N.J. Arab-Americans debate compensation for Palestinians
By: WAYNE PARRY (Sun, May/02/2004)
PATERSON, N.J. - President Bush's support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's decision to keep some settlements in the Gaza Strip provoked anger
among New Jersey's Arab-American community.
But there was a more pragmatic side, too: Members of the community argue Israel
should pay compensation to Palestinians who lose their land.
"He who does not own deeded the land to he who does not deserve," said Hani
Awadallah, president of the Arab-American Civic Organization in Paterson. "This
is the beginning of the crumbling of the peace process, if there is still a
process left. This is the end of the road map. I don't think any Palestinian
will accept such a humiliating situation."
Awadallah said the best that can be done is to revert to the 1967 borders and
compensate those Palestinians who lost land.
In restaurants, coffee shops and neighborhoods, the topic gets debated
enthusiastically among Arab-Americans in Paterson, Jersey City and elsewhere.
"I wish he had said, `Since Israelis have to live and Palestinians have to have
a state, hold onto the settlements but pay compensation to the Palestinians,' "
said Aref Assaf, a Palestinian activist from Denville.
Over plates of kefta kebabs, rice and hummus in a Paterson restaurant, drinking
staggeringly sweet tea from small cups, Assaf summed up the feeling of many New
Jersey Arab-Americans, weary of the long struggle but determined to see it end
on equitable terms.
"This is my land and my house," he said, repeating a typical sentiment in
Palestinian areas. "It is not Bush's decision whether or not I go back. If you
say I can't go because of this certain situation, give me something in return."
So far, that idea has not been seriously proposed in Israel. Allyson Gall,
executive director of the American Jewish Committee's New Jersey chapter, said
that's largely because Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have proved
themselves to be unreliable negotiating partners.
She also said world opinion unfairly blames Israel for taking defensive measures
against terrorism.
"The Israelis are damned if they do, and dead if they don't," she said. "How do
you make peace when there's nobody to make peace with? They should use the Gaza
as an industrial area for growth, not a corridor for terror."
Gall said once Palestinians show a true desire for peace, details such as
compensation could be negotiated.
When Bush first backed Sharon's plan last month, New Jersey Arab-Americans were
so angry they began making plans for a protest rally outside the federal
building in Paterson or in New York City.
But opinion was sharply split on the wisdom of doing so, with opponents saying
the last thing the Arab-American community needed during wartime was to be seen
chanting anti-Israeli slogans in a public square. So protests have confined
themselves to small gatherings, or letters to newspaper editors.
Hassan Mahmoud, an Egyptian native and retired executive with a Japanese trading
company, said Sharon's plan would relegate Palestinians to the most barren
sections of the Gaza, where no viable state could survive.
"He's squeezing the Palestinians into what is left, and that is the desert,"
said Mahmoud, who lives in Westfield.
Assaf agreed.
"If you say Israel has the right to keep what it wishes in the West Bank, there
will never be a Palestinian state," he said. "You're undermining it by what you
have promised Israel."
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