Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 35)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 35)
- المحتوى
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Palestinian Statehood Addressed
at the Democratic National Convention
History was made in Atlanta,
Georgia, on July 18-21 at the
Democratic National Convention
(DNC) by Arab-Americans who, for
the first time, initiated a debate on
Palestinian rights on the convention
floor of a major political party. Over
50 Arab-American delegates (for
Jackson, Dukakis, Gore), standing
committee members, campaign and
party staff lobbied in support of
perhaps the most controversial pro-
posed minority plank ever to be
brought to a major political party con-
vention. The plank read as follows:
«That the United States help to end the
impasse in the Middle East by adopting
a policy which supports the Palestinian
people’s right to self-determination and
independent statehood and which sup-
ports Israel’s existence and security
within internationally recognized
borders.»
This resolution was also supported
by over 100 Arab-American and
Jewish-American delegates, alternates
and standing committee members who
joined to form Democrats for Middle
East Peace. The resolution received
over 1,500 endorsements in only two
days. Chairing Democrats for Middle
East Peace are Lois Levine Barrett,
Missouri; Sami Odeh, California; Liz
Blum, Vermont; and Jim Zogby,
Washington D.C.
Prior to the convention, the Jackson
and Dukakis campaigns had disagreed
on 13 issues on the party platform.
Later, 10 were resolved and three re-
mained: fair taxes; no first use (of
nuclear weapons); and _ self-
determination for Palestinians. Unable
to resolve these issues, the Jackson
campaign decided to «stick to the prin-
ciples» and called for an open debate
on the convention floor with four
speakers.
Arab-Americans and _ progressives
were able to place the Palestinian ques-
tion on the convention agenda due to
the convergence of two factors: (1) the
impact of the Palestinian uprising on
public opinion; and (2) the rise of the
Reverand Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow
Coalition as a significant movement on
the US political scene. As a broad
coalition of oppressed minorities,
workers and other progressive strata,
the Rainbow Coalition provided the
vehicle for raising the Palestinian issue
in the context of an overall progressive
agenda, breaking the black-out impos-
ed by the pro-Israeli lobby.
The Palestinian issue was debated
Tuesday night, the second day of the
DNC by Dr. James Zogby (a
Lebanese-American) and Rep. Mervyn
Dymally (California) in support of the
plank and Sen. Daniel Inouye (Hawaii)
and Rep. Charles Schumer (New York),
opposed. After impassioned speeches
from both sides, the last speaker on the
issue, Rep. Dymally, explained that for
the sake of unity and peace within the
Democratic Party and to avoid a split,
he was calling for a «no-vote» on the
Middle East plank. He specifically ad-
dressed Congressman Schumer, an
avowed Zionist, in his speech.
GAINS
Nonetheless, serious gains were made
by the various forces working on the
issue of Palestinian statehood,
spearheaded by the Arab American In-
stitute (AAI) and its executive director,
Dr. James Zogby. They are as follows:
- In ten states, Democratic Conventions
voted to support a new Middle East
policy: Washington, Texas, Minnesota,
Iowa, Maine, Oregon, Vermont,
California, lilinois and New Mexico all
supported self-determination and
Palestinian statehood. This is 20% of
the states in the US.
- The debate at the Democratic Na-
tional Convention had national ex-
posure in print and film and before
over 4,000 delegates. There was
coverage in the New York Times (July
20th), Los Angeles Times (July 20th)
and the Washington Jewish Weekly
(July 21st) to name a few.
- In 1984, at the Democratic Conven-
tion in San Francisco, there were only
four Arab-American delegates. In
1988, there were 46.
- The Arab-American delegates were
successful in introducing and
establishing the inclusion of three
planks in the final text of the
Democratic Party platform: (a) a plank
on immigrants’ political rights; (b) a
strong stand against hate violence and
negative stereotyping; and (c) a plank in
support of Lebanon’s sovereignty, ter-
ritorial integrity and independence, and
calling for a negotiated settlement to
the Iraq-Iran war.
- Anti-Arab and other inflammatory
language was prevented from being in-
cluded in the party platform.
- For the first time,an Arab-American
held a position on the prestigious
Democratic National Committee.
As if to verify these gains and the
threat they pose to the pro-Israeli lob-
by, a memorandum was sent by the
President of the American Israeli
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),
Edward C. Levy, Jr. on August 3rd, to
the AIPAC leadership. This
memorandum was leaked; it stated in
part: «Despite the fact that this battle
was won, we cannot ignore the warning
signs it presents for us. We are being
directly challenged. For the first time
anti-Israeli forces have organized
grassroots support... We have our work
cut out for us!» This memorandum
signals the closeness with which the
pro-Israeli lobby is following the
movement of the Arab-American
community and its entrance into the
world of electoral politics.
Arab-Americans have definitely em-
barked on the road to involvement in
electoral politics in order to express
their legitimate concern about racism,
discrimination and immigrant harass-
ment, as well as to express their concern
for peace in the Middle East, a concern
shared by all progressive forces. @
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- Democratic Palestine : 30
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