Date:

July 2, 2008

Dr. Lara Deeb
Assistant professor of women's studies in the Department of Women's Studies at the University of California, Irvine, a cultural anthropologist who has spent extensive time researching community activism in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and author of several books and articles including An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon, and Hizballah: A Primer.

Topic:

"Understanding Hizbullah":  A lecture given by Dr. Lara Deeb at Rice University in April 2008, discussing Hizbullah in the third lecture of the Arab World Lecture Series.  In this lecture, Dr. Deeb presents an overview of the origins of Hizbullah and the group's development into a multi-faceted political party. She also discusses the social and cultural institutions and networks associated with the party and with its constituents in the southern suburb of Beirut and the party's appeal for many of Lebanon's Shi'i Muslims.

Date:

June 25, 2008   

Ali Abunimah
Fellow at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC, an expert on Palestine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, and author of the book "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse".

Topics:

The latest on the truce between Hamas and Israel and its impact on Palestinians living in Gaza; Israel's ongoing plan to expand colonies on Palestinian land and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent warning about the negative effect of Israel's settlement building; the U.S. presidential candidates and their stands on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; and much more.

Date:

June 18, 2008   

Raed Jarrar
Iraq Consultant for the American Friends Service Committee, who was born and raised in Iraq. He was recently profiled in Mother Jones: "Where Is Raed Now? Meet the Iraqi exile (and former Salam Pax blogger) who could foil Bush's plans for permanent bases near Baghdad."

Topic:

The U.S. plan  to establish 58 permanent military basis in Iraq, and the recent Iraqi parliamentarians' visit (accompanied by Raed Jarrar) to Washington and New York to testify before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee about the U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Date:

June 11, 2008   

Ambassador Edward Peck
Former U.S. Chief of Mission in Iraq and former U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania, who also served as Deputy Director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism and as a Foreign Service Officer in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.

Topic:

The Presidential Candidates' (Senators John McCain and Barack Obama) views on the U.S. Foreign Policy towards the Middle East, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the candidates' recent comments at the Pro-Israel Lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), and the influence lobbies have on the U.S. foreign policy.

Date:

June 4, 2008   

Dahr Jamail
Award-winning independent journalist, reporter and photographer who visited Iraq several times as well as other Arab countries and has written extensively about the Middle East and especially Iraq, and author of the book Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.

Topics:

The true and real current situation in occupied Iraq; the recently held regional Winter Soldier hearings; former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's memoir in which he revealed that President Bush relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war; and the Presidential Candidates' stand on occupied Iraq.

Date:

May 28, 2008   

Professor Edward Said's Speech
Audio clip of a speech made by the late professor Edward Said, Palestine's foremost political commentator, an internationally renowned writer and scholar, one of the best-known and respected Arab Americans who was a giant figure in the Arab-American community, and for Arabs in the Middle East and across the world.
 

Membership Drive

Date:

May 21, 2008   

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta - PART 2
Founder and President of the Palestine Land Society of London; Director of International Development Projects in Palestine; former member of the Palestine National Council; and author of numerous papers who has also edited and compiled the Atlas of Palestine 1948, a monumental work which contains a wealth of information on Palestine under the British Mandate until and including the 1948 War/Al-Nakba (catastrophe).

Topic:

Personal account of how Professor Abu Sitta became a refugee in Palestine in 1948. Using data from his research, Abu-Sitta shows how over 600 Palestinian villages were systematically depopulated by the advancing Israeli forces, leaving many others dismembered by an arbitrary cease-fire line. With maps and demographic statistics, Abu-Sitta shows that, in effect, Zionist policies were an ethnic cleansing campaign that resulted in a massive transfer of native Palestinians to the countries bordering Israel, where thousands remain within 100 miles from their original communities. This is a special interview produced by Alternate Focus.
 

Membership Drive

Date:

May 14, 2008   

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta - PART 1
Founder and President of the Palestine Land Society of London; Director of International Development Projects in Palestine; former member of the Palestine National Council; and author of numerous papers who has also edited and compiled the Atlas of Palestine 1948, a monumental work which contains a wealth of information on Palestine under the British Mandate until and including the 1948 War/Al-Nakba (catastrophe).

Topic:

Personal account of how Professor Abu Sitta became a refugee in Palestine in 1948. Using data from his research, Abu-Sitta shows how over 600 Palestinian villages were systematically depopulated by the advancing Israeli forces, leaving many others dismembered by an arbitrary cease-fire line. With maps and demographic statistics, Abu-Sitta shows that, in effect, Zionist policies were an ethnic cleansing campaign that resulted in a massive transfer of native Palestinians to the countries bordering Israel, where thousands remain within 100 miles from their original communities. This is a special interview produced by Alternate Focus.
 

Membership Drive

Date:

May 7, 2008

Dr. Jess Ghannam
Palestinian-American Doctor; Professor at both UCSF and SFSU; human rights activist; member of the international executive committee of Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition; board member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program; and former president of the San Francisco chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Topic:

The 60^th anniversary of Al-Nakba (the 1948 catastrophe), when Israel forced nearly one million Palestinians out of their homes, massacred hundreds of Palestinians, destroyed hundreds of their  villages and towns, and declared the creation of the State of Israel. Dr. Ghannam is the son of Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes when Israel was established 60 years ago.  We will talk with him about Al-Nakba, and the Right of Return.

Date:

April 30, 2008

Joshua Landis
Director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma and Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies in the School of International and Area Studies; author of numerous articles and the forthcoming book "Democracy in Syria", who also writes the weblog “SyriaComment.com”.

Topics:

The allegations by the U.S. government and Israel that Syria was building a nuclear reactor (the site Israel bombed in September), and the recent talk about a possible Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan Heights (occupied by Israel since 1967).

Date:

April 23, 2008

Sydney Levy
Longtime Human Rights Professional and Activist, and Director of Campaigns and Chapters for Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the largest grassroots Jewish peace organizations in the U.S. He is a key strategist on the Caterpillar campaign, and Program Director at Media Alliance. He lived in Jerusalem and has a Masters degree in Jewish History from the Hebrew University.

Topics:

President Jimmy Carter's recent visit to the Middle East and his meetings with Hamas Leaders and the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.  We will also talk about the dire situation in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli measures; and Sydney's participation in the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (currently being held in Fort Worth, Texas to make policy decisions for the 11.5 million-member denomination) in order to consider a number of resolutions dealing with divestment from Israel.

Date:

April 16, 2008

Laila Al-Arian
The daughter of Dr. Sami Al-Arian; a freelance journalist based in New York; author, with Chris Hedges, of the forthcoming Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians (Nation Books), based on their 2007 Nation article "The Other War."  Laila has worked for USA Today and has written for various media outlets.

 
Laila's father, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, is a Palestinian-American Professor, an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and a persistent defender of civil and constitutional rights in the USA, who was arrested by the U.S. Government in 2003 on charges of "terrorism" in which he was acquitted, but remains in jail since then.

A discussion with Laila Al-Arian about her father's (Dr. Sami Al-Arian) case and his current situation as he enters his seventh week of hunger strike while being held in punitive conditions, denied medical monitoring and forced to endure the harsh environment of the segregation unit of the detention center.

"USA vs Al-Arian" Film in Houston
The film “USA vs Al-Arian” is an intimate portrait that documents the American-Muslim family of Sami Al-Arian in their desperate attempt to fight terrorism charges leveled by the U.S. government.
 
The film will be shown at Rice Cinema at Rice University on April 26 at 7 p.m.  Click here for more information.

Date:

April 9, 2008

Dr. Catherine Lutz
Professor of anthropology at Brown University and the Watson Institute for International Studies.  She is editor of the forthcoming book "The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle against U.S. Military Posts", and author of the book "Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics".

Topic:

U.S. military basis in Iraq and the planned long-term agreement between the U.S. and Iraq for a continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Date:

April 2, 2008

Topic:

Blood, Freedom and Oil: 5 Years in Iraq

A special report produced by Making Contact (a weekly international radio program).  Whether one considers it a war, an occupation, an act of pre-emptive self defense, or an act of imperialist aggression, the undeniable fact is that along with September 11^th, the conflict in Iraq has become the defining event of our time.

Featuring:

Huda Jabbar Mohammed Ali and Omar, Iraqi civilians; Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda, and The Tyranny of Oil: The Worlds Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do To Stop It; Berkeley High School students Lauren Barkin and Matt Rothstark; Beverly Harris, former US Navy Corpsman; Wendy Kenin, Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission; Daniel Nordstrom, former Marine; Protesters outside Berkeley City Hall: Elaine Green, Julie Dickenson, Bill Raskin, Kristen Robrock; Betsy Rose, Code Pink member; Charles Smith, US Army veteran.

Speeches made at the 6^th Biennial Ben Qurrah Award Gala held by the Houston Chapter of the Arab American Medical Association in February 2008 to honor Arab-American physicians who have made remarkable contributions in the field of medicine and who have succeeded in the worldwide advancement of science.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni
Arab-American medical doctor (born in Algeria), Director of the National Institutes of Health, world-renowned physician, and National Honoree of the prestigious 2008 Ben Qurrah Award.

Dr. Issam Raad
Arab-American medical doctor (born in Lebanon), Professor and Chair, Department of Infectious Diseases, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, world-renowned physician, and Houston Honoree of the prestigious 2008 Ben Qurrah Award.

In addition, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Saleh Shenaq’s family in memoriam. Mr. Monzer Hourani, a prominent Arab-American engineer and a leading medical real estate developer, was also recognized as the Honorary Chair.
 
We will also listen to remarks made by Dr. Nicola Hanania, President of the Arab American Medical Association Houston Chapter, Dr. Aziz Shaibani,  Awards Chair, Dr. Huda Zoghbi, Dr. George Nassar and Mistress of Ceremonies Melissa Wilson with Fox 26 Television.

Aaron Glantz
Founding producer of Pacifica Radio’s national newscast, Free Speech Radio News; author of How America Lost Iraq; who visited Iraq three times during the U.S. occupation.

Domingo Rosas
Combat veteran and Sergeant with the U.S. Army deployed with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Al-Anbar Province in Iraq.

Mike Prysner
Veteran soldier with the U.S. Army who served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division and later with the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed in northern Iraq.

Live discussion with Aaron Glantz about the fifth anniversary of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and testimonies of Mike Prysner and Domingo Rosas at the historic Winter Soldier 2008 Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupation held in Washington, DC few days ago about torture, abuse, mishandling and mutilation of the dead, and other derogatory treatment of Iraqi civilians.

Sergeant Samuel Provance
Abu Ghraib Whistleblower and former U.S. Army Sergeant specializing in intelligence analysis, who was stationed for five months at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the abuses reported there.

Sergeant Provance's account of what he witnessed while serving in Iraq with the U.S. Army, especially at Abu Ghraib, and a discussion about President George W. Bush's veto on Saturday of the Intelligence Authorization Bill introduced by Congress which would have banned torture of prisoners and detainees.