularly among younger voters who now make up the majority, Alterman said, no violent revolution is apparent. “People,” he said, “are just waiting for the traffic to clear.”

Dr. Farhi agreed that Iran today is not what one would call “a revolutionary society, in the usual sense.” There is a real concern, she said, “about things getting out of control,” and neither the conservatives or reformers want that to happen. She recalled that both sides pulled back in the summer of 1999 when things seemed to be escalating out of hand during the hard-liners’ crackdown against students in the Tehran demonstrations. As she put it: “People across the political spectrum really want the system to work.”

Panelists were asked if they foresee a watershed in Iranian-U. S. relations because of the growing tide of reform and the desire of the younger generation to improve their own economic situation by reaching out and communicating with the world. Professor Bakhash said: “Obviously, Khatami in his CNN interview of a year or so ago wanted a cultural dialogue with the United States…It’s very important now that he bring Khomenei along.” The election campaign, however, was focused primarily on improving the economy and domestic issues, and all sides agreed Iran should retain its Islamic character and system and not be swayed by the policies of other nations. In Jon Alterman’s view: “Small gestures on each side [American and Iranian] are necessary for talks.” The Iranians are hoping for a bold gesture on the part of the United States, he felt, but that seems unlikely in the next 10 months.

All agreed that there is a rapidly growing consensus for the kind of gradual constitutional change in Iran which will, in a solid way, expand privatization, freedoms, and more openness to the outside world. Hardliners still control electronic media, the judiciary, the security agencies and foreign policy. But, the panelists said, both conservatives and reformers in Iran are adaptable, and favor the transformation already taking place. The conservatives can read the polls and election results. They must reckon with the fact that a new reform-minded parliament would strengthen Khatami and that economic change is essential. Speaking on the PBS Lehrer “Newshour” right after the election, Professor Bakhash summed it all up: “It will be difficult,” he said, “for the conservatives to stop the engine of reform in Iran.”

—Alan L. Heil

Members of Congress Call for Lifting Economic Sanctions Against Iraq

Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Congress joined more than 10 Arab-American and American-Muslim groups at a Capitol Hill press conference on Feb. 16 to urge the United Nations and the Clinton administration to lift economic sanctions on Iraq. Sanctions were imposed against Iraq after the Gulf war more than nine years ago. In 1996 the U.N. set up an oil-for-food program to ensure that all Iraqi oil revenue is spent on humanitarian needs, but that program has failed and Iraqis are dying.

On Feb. 13 U.N. humanitarian coordinator in charge of the oil-for-food program in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck, resigned after criticizing the sanctions for unjustly punishing the Iraqi people for the actions of a regime over which they have no control. He called the sanctions “a human tragedy.” Two days later Julia Burghardt, who headed the World Food Program in Iraq, did the same. Denis Halliday, von Sponeck’s predecessor, resigned in September 1998 to protest the economic sanctions and has become a leading campaigner to lift them.

Executive director of American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice Iman Farajallah welcomed the Congress members and the representatives of 11 co-sponsoring organizations as well as 34 endorsing organizations. Farajallah said support for the lifting of the devastating sanctions is growing as members of Congress add their names to a letter initiated by Reps. Tom Campbell (R-CA), John Conyers (D-MI), and David Bonior (D-MI) calling on the president to end the sanctions against Iraq. At the time of the press conference the letter to President Clinton, dated Jan. 31, had been signed by 71 members of Congress.

American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice vice president Yousef Al-Yousef said the weak and vulnerable are suffering as a result of sanctions which have killed more than a million civilians, according to reports from the United Nation’s Children’s Fund and other U.N. agencies operating in Iraq. He described the U.N. oil-for food program as insufficient, under-funded and a complete failure.

House Democratic Whip Bonior, a strong congressional supporter of Muslims and Arabs, called the sanctions a weapon of mass destruction. “The children are the real victims of our economic sanctions against Iraq,” said Bonior. Sanctions are “not just a moral outrage but a strategic blunder. It’s high time we recognize that this embargo hasn’t hurt Saddam Hussain or the pampered elite that supports him but has been devastating for millions of Iraqi people. It’s infanticide masquerading as policy.”

UNICEF reports that despite the U.N.’s oil-for-food program, several thousand children under the age of five die every month from disease and malnutrition, Bonior said. “Our message is simple. We’re saying: millions of children are suffering and we refuse to close our eyes to the slaughter of innocents.”

Senator Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said that the sanctions are “not just counterproductive, but immoral. It could be argued that the sanctions have in fact strengthened the regime and weakened the people who would be needed to overthrow the regime. Our country is famous for standing up to dictators, but we’re hurting ordinary citizens of Iraq, not their dictator,” Kucinich said. “I stand here opposed to the regime in Iraq and opposed to the sanctions at the same time. The second resignation of a U.N. official tells you something. Sanctions have failed.”

A spokesman for Campbell, who could not be present but who initiated the letter to Clinton, said that the anti-sanctions movement “is truly a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill.” Describing the dire circumstances of the Iraqi people, Campbell’s statement declared that if lifting the sanctions saved one child it was worth it.

Conyers, ranking Democrat of the House Judiciary Committee, who also could not be at the news conference, sponsored a 1998 letter to the president calling for the lifting of economic sanctions. He co-sponsored the latest letter with Bonior and Campbell calling on the president to “de-link the economic sanctions on Iraq, which have been both a political and humanitarian failure, from military sanctions.”

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, suggested the fight to lift sanctions will be difficult because Saddam has become such a hated figure in the United States. He applauded the courage of the signatories of the letter to Clinton. They are heroes, he said, because it takes courage to recognize that a policy isn’t working and that America was wrong in this case. To acknowledge this and take a stand to do the right thing from here on in an election year makes them especially vulnerable, Zogby concluded, and voters should support them for their moral courage.

Aly R. Abuzaakouk, executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC), said, “After nine years of devastation and suffering it is time that our country stops punishing innocent civilians for the actions of a regime they have no control over. Our administration’s obsession with Saddam Hussain has obstructed our vision of the pain and suffering the sanctions have inflicted on a population of 23 million.” He called the almost daily U.S. and British bombing of Iraq throughout 1999 and this year as the “unspoken war” that rarely receives attention in the U.S. media.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) public relations director Hussein Ibish said, “I think ordinary people in America have no idea of what has been done in their name. I think Americans would take the lead in stopping these economic sanctions. If they knew the humanitarian disaster they have caused, Americans would be enraged.”

As he packed up equipment, Thabit El-Bardici, an Egyptian journalist from the Middle East Broadcasting Center, an Arabic-language television network, asked rhetorically, “how many articles will actually be printed in major American newspapers and how many clips will be shown on U.S. national television after this news conference?” Answering his own question, he described the unwillingness of mainstream U.S. newspapers and electronic media to inform the U.S. public not only about what is happening to the Iraqi people, but also on opposition to the sanctions by many U.S. and world leaders, as a “firewall” against needed changes in the policy.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Usamah Al-Kurdi Describes Business opportunities in Saudi Arabia

Secretary General of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry Usamah Al-Kurdi briefed corporate officials, legislative assistants, and media on Saudi Arabia’s economic expansion on Jan. 28 at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, in Washington, DC. Al-Kurdi leads the umbrella organization for Saudi Arabia’s regional and local chambers of commerce and industry and is a major participant in Saudi-U.S. bilateral trade and investment relations, including the Gulf Cooperation Council-U.S. economic and business dialogues. He also plays a pivotal role in crafting the Kingdom’s commercial and economic liberalization measures as Saudi Arabia negotiates to join the World Trade Organization and discusses commercial and economic reforms.

Saudi Arabia is shaping its economic, commercial and energy policies to make it a very attractive location for American business ventures, Al-Kurdi said. This is becasue the petrodollars the Kingdom has earned over the years were spent building highways, airports, seaports, a causeway to Bahrain, and creating the electrical and telecommunications infrastructure that make the country so attractive to international companies.

Although Saudi Arabia still has an oil-based economy and is the biggest producer of petrochemical products in the Arab world, it is now making an effort to diversify, Al-Kurdi said. The government always used the private sector to accomplish its modernization goals, Al Kurdi continued, and now plans to privatize its airlines, railways, and power and desalination plants. As a result the private sector is growing even faster than before, he said. The Kingdom is also ready to compete in the international market and export Saudi products abroad.

Al-Kurdi provided a fresh perspective on emerging new business opportunities for U.S. companies in Saudi Arabia. He said the Supreme Economic Council, headed by Crown Prince Abdullah, plans to improve visa procedures and develop tourism in addition to pilgrimages to the holy sites. With its dependable supplies of oil and gas, an evolving economy and high population growth (50 percent of the population is under the age of 15), Saudi Arabia is a good market for U.S. products, Al-Kurdi said. There are no import barriers and 21.3 percent of the Kingdom’s imports already come from the U.S., Al-Kurdi pointed out, demonstrating that this is the ideal time for American companies to work with Saudi Arabia.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Two Prominent Palestinian Legal Experts Look to Future in Peace Institute Panel

At the U. S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Jan. 19, two of the architects of the legal system in an embryonic Palestinian state assessed the status of law there and its prospects. The two panelists were Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Meddien and the chairman of the Palestinian delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian joint legal committee, Tawfiq Abu Ghazala.

Justice Minister Abu Meddien noted that among the greatest tasks facing the future constitution makers of Palestine will be to sort out and build upon a welter of what he called “occupation” laws. These, he said, may differ for the West Bank and Gaza and are derived from Ottoman, British, and Israeli codes and even include some laws imposed by Jordan in the period between 1948 and 1967 when it ruled the West Bank.

Currently, areas exclusively under Palestinian Authority control are administered under a temporary basic law, formulated in stages since the mid-1990s under the Oslo accords to govern a division of powers in the Authority between the chairman and the legislature. There are seven chapters in this law, and some provisions are awaiting Chairman Arafat’s signature.

A formal constitution, Palestinian legal experts say, will only be possible after the declaration of an independent state. To move more quickly in advance of that might complicate the peace negotiations with Israel.

Abu Meddien said the Palestinian Authority is “starting from zero” in constructing a legal system and listed these challenges:

• The critical absence of sovereignty. The most serious challenge to a Palestinian legal system remains the lack of independence. As Abu Meddien put it: “Real peace will give us respect for the law, the sovereignty of the law. Palestinians can’t wait any longer; it’s a new century. We need education not only for peace but for a civil society.”
  
• Inequities in law enforcement. Under the Israeli occupation, Israelis are immune from any prosecution in Palestinian courts, even if they are suspected of a crime, yet Palestinians are subject to prosecution, at times without due process, in Israeli courts. Abu Meddien expressed hope that the Palestinian Authority can work with Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin on the problem of immunity.
  
• The lack of trained attorneys. For the first two years after the Palestinian Authority came into existence in the mid-1990s, Abu Meddien said, “it was a nightmare.” About 1,200 lawyers were recruited from Europe, the United States and Egypt to assist.
  
• The need for general legal education. The Palestinian Authority justice minister said significant investment is needed to effect “a revolution in education, including legal education” in Palestinian schools and universities. There is a particular need, he said, for computers in these institutions to foster widespread understanding of the rule of law and civic society.

The chairman of the joint Palestinian-Israeli legal committee, Tawfiq Abu Ghazala, reiterated the feeling among many Palestinians that the lack of immunity in Israeli courts creates “two levels of law” and must be addressed in any final peace settlement. The disparity, he said, between that and complete Israeli immunity in Palestinian courts has damaged the efforts of police chiefs to work together and set back the dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian law enforcement officials.

The panel was questioned about the extent of the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to a rule of law. A Georgetown University graduate student asked how the Authority could justify imprisoning without charges two vocal opponents of Chairman Arafat, Professor Abdul Sitar Qassem of Birzeit University and poet Ahmed Qatameh. Abu Meddien replied that the two dissidents had called for overthrowing the Palestinian state during critical peace negotiations with Israel. Their efforts to foment a civil war, he said, justified their detention. He said other outspoken opponents of Arafat who have been critical of corruption in the Authority government are not in jail.

In a similar vein, another questioner asked if Chairman Arafat is fully committed to the independence of the judiciary. Abu Meddien said the current basic law is being adjusted. It provides for appointment of the attorney general by the chairman, but Arafat, he said, believes this should be done by the legislative council. That law is being changed, he said, and will be signed shortly.

Neil Kritz, U. S. Institute of Peace panel chair, asked what the United States might do to assist in the development of a Palestinian legal system. Panelists responded that support through the World Bank remained essential, but that frequently consultants and experts absorb an inordinate amount of the funding in travel and maintenance costs. Less than half of a recent $5.5 million World Bank grant, they said, went to actually helping recipients on the ground. The panelists suggested that greater use be made of Egyptian and Moroccan consultants, who speak Arabic and charge much less.

An Israeli representing the Jerusalem Link, an organization of Palestinian and Israeli women working together in the area to focus on building a dialogue and on justice issues, said she was encouraged by what she had heard. “You are fortunate,” she said, “to start from the beginning in building a legal system.” She would offer only one piece of advice as a Palestinian constitution is drafted: “Ensure separation of religion and state,” she said. “That doesn’t exist in Israel today.”

—Alan L. Heil

Father Salayta’s Challenging Milestones: New Hope for Palestinian Christians in the Millennial Year

Father Emil Salayta, an energetic pioneer in education and housing in the West Bank and Gaza, has been touring the United States to again focus attention on Christian Palestinians and their plight.

The Palestinian Christians consider themselves “the living stones” of their faith this millennial year. Their ancestors of a hundred generations ago were, after all, the first Christians. Yet their number, in the Palestinian community as a whole, is now scarcely 2 percent. That’s about a tenth of their proportion in the Palestinian population in 1920.

The term “living stones” stems from the fact that other Christians around the world are attracted to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other sites of early Christendom to see the “holy stones”—shrines such as the Churches of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Father Salayta and other Christian leaders are appealing for attention and assistance to people, not shrines, in the year 2000.

Nonetheless, the struggle for survival of the Palestinian Christian community may witness some important landmarks in the next few months. In a special talk to a Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation gathering Jan. 31 at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, Father Salayta gave a progress report on efforts to improve schools and housing for Palestinian Christians:

• Palestinian Christians have now established more than 40 schools in Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel in an effort to encourage both Christian and Muslim Palestinian families to remain in the region.
  
• Father Salayta’s landmark Living Stones Housing Project in Birzeit—an aggregate of 47 units—is slated for formal dedication as a millennial milestone in May. The $3,175,000 that made it possible came largely from grants by World Vision International and the government of Spain. About $250,000 more is needed to complete the work.
  
• Recently, Father Salayta learned in Madrid that Spain may be willing to assist with construction of a $1,200,000 secondary school in Gaza. He thanked the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC and First Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, for their assistance in both the housing and educational initiatives.

Father Salayta sees the millennial season—from Advent 1999 through Easter, 2001—as “a major moment of encounter between the Christians of the West and those of the East.” He expressed hope that pilgrims from outside Palestine would visit small villages and forge relationships with individual Palestinian families. In his words: “It’s a sign of hope for the people to feel caring, attention, love from abroad, a sense that there is a future for the living stones.” Those witnessing at close hand the mood of Palestinians in the Holy Land this year, Father Salayta said, will discover that:

• Many Palestinians are dispirited about the peace process, and “we’re afraid, as Palestinians, that an Israeli-Syrian agreement will delay or weaken an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. We fear an imposed solution this year on Palestinians which will not be just, will not be equal.”
  
• Israeli security agencies, not necessarily at the behest of their government, have been primarily responsible for the recent Muslim-Christian unrest over construction of a mosque in Nazareth.
  
• There’s a thirst among Palestinians for a civil society and the rule of law, for pluralist elections organized in a systematic way—with voters freely able to choose leaders for fixed terms of office.
  
• Schools have recently introduced a program entitled “Hearts and Hands Around the World.” The goal: to teach global citizenship and how to build a civil society. An encouraging sign: pupils in the Palestinian Christian schools have voted to collect money themselves to help four orphanages in Palestine and one orphanage in Iraq.
  
• There is a growing recognition in the younger generation in Palestine of the need to reach out and help others. For example, the school children have welcomed in their midst approximately 200 exiled Iraqi youngsters in their classes, and are even debating assistance to an orphanage in Zimbabwe.

Father Salayta’s recent U.S. tour has included appeals for help to both the Middle East Council of Churches and the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF). He was a co-founder last year of the latter non-profit national organization. HCEF includes a range of churches from Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. Its primary goal is to help preserve the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

—Alan L. Heil

Moroccan Folklore Group Performs at Kennedy Center

Taite Matine Souiri Group, a traditional Moroccan folklore troupe founded in 1990, performed Feb. 14 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The group, originally created by Dr. Hassan Souri to take part in the Marrakesh Festival of Popular Arts, presented the U.S. national capital audience a mosaic of the colors, sounds, rhythms and movements of Moroccan folk music and dancing, which have evolved over Morocco’s 13 centuries of history as a nation.

In the Berber language, Taite Matine means the sisters, and the group performed some of the most popular Arab and Berber folkloric dances such as the “Ahwash” dance of the High Atlas, the “Ahidous” of the Middle Atlas, “Dekka El Marrakshia” of Marrakesh, and “Taktuka Jablia” of the north. Since 1990, the group has performed in China, Europe, the Arab world, and the United States.

—Adila Masood

Startec Launches Arab Virtual Community, Free Internet Services

The Arab community has gone virtual. Startec Global Communications Corporation, based in Bethesda, Maryland, recently announced the launch of eStart, its Arab community in cyberspace. Combining free Internet access, e-mail, and a host of other free offerings, Startec aims to offer those in both the Arab world and the Arab diaspora a place to come together online, unrestricted by geographical constraints.

“What we have here is a town in cyberspace,” said Robert Farrah, community producer of eStart.

But their ambitions do not stop with the Arab world—Startec wants to use its 10 years of ethnic marketing experience to create a group of online ethnic communities.

“Our mission is to achieve market dominance of targeted ethnic communities in major urban centers worldwide by providing voice, data, video, and Internet service,” said Tony Das, chief operating officer and head of on-line services for Startec.

Ram Mukunda, founder and chief executive officer of Startec, noted, “Our vision is to provide our customers with more than just Internet access…we seek to provide them with a single destination on the Internet for obtaining in-depth, local content relevant to their home cultures, under the umbrella of eStart.”

Within the next year, Startec plans to have launched eight additional virtual communities, focusing on the Turkish, Iranian, South Asian, Chinese, Russian and Central European, Israeli, Latin American and East Asian communities. Startec will use the eStart Web site at www.estart.com as the “gateway” for the various ethnic communities.

Startec, whose stock is traded on the Nasdaq under “STGC,” attributes much of its success to clever marketing within various ethnic communities and its emphasis on developing services in emerging economies.

“We are leveraging our telecom agreements all over the globe into Internet service,” said Das, reiterating that the Internet access Startec is providing via eStart is free of charge.

Das concluded, “With eStart, you will soon be able to haggle with a merchant in a Moroccan souq from anywhere in the world.”

—Rob Swanson

Former AUB Physics Professor Discusses Dearth of Arab Scientific Research and the Arab “Brain Drain”

Dr. A.B. Zahlan, former professor of physics at the American University of Beirut, spoke Feb. 2 at the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine in Washington, DC on the causes of Arab emigration and the conditions of and impediments to progressive scientific research in the Arab world. Dr. Zahlan, a Palestinian, also discussed the impact of these issues on Arab political culture and on the Palestinian problem, which he described as “part of a larger Arab problem.”

“The Palestinians themselves cannot fight several superpowers,” Dr. Zahlan said. But the Arabs as a whole “occupy the most strategic and valuable land” in religious, economic and historical terms. Further, he explained, the current total population of 300 million Arabs will double within the next 20 years despite a progressively growing exodus to the West from all of the Arab countries, with the exception of the six petroleum-producing states of the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

A regressive political culture, Zahlan reasoned, is at the root of the Arab world’s failure to fund scientific research. Addressing the reasons why Arab countries are lagging behind in progress in comparison to many other nations, Dr. Zahlan pointed out that a mere 0.3 percent of the gross domestic product of the Arab states is allotted to scientific research.

Even more surprising, considering the phenomenal economic growth in Arab oil-producing countries such as the UAE, Zahlan noted, the UAE “does not spend practically a penny on R&D.” Rather, like other wealthy Arab countries, the UAE has “become accustomed to importing [technology] on a turn-key basis.”

Similarly, in the oil industry, Dr. Zahlan said, “all resource materials for production are imported from abroad.” Arab governments spend $30 to $40 billion annually with foreign companies for technical services and equipment. As a result, he said, the governments have “legal ownership,” but not “technical ownership” of the internal production and planning of these industries.

The former AUB professor linked the Arab “technology deficiency” to the “brain drain” of Arab scientists who, after returning to the region from study abroad, are faced with severely limited resources and a lack of genuine, regional research institutions.

Dr. Zahlan explained that there is a “disconnectedness” in Arab societies because there are scientists, people, land and resources, but none are truly connected with any of the others. He described this as a very serious internal problem facing Arab countries because “our societies have made the investments, but have forgotten to make the actual connections.” And, according to Dr. Zahlan, “scientific research is essentially useless without actual usage.”

—Adila Masood

 

SIDEBAR

USAID Grants $2.25 Million to AMIDEAST for Palestinian Legal System

The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded AMIDEAST a $2.25 million grant over the next three years to help strengthen the Palestinian legal profession. Under the program, AMIDEAST, working with the American Bar Association and Brandon and Associates, will provide support and training for the Palestinian Bar Association. The aims of the project are to improve the quality of legal services in the West Bank and Gaza and to strengthen the ability of Palestinian lawyers to contribute to the rule of law. “As a result of this project,” AMIDEAST says, “Palestinian lawyers will be able to serve as a key resource for the protection of the rights and freedoms of criminal defendants and civil litigants.”—Alan L. Heil

SIDEBAR 2

Erez and The Rule of Law: A Training School for Hatred

Abu Ghazala reminded his Peace Institute audience that Palestinians are “for the first time governing themselves, and building a rule of law.” But he urged listeners to be patient, “to please take into account that it takes time.” He added: “Help us, do not attack us…the Palestinian people need to learn from each other, and talk to each other.” Even the new generation has a lot to overcome. Abu Ghazala told the story of his son, who went to the Erez checkpoint between Gaza and Israel to get an identity card. All three times, he was unsuccessful. On an e-mail to his family, Abu Ghazala said, the son described Erez as “a Training School for Hatred.” That, he said, was far from his son’s instinct, a lad who believes intensely that “all can live together in peace and love.”

—A.H.

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