Author Balakian to give Holocaust Lecture
By Barbara Rea
Washington University Record, Washington
29 Oct. 2004
Peter Balakian, Ph.D., will give the Holocaust Lecture for the Assembly
Series at 4 p.m. Nov. 4 in Graham Chapel. His talk is titled “The
Armenian Genocide and America’s First International Human Rights
Movement.”
Peter Balakian
Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the
Humanities and professor of English at Colgate University, and a
human-rights activist who has been involved in the national and
international movement for Armenian genocide recognition.
In his 2004 book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and
America’s Response, he describes the systematic deportation and
murder of as many as 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
during World War I. The book was a New York Times Notable Book and
a New York Times best seller.
The Burning Tigris followed a 1997 memoir, Black Dog of Fate, which
won the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for the Art of the Memoir and
appeared on the “best books of the year lists” for The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times and Publisher’s Weekly.
In addition, Balakian has written a book of poetry, June-tree: New
and Selected Poems, 1974-2000, published in 2001, and a book on the
American poet Theodore Roethke. He has also co-translated Armenian
poet Siamanto’s Bloody News From My Friend. Between 1976-1996, he
and Bruce Smith edited the poetry journal Graham House Review.
Most notable among Balakian’s many awards, prizes and civic citations
are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship, an Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Ahanhit Literary
Prize.
He earned an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University and a
doctorate from Brown University.
Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public. For more
information, go online to assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call 935-4620.

ARMENIA OPENS DOOR TO JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
Institute for War and peace reporting (IWPR)
29 Oct. 2004
Official sanctioning of a group seen as alien to Armenian religious
tradition gets stormy public reception.
By Zhanna Alexanian in Yerevan
The long-delayed registration of the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a legal
religious organisation has fulfilled one of Armenia’s international
obligations, but has met bitter hostility from many individuals and
church leaders.
After nine years and 14 applications, the western church finally
received legal status on October 12, in a country where the
three-million-strong population belongs overwhelmingly to the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
By approving the move, the government met one of the civil rights
requirements of the Council of Europe, CoE, which Armenia joined
in 2001. Just a day before the October 8 registration, the CoE
parliamentary assembly passed a resolution calling for speedier
progress on the matter.
Jehovah’s Witnesses – who say they have long faced persecution from
the Armenian authorities, especially the military – welcomed the move.
Hratch Keshishian, the leader of the group within Armenia, said the
government had taken a “courageous step”.
Government officials said the Jehovah’s Witnesses had won the right
to registration. “After studying the documents that were submitted,
we saw that the [previous] grounds for denying registration had been
eliminated,” said Tigran Mukuchian, the deputy justice minister. “This
time they are in full conformity with the law, and the state body
responsible for registration simply fulfilled its duties.”
However, many people, particularly those connected with the Apostolic
Church, remain opposed to the presence of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
saying that Armenian society and even national security are at risk.
Claiming six million adherents around the world, the Jehovah’s
Witnesses say they have 8,000 baptised members among a total of about
20,000 followers in Armenia. Keshishian said he doubted registration
would lead to any rise in these numbers.
But in a society historically centred around a single faith, the
level of suspicion about proselytising newcomers is high, and the
hostility is expressed in often virulent terms.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have run into trouble both from the established
church, which opposes what it sees as attempts by Christian groups from
the West to recruit among its flock; and from the military, which until
this year was inflexible on the issue of conscription. As pacifists,
Jehovah’s Witnesses are opposed to serving in any country’s army.
The Armenian church leader, Catholicos Karekin the Second, called
the Jehovah’s Witnesses a “totalitarian sect”, while Vahram Melikian,
spokesman for the Holy See at Echmiadzin, the seat of the Apostolic
Church, said they were “anti-Christian”.
Melikian attacked the current law on freedom of conscience and
religious organisations, saying it would “bring disaster” because it
failed to make religious groups sufficiently accountable.
The animosity expressed by senior clerics was echoed by writer Perch
Zeytuntsyan, who said, “Poverty, hopelessness – all the conditions
exist for people to become sect members. However, they should realise
that no intelligent person will turn to a sect. The members are
ignorant people, traitors to the nation.”
Galust Sahakian, leader of the ruling Republican Party, opposed the
decision to register the Jehovah’s Witnesses, saying that adhering to
European standards should not “atomise our national values”, he said.
The Republican Party’s youth wing, Baze, has opened a hotline for
anyone wishing to report alleged illegal activities by Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
The government insists that Armenia has nothing to fear from the group.
“We should not follow the path of banning [them], but should try to
give them a chance. After that we should set conditions, follow them
up, and if they violate the law, we should be able to stop their
activities within the framework of the legislation,” said Prime
Minister Andranik Margarian.
He note that some three dozen other minority religious groups have
been granted permits, including some that are perceived as more
controversial than the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Mukuchian said it bringing the Jehovah’s Witnesses within the legal
framework would make it easier to prosecute if there were any breaches
of the law banning proselytism.
The head of the government department for national minorities and
religion, Hranush Kharatian, told IWPR she did not understand the
fuss. Instead of calling for a clampdown on the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
parliament should “create a legislative basis for introducing
democratic values in our country.
“The point is, they were functioning in the country irrespective of
whether they were officially recognised by the government or not.”
Kharatian denied that pressure from the CoE was the reason why
registration was granted.
“The Council of Europe only makes suggestions. We only have to
say that we are rejecting something for a good reason. But we are
not doing that,” said Kharatian. “If there is proof that Jehovah’s
Witnesses are damaging our national or public or social security,
no international organisation can oblige us to register them.”
Mikael Danielian, chairman of the Helsinki Association of Armenia
and one of the country’s most prominent human rights activists, said
that registration would not mean an end to difficulties faced by the
Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The group’s opposition to compulsory military service is a particular
flashpoint, he said.
“At the very moment of registration, there are members of the
organisation in prisons,” he said. “I believe there will be pressure
upon them.”
Alternative military service was introduced in Armenia in July 2004,
allowing those who refuse to carry arms on religious grounds to apply
to the army authorities for some other form of duty.
Since 1995, about 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been detained by the
authorities as conscientious objectors. Keshishian said 11 people
had been given prison sentences, but he hoped that those still in
jail would now be freed.
“The young men declared in the courtroom that they were ready to do an
alternative form of working service, but would not go into the army,”
said Keshishian.
Arthur Martirosian, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, denied
that the group forced its members to make the choice, “To go to the
army or refuse to do so, to accept alternative service or not, is a
personal decision for every young man. These matters have nothing to
do with the organisation.”
Zhanna Alexanian is a reporter with the Armenianow.com weekly.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Another wave of film festivals
Taipei Times, Taiwan
29 Oct. 2004
The South Taiwan Film and Video Festival, and the second anniversary
film festival of SPOT — Taipei Film House are coming up
By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
The South Taiwan Film and Video Festival is quenching the thirst of
South Taiwan movie-goers for art-house movies.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TAINAN ARTS UNIVERSITY
November is autumn and the start of Taiwan’s movie season. Raising the
curtain for a string of movie events is The South Taiwan Film and Video
Festival («n¤è¼v®i), and the second anniversary film festival for SPOT
— Taipei Film House (¥úÂI¥x¥_).
Later this month, Nov. 24, there is the annual Taipei Golden Horse Film
Festival (¥x¥_ª÷°¨¼v®i), the biggest film festival of Taiwan. In
December it is the Golden Horse Awards (ª÷°¨¼ú).
The South Taiwan Film and Video Festival starts next Tuesday in
Kaohsiung and is a festival aiming to balance the fact that most
art-house films are from Taipei.
Fifty feature-length films will be touring three south Taiwan cities —
Kaohsiung, Tainan and Chiayi. It can be seen as the largest film event
in Southern Taiwan.
The main feature this year at the festival is its collection of Chinese
independent movies made by young filmmakers, directors even younger
than the so-called Gen Z filmmakers.
Incense (­»¤õ) by Ning Hao (¹ç¯E) tells about a young monk’s journey
raising money in the city to repair an old and damaged Buddha
statue.Good Morning Beijing (¦­¦w¥_¨Ê) by Pan Jianlin (¼ï¼CªL) is about
an abduction one night in the back alleys of Beijing. Tang Poetry
(­ð¸Ö) tells about a thief’s personal transition after finding out he
suffers from muscular dystrophy and is forced to change his
“profession.” Raw quality and low budgets are the main features of
these Chinese independent movies.
The South Taiwan Film Festival will screen documentaries that have
recently made headlines. Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s Arayat, a
drama looking at the historical truth of the Armenian genocide, and
Blackboard, a humorous story about the deficit of education in Iran’s
mountain area, will both come back to the silver screen for southern
Taiwanese movie fans.
Meanwhile, in Taipei, next Tuesday is also the opening day for a film
festival — the My Camera Film Festival (·í§Ú³Û¥X¶}³Á©Ô), celebrating
the two-year anniversary of SPOT — Taipei Film House.
The first feature of the festival is a mini retro screening of director
Cheng Wen-tang’s (¾G¤å°ó) films. Cheng is a filmmaker who gained fame
along with the growth of SPOT in the past two years.
His Venice film festival award-winning dramaSomewhere Over the
Dreamland (¹Ú¤Û³¡¸¨) was premiered at SPOT two years ago. The mini
retro will showcase Cheng’s previous works, when he was a documentary
maker in the 1980s and 1990s focusing on political issues and
environmental protection.
The Days Without the Government (¨S¦³¬F©²ªº¤é¤l, 1987) tells about a
200-day long protest by employees of a chemical factory banding
together because of the dumping of chemical waste into the nearby
river. The Contract with Tso-shui River (¿B¤ô·Ëªº«´¬ù, 1999) is a
documentary dwelling on the past glory days of Taiwan longest river.
Another theme of the festival is to show the winning films of past
winners at Taipei film festivals. Taipei Film Festival serves to
discover talents among Taiwanese filmmakers.
The Taipei Film Awards have in the past two years become a dream award
of young filmmakers seeking recognition apart from the more mainstream
Golden Horse Awards.
But after winning the awards, most filmmakers find it difficult to
screen their films because Taiwan is short of art-house movie theaters.
SPOT, as Taiwan’s first arts movie theater, offers the opportunity for
moviegoers to appreciate the independent spirit of the winning films.
Tickets for both the South Taiwan Film Festival and the My Camera Film
Festival are available from the Web site:
–Boundary_(ID_rU9ilP2BQqxXRlkDG1edQA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Police Say Crime Again Falling
By Nane Atshemian 29/10/2004 08:36
Radio Free Europe, Czechia
29 Oct. 2004
The Armenian police reported on Thursday a 4.4 percent decrease in
the number of officially registered crimes committed during the first
nine months of this year.
The information contrasted with police figures for the first
half of 2004 that showed a 4.5 percent rise in crime compared
with the same period last year. “The overall rate of crime has
tended to decrease during the first nine months of the year,” Sayad
Shirinian, the spokesman for the national Police Service, told a news
conference. “Also, the percentage of solved cases is higher than it
was last year.”
It was not clear if the police found a major drop in crime during
the third quarter of the year. Presenting the first-half figures on
August 4, the deputy chief of the police, General Ararat Mahtesian,
admitted that the Armenian government’s spring crackdown on the
opposition left his officers with less time and fewer resources to
combat crime. The crackdown involved mass detentions of opposition
activists and a heavy police presence at anti-government rallies.
Mahtesian also blamed the increased delinquency on Armenia’s new,
more lenient criminal code that came into effect in August 2003. It
also led to the earlier-than-expected release from jail of more than
800 convicts.
According to Shirinian, a total of 8,098 crimes, nearly a third of
them “serious,” were reported to the police from January through the
end of September. He said despite the overall drop in the number of
offences there have been more cases of theft, robbery, fraud as well
as illegal arms and drug possession.
The official also said that 172 people, 17 of them children, have died
in 872 road accidents across Armenia this year. “The main causes of
road accidents continue to be speeding and violations of overtaking
rules,” he said.
Shirinian added that Armenia’s overall rate of delinquency remains
low by ex-Soviet standards, with an average of 25 crimes per 10,000
people committed annually. The figure is 143 and 83 in Russia and
Ukraine respectively.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New Britain Herald, CT
29 Oct. 2004
Chamber to honor Harry Mazadoorian
By WILLIAM F. MILLERICK, Special to The Herald 10/29/2004
There are people who lead magnificent lives, in the purest sense of the
word. They inspire loyal friendship, they contribute to advancing
society and through their relentless optimism and sharing of their
innate talents, they inspire others to do the same. In short, their
deeds and words bring out the best in people.
For 20 years, the New Britain Chamber of Commerce has presented a
Distinguished Community Service Award at its annual meeting. This year,
on the celebration of two decades of recognizing leadership, the
recipient is someone who has lead just such a magnificent life.
Advertisement
Harry Mazadoorian, attorney, professor, author, community and political
leader, is this year’s Distinguished Community Service honoree. From
the day we announced this year’s award, the enthusiasm and genuine warm
good wishes have been terrific. And that is as it should be.
Harry Mazadoorian moves easily in many circles, some interconnected,
some not. He has friends from his youth as a student in New Britain
schools, a Herald carrier and graduate of New Britain High School. He
has many close friends from his days at Yale College and Yale Law
School. He has friends from his days in New Britain politics and his
time as Common Council majority leader. He has friends from the local
Armenian community and church.
The list goes on and on because Harry Mazadoorian’s life hasn’t been
two acts, it’s been in many acts. A few years ago, he was the chief
writer and the editor of what is nationally recognized as the single
best book on dispute resolution through mediation, the “Mediation
Practice Handbook.” There is nowhere near enough space here to go into
his later-life career as perhaps the pre-eminent national authority on
dispute resolution, but know this, as a Distinguished Professor of
Dispute Resolution at Quinnipiac Law School, he has been invited to
speak and headline at conferences around the world.
As this alternative to high-cost litigation has continued to gain
acceptance, much of it through Mazadoorian’s work, it is increasingly
being looked at as an important component of tort reform. Nationally
recognized, with friends in the highest of places, he never forgot
home, and home has never forgotten him.
Today, as he serves as chairman of New Britain General Hospital’s board
of directors his time is also spent on the American Savings Foundation
and the Banknorth boards. In the recent past, he’s been involved with
many community organizations, from Klingberg Family Centers, the
Visiting Nurses Association, the Red Cross, Family Services and others.
Many of them have called to secure reservations for the Nov. 18 dinner
at the CCSU Student Center ballroom. Information on the event, which
runs from 5 to 8 p.m., is available by contacting the Chamber at (860)
229-1665 or
Through every phase of his life, Harry Mazadoorian has always been what
many refer to as “a New Britain guy.” A New Britain guy is someone who,
when you run into them on the street or at a function, or have lunch,
talks about the city’s possibilities, about how history can positively
impact the future, about what’s right with New Britain. In short, a
“New Britain guy” is a booster and always will be.
I first met Harry Mazadoorian when I was editorial writer at The Herald
and you could see, instantly, that this was someone who looked for the
greatest good in the city and the people who worked and lived here.
People like Harry Mazadoorian made others proud to be here. His roots
are here and they’ll always be here, no matter how many notables he is
friends with or appears with.
A lot of people know that Mazadoorian is a very close friend of Fay
Vincent, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball. “We talk
almost every day,” he told me recently, when I pressed him.
Mazadoorian, Vincent and the late Bart Giammatti were classmates at
Yale together. Mazadoorian knew Vincent and Giammatti independently of
each other and eventually, those two met, essentially forming a trio.
That trio was tragically broken with Giammatti’s shockingly sudden
death of a massive heart attack in 1989, one week after he handed Pete
Rose a lifetime suspension from baseball for gambling. When Giammatti
died, Vincent, who was his deputy commissioner, rose to the
commissioner’s post. Mazadoorian, as loyal a Red Sox fan as you’ll
find, was Vincent’s frequent guest at the World Series and baseball
events over the years, which meant putting in an awful lot of time
watching the Yankees.
“This is a special week for me,” he said yesterday. “I’m very flattered
by this award and with the Red Sox finally winning, that’s a good
week.”
Harry Mazadoorian walks in many circles, local, national, athletic,
intellectual. He is welcome and respected in all of them. In every
circle he enters, home and away, he represents New Britain and he
represents this great city with a assured dignity and unmeasured
affection that is worth emulating.
I thought it was revealing, how he described a dinner with Yogi Berra.
“Bill, you’d have thought he was a New Britain guy. He was like 200
other people you know in New Britain, quiet, hard-working, modest,
successful.”
I suspect Harry Mazadoor-ian got along pretty well with Yogi that
night. It sounds like they’re a lot alike.
William F. Millerick is president of the New Britain Chamber of
Commerce. He may be reached at bill@newbritainchamber.

Marchers for peace endure rhetorical crossfire
By Keti Sikharulidze
The Messenger, Georgia
29 Oct. 2004
A 7,000 kilometer international march for peace titled “Caucasus
Without Hotspots” began in Moscow on September 19 and passed through
Tbilisi on October 27.
Having been blocked from separatist Abkhazia, the group nonetheless
hopes to travel to breakaway South Ossetia and other current hotspots
in the Caucasus before eventually returning back to the Russian
capital.
The marchers’ next stop is Tskhinvali. At a press conference on
Wednesday, they said they had had negotiations with the separatist
capital and that they are not against their traveling there but “they
are afraid that there may be provocations from the Georgian side.”
However, representative of the Ministry of Conflict Resolution
Levan Geradze said the situation was quite the opposite – that the
Georgian side is not against the marchers’ going to South Ossetia “but
we cannot give any guarantees that they would arrive there safely,
because unfortunately it is not controlled by the Georgian side. They
should ask for security guarantees from the Ossetian side, not the
Georgian,” Geradze told The Messenger.
The marchers include representatives of forty diasporas of Caucasus
people living in Russia and other CIS countries as well as veterans
of the Second World War.
As part of their effort, they intend to hold a “world congress of
Caucasus people” on May 9 next year, which will be the 60th anniversary
of the end of the Second World War in Europe, in the hope that this
will help resolve the various conflicts within the Caucasus.
The route of the march takes the participants through such
Caucasus conflict zones as Chechnya, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the three South Caucasus capitals of Baku,
Yerevan and Tbilisi.
Head of the march Vladimir Vakhania told The Messenger that the main
aim of the march is to tell the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Russia to stop the bloody wars in the Caucasus region.
“We are marching these kilometers to play our part in the resolution of
conflicts in the Caucasus,” Vakhania said. “We are trying to explain
to all the people of the Caucasus that war is the worst thing that
may happen between neighboring nations. The only thing we have to
fight is separatism, extremism and terrorism.”
“We want to call for negotiations between the leaders of Georgia,
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia to solve the ethnic conflicts through
peaceful ways. It is very difficult to express the feelings of these
nations but I can assure you nobody wants war. Everyone is for the
peaceful settlements of all conflicts,” stated Vakhania.
Vakhania also stated that the organizers planned to reach Tbilisi
after 15 days, but that it had taken 37 days as they were unable to
cross the Russian-Abkhaz border at the river Psou. “We wanted to hold
a press conference there too, but unfortunately after negotiations
with Abkhaz officials we could not.”
After the problems in Abkhazia the members of the peace march went
to the recently reopened Russian-Georgian border crossing at Larsi
and after negotiations with Georgian and Russian officials were able
to cross into Georgia.

Good laws, weak practice put media freedom at risk
By Warren Hedges
The Messenger, Georgia
29 Oct. 2004
The OSCE’s text on repealing criminal libel laws
‘Ending the chilling Effect’ was authored in part
by Georgia’s Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili
Already facing heavy criticism for its treatment of human rights
concerns and respect for political plurality, the Georgian government
received serious criticism this week for its record on access to
information and press freedoms.
Over 50 Journalists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia gathered in
Tbilisi October 26-27 for the First South Caucasus Media Conference
sponsored by the OSCE office of Freedom of the Media and the OSCE
Mission to Georgia.
On the one hand, organizers said that Georgia is at the forefront
of media freedom by passing some of the world’s most liberal laws on
defamation in July this year that decriminalized libel and slander,
meaning that journalists no longer have to fear jail time in case
they are accused.
OSCE’s representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti,
who hosted the conference, noted Georgia “belongs to the vanguard
not just in the CIS, Eastern Europe or even Western Europe but also
globally. It is among the five countries in the world that have
decriminalized libel.”
The other country’s where libel laws carry no criminal liability
– though they preserve civil liability – are the United States,
Moldova, Ukraine and Bosnia Herzegovina. By lifting the fear of
criminal prosecution, the OSCE’s Haraszti noted that these countries
reinforce modern civilization where journalists cannot be arrested
if someone disagrees with what they print or broadcast.
While Georgia’s legal statutes won praise, media analysts express
serious concern over how the laws are enforced and how the government
respects media freedom in practice.
Earlier this month, the media freedom watchdog Article 19 published a
report on Freedom of Information and the Media in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia and criticized the new Georgian government for its
failure to provide free access to information and several incidents
of officials intimidating journalists.
Article 19’s Europe Program Officer Iryna Smolina authored the report
and also attended the Tbilisi conference where she told The Messenger
that the new government has employed the “chameleon method” whereby
“they changed names and changed their declarations but they have
retained the same methods with the media.”
In a survey of journalists and government officials in Georgia,
Article 19 found that both groups agreed that public bodies are under
a legal obligation to provide information to the public. But Smolina
explains that official bodies under the new government have an even
worse record of releasing public information.
Over the first nine months of the year, Article 19 has documented
numerous cases when journalists attempts to gain public information
have been denied through delays, procedural problems such as the
restructuring of government offices and the absence of official
offices to handle freedom of information requests.
In its report commissioned by the OSCE, Article 19 notes that despite
the Rose Revolution in Georgia, “public institutions until now retained
the secrecy and the attitudes of their predecessor regimes.”
The report also includes several cases of intimidation of journalists
that have occurred in 2004. In addition to the highly-publicized case
of Gori editor Rezo Okruashvili, who was jailed on planted evidence,
Article 19 records the cases of journalists who were threatened and/or
attacked by government officials and members of the National Movement.
In May 2004, the editor of a regional Kakheti paper was beaten in an
attack he said was inspired by local authorities. Then in July he was
attacked again and robbed. A day after the robbery he recognized the
attacker as a member of the ruling party and a close friend of the
local gamgebeli.
While lawyer Iryna Smolina says that better government policies are
needed, she also notes that Georgian media must do more to create
independent editorial policies. Many journalists, she says, have put
themselves in a weak position through self-censorship and unwillingness
to learn or use many of the laws that exist for their protection. “The
only way to make the laws work is to use the law,” she says.
A day after the OSCE conference closed Georgia received another wake-up
call when independent watchdog Reporters Without Borders announced
its third annual worldwide index of press freedom, dropping Georgia
to 94th position out of 167 countries. In 2003, Georgia ranked 73rd
out of 166 countries.
In a brief explanation of Georgia’s ranking, Reporters Without Borders
said the drop “is largely due to unrest in the autonomous republics
of Adjara and Abkhazia, which gave rise to press freedom violations.”
That report covers events from September 1, 2003 through September 1,
2004, and is based on questionnaires sent to partner organizations
of Reporters Without Borders, as well as to journalists, researchers,
jurists and human rights activists.

Rebirth, reberth
By Danny Rubinstein
Ha’aretz
29 Oct. 2004
Writing in Arabic, the late Israeli journalist and commentator Victor
Nachmias tells of his childhood in Egypt, his immigration to Israel,
and the tension between his native land and the country of his rebirth
“Alrajul aladi wulida marten” (“The Man Who Was Born Twice: The Story
of an Egyptian Jew Who Immigrated to Israel”) by Victor Nachmias,
Al-Ma’aref, 192 pages
Victor Nachmias, a well-known Israeli TV and radio commentator on Arab
affairs, chose to write his autobiography in Arabic in order to bring
his personal story to as many Arab readers as possible, in Israel and
outside it.
But there was another reason. In writing in Arabic (the language of the
enemy, as many Israelis will say), he was proving to the world – and to
himself – that the tension between Egypt, his beloved homeland, and the
State of Israel, to which he immigrated in 1957, was the pivot of his
life.
Arriving in Israel at the age of 23, he felt he had been reborn. There
was nothing very new in this sentiment. One could call it “old-school
Zionism” of the type that was abundant in the early waves of
immigration to this country, a hundred years ago and more. Among
today’s new immigrants there are also quite a few who might describe
their move to Israel as a “rebirth.” Indeed, people who take the
dramatic step of adopting a new homeland, a new language, and very
often a new lifestyle and profession, have a tendency to change their
names, too – a kind of public declaration of their new identity. They
are not the same people they were before. They have been born twice, to
quote the title of Nachmias’ book. But Victor Nachmias had another
reason for saying that he was reborn in the State of Israel: He arrived
at his new home in the Castel ma’abara (immigrant transit camp) on May
18, 1957 – which was also his birthday.
Nachmias is not the only Israeli Jew to write in Arabic. Perhaps one of
the earliest and most intriguing was Yitzhak Shemi, born in Hebron in
1888. Shemi worked as a teacher in Palestine, Damascus and Bulgaria,
and died in 1949. His book, “Revenge of the Fathers,” is considered a
literary masterpiece by Jews and Arabs alike. The Iraqi-born Jewish
authors recently profiled in this paper by Prof. Sasson Somekh are
probably more familiar to the general public. Somekh writes, for
example, about Yitzhak Bar-Moshe, born in Baghdad, who worked as a
senior employee in Israel Radio’s Arabic department and served as a
press and cultural attache at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. Upon his
return, in 1994, he wrote “Cairo in My Heart,” about his experiences
there.
Since nearly all the Jewish communities in Arab countries have
disappeared and very few Jews are left who can claim that Arabic is
their mother tongue, presumably it won’t be long before there are no
more Jews writing or publishing books in Arabic. Nachmias’ book is thus
one of the last links in the chain.
Nachmias writes about his childhood in Cairo, about the Jews of Egypt,
about immigrating to Israel, about working for Israel Radio in Arabic
and Israel TV in Hebrew. He describes the great turning point in his
life in the wake of Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem (1977) – an event that
made it possible for him to return to Cairo and meet with top-tier
Egyptian officials. He writes about his coverage of Arab Israelis and
Palestinians.
The more personal he gets, the more interesting the book. Many parts of
it are genuinely moving. “Who are you, Victor Nachmias?” asks the
Egyptian journalist Anis Manzour, editor of the weekly magazine
October, after they meet and become close friends.
“I am a victim of the Israeli-Arab conflict,” Nachmias replies. “I was
forced to leave Egypt before completing my pharmacology degree at Qasr
al-Eini (Cairo’s famous medical school). I left with one 20-kilo
suitcase of clothes and personal belongings, a total of $20 (the
maximum allowance) and a certificate stamped with the words `exit, no
return,’ revoking the Egyptian citizenship held by my father.”
Years later, when Nachmias accompanied President Yitzhak Navon to Egypt
as part of the press corps, he was asked why, upon leaving Egypt, he
had chosen to go to Israel. The question was accusing in tone, and
Nachmias’ answer was that since Egypt had no right to expel him, they
also had no right to ask what made him choose Israel.
`Little Vicky boy’
Nachmias’ account of his childhood is quite sparing, which is a pity.
The book hardly mentions his father, who died in 1955, or the schools
he went to. He says little about his early family experiences and about
the social, cultural and political milieu in which he grew up. On the
other hand, he writes at length about the contribution of Egyptian
Jewry to the social, economic, cultural and political life of the
country.
The Jewish community in Egypt was indeed unique. It was an amalgam of
Jews from North Africa, Damascus, Russia, Iraq and Yemen. They
integrated well into the Levantine urban elite of Cairo and Alexandria,
which was composed of foreigners – Greeks, Italians and Armenians – in
addition to the French and British expatriates about whom so much has
been written.
A third or more of the Jewish community left Egypt after the Israeli
War of Independence, and another third after the Sinai Campaign in 1956
(the “triple” Israeli-Anglo-French attack, as it is known in Egypt).
The rest packed their bags after the Six-Day War. The Nachmias family
left – or was ordered to leave – in 1957.
They lived on the second floor. The landlord wanted to move the ground
floor tenant, Haj Saber, into their apartment so he could turn the
bottom floor into a shop. As the Nachmias family deliberated on what to
take with them, the neighbors came snooping to see what furniture they
were leaving behind.
Twenty years later, Victor Nachmias, the Israeli journalist, went back
to visit his childhood home at 1 Tur-Sina Street. The doorman, Uncle
Ibrahim, who was still there after all those years, recognized Nachmias
and greeted him excitedly. “It’s my little Vicky boy!” he exclaimed. A
little cluster of neighbors who remembered his late father, Mr.
Suleiman Nachmias, his mother, “Umm Vicky,” and his brothers and
sisters, congregated at the entrance. He went upstairs and there, to
his surprise, found a large porcelain vase that had belonged to his
family. His mother, afraid that it might break on the way, had decided
to leave it behind. For Nachmias, it was an epitaph to his mother, who
had died the year before.
The Cairo of Nachmias’ childhood – a Paris in miniature – was gone, and
in its place was a third-world metropolis. His reunion with Cairo in
1977 was like meeting an old flame, once young and beautiful, now a
wrinkled old woman. Nachmias’ writing here takes off, as it does in his
account of other personal landmarks – his first day in the ma’abara, a
visit to Jerusalem, his early days with Israel Radio. Nachmias was
involved in the Arabic news programs, which were a kind of flagship
project at the time. All over the Arab world, they were listened to and
believed – the very opposite of the situation today.
The book in its current format is geared to the Arab reader. Victor
Nachmias did not live to see its publication in Hebrew. A month ago, he
suffered a stroke, and passed away this week.

Foreign minister says Muslim countries understand situation in Tak Bai
http, Thailand
29 Oct. 2004
BANGKOK, Oct 29 (TNA) – Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai
Friday told reporters that he received a positive response from his
counterparts in Muslim countries toward Tak Bai incident, in which
more than 80 Muslim men died while in the Thai army’s custody after
a crackdown on a mass demon stration in southern border Narathiwat
province on Monday.
Mr. Surakiart said he had earlier made phone calls to explain the
government action to crackdown on Tak Bai Muslim protesters to foreign
ministers of Indonesia, Morocco, Bahrain,and Dr. Abdelouzhed Belkeziz,
the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Countries or
OIC which has 50 members.
He said Bahrain’s prime minister made a direct phone call to offer
his morale support to Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
”They appreciated that Thailand explained itself quickly to them about
what happened in Tak Bai. They said they understood Thai government’s
action well and promised to explain it to fellow countries. Bahrain
said it would support Thailand as it knew that we are peace and unity
loving people,” said Mr. Surakiart.
The OIC secretary general said he was pleased to hear an explanation
and that Thailand has investigated the deaths of the protesters while
in the army’s custody, he said, the OIC would also explain Thailand’s
decision to Muslim members countries.
He said Morocco would help by explaining Thailand’s situation to
Armenia, Tunisia, and Libya including other Muslim countries in the
middle east like Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.
Confident that Thailand has cleared its bad mark among international
communities, Mr. Surakiart, however, acknowledged to the mistake by
the security forces in handling the situation which unnecessarily
caused a lot of deaths.
”I want to stress that we did not want to hurt our Muslim brothers. We
are family. It is worrisome and dangerous if some people have developed
a wrong perception that Thailand are against its own Muslim citizens.”
he said.
Mr. Surakiart said the United States also expressed its satisfaction
over Thailand’s action to investigate into the deaths after it
previously criticized the kingdom for breaching human rights.
”Thailand has respected human rights and constitutional rights but
mistakes could happen. We will leave that to the investigation team
to show us the truth,” he said, adding that the government would
certainly compensate the deaths and would help their families.
Responding to a question, the Thai foreign minister said other Muslim
countries were not worried that the situation would escalate because
of the Tak Bai incident.
”I think Malaysia would understand us and there should be no affect,”
he said.
Several Malaysian tourists were killed in a bomb blast at a bar in
Sungai Kolok District of southern border Narathiwat province last
night.(TNA)-E110

The Guardian, UK
29 Oct. 2004
Middle East sees benefits of Bush
There is surprising support for a second Bush term in Iran and the Arab
world, writes Brian Whitaker
Friday October 29, 2004
President Bush’s election campaign received support from an unusual
quarter last week when Hasan Rowhani, head of the Iranian Supreme
National Security Council, said that four more years of George W would
be good for Iran. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was asked
about the Bush-Kerry contest at a meeting with journalists a couple of
weeks ago (before he was taken ill) and replied: “It makes no
difference.”
In London, the consensus among Arab ambassadors – though they don’t say
so publicly – is that keeping Bush in the White House would be
preferable to starting afresh with Kerry.
Such views are probably not what most people would expect to hear. Bush
denounced Iran in his famous “axis of evil” speech and has been making
hostile noises about it ever since. He has cold-shouldered Arafat and
more or less washed his hands of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
More generally, as far as the Arab world is concerned, he has spared no
effort to make himself the most unpopular American president ever.
Disliking Bush is one thing, but working up enthusiasm for Kerry is
another – and there’s little sign of that in the Middle East. What
interests Arabs most is America’s attitude towards the Palestinian
people. Although the US under a President Kerry might be expected to
re-engage in the peace process, Kerry’s emphatically-declared support
for Israel does not inspire Arabs with hopes of an even-handed
approach.
Also pointing in Bush’s favour is the popular Arab view that
second-term American presidents are better placed to take a firm line
with Israel than first-term presidents. The theory is that in their
second term they no longer need to please the Israeli lobby in the US
because they cannot seek re-election again. Although the examples of
Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr tend to disprove this theory, it’s
widely believed nevertheless. Bush gains, too, from the argument that
says it’s best to stay with the devil you know. Arab politicians and
diplomats are fond of the status quo (look how long most of them have
had their jobs) and, after four years adjusting to life under Bush,
they would rather not embark on a new learning curve now with Kerry.
Advertiser links
More Th>N Car Insurance
Switch to More Th>N and save £90 on average. Buying online…
morethan.com
its4me Insurance Less Money More Service
Your quote instantly from its4me’s leading insurers….
its4me-insurance.co.uk
Car Insurance for over 35s
Are you over 35? Looking for more affordable car insurance?…
insure.co.uk
In any case, the influential Egyptian daily, al-Ahram, sees no
substantial difference between Bush and Kerry, and has declared its
support for Ralph Nader (of Lebanese descent), describing him as the
only candidate who “responds to Arab-American interests and positions
on Palestine, Iraq, civil liberties and world-wide respect for
international law”.
While agreeing that there may be little difference between Bush and
Kerry on Israeli-Palestinian policy, Albert Aghazerian, a
Palestinian-Armenian historian, detects a difference in their general
attitude.
“It’s a difference regarding people who have taken it upon themselves
to act as if they are the liberators of the world,” he said in an
interview with the web magazine Bitter Lemons. “For all his faults, I
don’t think Kerry will ignore the lessons that we have learnt
throughout history. The Bush people think they have a self-righteous
justification to go and change the course of things. This messianic
spirit, I think, is less in Kerry than it is in Bush … I believe that
Bush has broken the basic rules of common sense … it has to do with
this messianic approach.”
Bush’s messianic view, some argue, will bring more polarisation in the
Middle East if he gets a second term, simultaneously benefiting the
most impatient reformers and the Islamist militants: the reformers will
be encouraged by continuing US pressure on Arab regimes, while al-Qaida
and its likes will look to Bush for further help with their recruiting.
There are various other sectional interests that could gain from
keeping Bush in the White House. Bush’s relaxed environmental policies
benefit the oil-producing countries (as do the current high oil
prices). Bush is less likely than Kerry to trouble Arab governments
with complaints about human rights, so long as they continue to fight
terrorism, and there are many Lebanese who welcome American efforts to
stop Syria interfering in Lebanon’s affairs.
As far as Iraq and the presidential election is concerned, the most
Machiavellian view was set out recently in the Jordan Times. On the
assumption that the war is unwinnable, the writer suggested that
electing Kerry now will allow the neoconservatives to blame him for
American failure in Iraq and to insist that everything would have
worked out fine if only Bush had been given a bit longer:
“Many on the American right still believe that the Vietnam war could
have been won if only the spineless traitors of the left had not
weakened American ‘resolve’ – and they say this even though Richard
Nixon, who was elected on a promise to end the Vietnam war and presided
over the whole latter phase of it, was a Republican. What could they do
with a lost war on a Democratic president’s watch?”
Far better, then, to keep Bush in power and make him reap the
whirlwind. The Iraq quagmire may also explain why Hasan Rowhani and
some other Iranian officials (though not, by any means, all of them)
would like Bush to have a second term. So long as the US is bogged down
in Iraq, it cannot seriously contemplate toppling the regime in Iran –
or, for that matter, in Syria. Prospects for the US remaining bogged
down look rather better under Bush than Kerry.
Some in the Iranian government also think Bush has begun to realise
that his hostile policies towards Iran are unlikely to succeed and is
therefore likely to adopt a more realistic approach if elected for a
second term. If the dominant view of the Bush-Kerry contest in the
Middle East is one of overwhelming cynicism, the picture among
Arab-Americans – who do, after all, have a say in the outcome – is
rather different.
Despite Bush’s effort to woo them with a with a message of greetings
for Ramadan (“Americans who practise the Islamic faith enrich our
society … Laura joins me in sending our best wishes”), they
overwhelmingly support Kerry.
A recent poll of Arab-American voters in four of the states where they
are most numerous – Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania – showed
54% backing Kerry and only 28% backing Bush, with the rest undecided or
supporting Nader.
Arab Americans, though, have different priorities from Arabs in the
Middle East. For them, the most important factor in deciding who to
vote for is the American economy, followed by terrorism/national
security, according to the poll. Iraq came fourth in their list of
important issues, and Israeli-Palestinian issues only eighth.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, a Washington-based firm
whose boss, James Zogby, is himself an Arab American and also a
supporter of the Democrats.
In an article for al-Ahram Weekly he explained last week why he would
be voting for Kerry.
“The last four years have had a devastating effect on our nation,” he
wrote. “They have tested our national unity and our sense of mission.
The Bush administration has pursued domestic and foreign policies that
have been both neglectful and reckless. Because of reckless tax cuts a
record surplus was turned into record deficits.”
Turning to the benefits of electing Kerry and his running-mate John
Edwards, he continued: “Whatever differences I may have with them, I
know that they will pursue diplomacy over unilateral military
pre-emption. They can be better trusted to find a way out of Iraq than
the arrogant crew that got us into that mess in the first place.
“They will protect our civil liberties … and they will make the
pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace a priority rather than a
neglected afterthought.”
Optimistic words. But we shall have to wait a few more days to see if
Kerry gets a chance to prove them wrong or right.
–Boundary_(ID_r5IFOEESZiX9yzPOx8TCsA)–