ISRAEL-BASHING HALTED BY CITY

AFTER 2 YEARS OF ISRAEL ATTACKS, CHICAGO'S ARAB HERITAGE MONTH GOES CULTURAL

City officials remain unresponsive

The intifada is fading away -- at least in Chicago, and at least for 2004, if one is to judge from this year's Arab Heritage Month.

It's a development on which City officials remained uncommunicative last week, but it is a fact.

Ever since the second intifada in September 2000, the annual Arab Heritage Month, a project of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR), has scheduled programs which have increasingly focussed on Israel.

From 1994 to 2000, according to a study by the Jewish Star last year, there were no programs about the Jewish state during the month-long event in November.

Indeed, the word "Israel" appeared only one time in official calendar programs during that entire period.

Then, in 2001 -- the first time that the City of Chicago's Arab Heritage Month could reflect the outbreak of the second intifada -- 9 per cent of the programs were on Israel.

This increased to 14 per cent in 2002, and to a striking 26 per cent in 2003.

For 2004, only two of 49 programs -- 4 per cent -- relate to Israel.

The reason for this dramatic change is traceable to the absence of programming from non-Arab Christian groups, which created the skewed focus in the first place.

Specifically, two so-called "mainline Protestant" organizations (the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chicago Synod, and the Church Network for Education on Palestine) -- together with the Quaker American Friends Service -- accounted for last year's surge in anti-Israel offerings during Arab Heritage Month.

None of these groups is involved in this year's programming.

For 2004 the emphasis has returned to the type of cultural offerings which typified the early years of this project, when it was known as "Arab Cultural Month".

Two-thirds of the 2004 listings (34) are for film showings or concerts. Lectures on historical and contemporary issues abound. Overall, there are five programs dealing directly or indirectly with, or by, women.

There is even an evening devoted to a table tennis competition.

This is a marked contrast to 2003, when Arab Heritage Month served as a foil for anti-Israel programming.

Among the offerings: the "Tragedy in the Holy Land: The Second Uprising," a "Worldwide Protest against Israel's Separation Wall," and "The U.S. role in Israel and Palestine" (delivered by the author of Dishonest Broker: The U.S. role in Israel and Palestine).

This year, the only use of the word "occupation" in the official City guide relates to the "U.S. occupation" of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

City unresponsive

Last week, City of Chicago officials remained unresponsive to Jewish Star inquiries about this development.

During a three day period, Khaled J. Elkhatib, the head of the CCHR Advisory Council on Arab Affairs since at least 2003, did not answer telephone or email messages, or react to contacts made through third parties.

A. W. Farouk Mustafa, a member of the CCHR Board of Commissioners, did not respond to an email and remained unreachable by telephone.

Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman, another CCHR Commissioner, told the Jewish Star he was unfamiliar with the features of Arab Heritage Month.

Last year, an article in the Jewish Star documented the way in which Protestant groups used the City's Arab Heritage Month in 2003 for attacks on Israel (Nov. 21, 2003).

The article noted that City officials, although unaware of the development, defended it.

An editorial charged that "Through lack of oversight, the City has given its imprimatur to those who want to use it to promote anti-Israel feeling."

The editorial called on the City to "re-focus Arab Heritage Month on Arab heritage."

Returning to Arab heritage

Since 2001, the City of Chicago's Arab Heritage Month has increasingly focussed on anti-Israel programming. This year represents an end to, or hiatus in, that trend.

Year # Programs Programs on Israel %

1994^1 20 None 0

1995 29 None 0

1996 23 None 0

2000^2 39 None^3 0

2001 33 3 9

2002 35 5 14

2003 35 9 26

2004 49 2 4

Notes:

(1) In 1994-95, the program was called "Arab Cultural Month"; it was named "Arab Heritage Month" beginning in 1996.

(2) According to Peter Kostakis, CCHR public information officer, there appears to have been a gap in formal observation of Arab Heritage Month around this time.

(3) A film shown on Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was produced by an Israeli Jew, but the film and program are described as focussing on Darwish.

Source: City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations; Jewish Star research

Article copyright Star Media Group, Inc.