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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty02232009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty02232009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">February 23,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>A Grassroots
Movement Rises in the Arab Neighborhoods of New Orleans <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">A
New Orleans Intifada?
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By JORDAN
FLAHERTY <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>n neighborhoods around New Orleans, there’s a
buzz of excitement gathering among this city’s Arab population. A new
wave of organizing has brought energy and inspiration to a community that
is usually content to stay in the background. The movement is youth-led,
with student groups rising up on college campuses across the city, but
also broad-based, with mass protests that have included more than a
thousand people marching through downtown’s French Quarter. Activists say
that their goal is to fight against what they see as a combination of
silence and bias from local and national media, and – more broadly – for
a change in US policy towards the Middle East. They take inspiration from
other movements in the city – joining in the struggle against the
continued displacement of much of the city as well as the slow pace of
recovery – while also following activism across the US and around the
world.<br><br>
New Orleans’ immigrant communities are often ignored or
under-represented. But through grassroots organizing, legal action, and
political lobbying, Asian and Latino organizations in the city have won
some important victories. Activists from New Orleans’ Arab population –
which is largely Palestinian - have expressed hope that they can follow
these examples. <br><br>
The city’s Vietnamese community gained influence through post-Katrina
struggles to bring their New Orleans East neighborhood back in the first
months after the storm. This effort, which also involved a fight against
a city landfill located near their homes, turned grassroots protests into
political power, including the recent election of the nation’s first
Vietnamese-American congressman. <br><br>
The city’s Latino community has grown and changed as thousands of recent
immigrants came looking for work in rebuilding after the storm. Despite
continuing problems, including police harassment of undocumented
immigrants, grassroots efforts have helped translate those numbers into
political influence and leverage over employers who had sought to exploit
them. While employers and politicians have sought to pit the city’s
Latino and Black workers against each other, organizers have built
alliances between these communities.<br><br>
These victories, together with a sense that there is a need for their
community to be heard, have provoked Arab New Orleanians into action.
According to Angelina Abbir Mansour, a student activist at UNO, outrage
caused by the devastation in Gaza was a catalyst. “When the Gaza massacre
happened, the first thought that came to everyone’s head was ‘we can’t be
quiet anymore,’” she explained. Young activists have also been inspired
by successes in other cities, such as a recent successful campaign to get
Hampshire College to divest from companies that supply the Israeli
military as well as sit-ins and building occupations on other campuses in
the US and Europe.<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>Mass
Protests<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>At Jackson Square, in the center
of New Orleans’ French Quarter, more than a thousand people gathered on
January 4 for one of the largest demonstrations this city has seen in
recent years. Tracie Washington, a civil rights leader in the city and
the director of Louisiana Justice Institute, attended with her son.
Addressing the crowd on a megaphone, she said, “my son asked me today
about what is happening in Gaza. He asked, ‘is it like if I pinched you
and you punched me?’ I said to him, ‘no, its like if you pinched me and I
shot you with an AK-47.’” <br><br>
The cheers of the crowd were audible from several blocks away.
Palestinian youth led raucous chants of “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Gaza
Gaza don’t you cry, in our hearts you’ll never die.” Children held up
signs saying, “This is what an Israeli target looks like.” <br><br>
The Louisiana Justice Institute was one of several New Orleans social
justice and civil rights organizations that Palestinian organizers have
built ties with – others included INCITE New Orleans, The Women’s Health
and Justice Initiative, Pax Christi, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and
Mayday Nola, an organization that works on public housing issues. “I’ve
seen a huge amount of support from the African American community,” says
Mansour, who is co-founder of a chapter of the General Union of
Palestinian Students on the campus of the University of New Orleans.
“Because they know more than anyone what its like to face racism.
Alliances between our communities make sense.”<br><br>
The January 4th march was the second of four mass demonstrations for Gaza
during the Israeli bombing. The first demonstration, brought together in
less than 24 hours, brought out more than 300 people. Palestinian youth
from New Orleans organized and led the march, and entire families
participated. <br><br>
The size of the demonstrations surprised even the organizers. “New
Orleans is a small town,” says activist and business owner Emad Jabbar.
“For 1,200 people to come out with just a few days notice – I’m
speechless.” Every local TV station covered the demonstrations.
However the Times Picayune, New Orleans’ local paper, refused to send a
reporter. In response, activists organized a demonstration the following
week, bringing almost 100 people to protest outside the paper’s
offices.<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990033"><b>Beginnings</b>
</font></h1><font face="Verdana" size=2>Organizing in New Orleans’ Arab
community is not new – it goes back to at least the late 80s, during the
first Intifada, a time of increased activity in the Palestinian Diaspora
around the world. Since then, activism has surged and receded in waves,
with support and trainings from national organizations such as the Muslim
American Society and US Campaign to End The Israeli Occupation playing an
important role. <br><br>
The two years before Katrina saw mass action, as well as coalition
building and education, among local Palestinians and their allies, and in
some aspects today’s movement is built from work that happened then. From
2003 through 2005, activists presented a breathtaking array of events;
from films, demonstrations and speakers; to art shows, a Palestinian
hip-hop concert, presentations in high school and college classrooms, and
a regional conference. They met with newspaper editorial boards, appeared
on radio shows, set up literature tables at busy public locations, and
spoke at churches. <br><br>
A coalition of activists also organized human rights delegations to the
Middle East, sending nine delegates from diverse backgrounds and
communities to Palestinian cities on the West Bank in the summer of 2004.
They self-published a book and a released a newsletter, made and
distributed a film (chronicling one member’s journey to Palestine), and
worked on several art projects, including a hip-hop show, a photography
exhibition, and collaborations with the New Orleans International Human
Rights Film Festival.<br><br>
A multiracial and multi-generational coalition of Palestine activists met
on the campus of Xavier University, a historically Black college, and its
core group included Muslims, Christians, Jews, and secular
activists. The group collaborated closely with many different
aspects of the Arab and Muslim community in the city – meetings were
attended by representatives of New Orleans’ Muslim Shura Council, the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New Orleans, New Orleans’
Palestine American Congress, and Stop The Wall - a local group made up of
more than 200 New Orleanians with family in the Palestinian village of
Beit Anan. <br><br>
Another core member of the group was a white Episcopal minister who had
traveled to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and several members were Palestinian
Christians. Nation Of Islam members were a part of the group, as
well as several Jewish activists, including a woman who had gone on a
pro-Israel delegation organized by New Orleans’ Jewish Federation – and
came home disturbed by the Palestinian suffering she’d seen, causing her
to break with the Federation and become an activist for Palestinian
rights. <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>A Small
Community<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>According to the US census, New
Orleans’ pre-Katrina population was 67 percent African American and 27
percent white, with all other categories adding up to about 6%. Maher
Salem, a young community leader and business owner, adds that, “The
Palestinian community is a small minority in New Orleans. The city is
mostly African American and white, then you have Latinos, then
Vietnamese, and Palestinians are the smallest group. We’re at the bottom
of the list.” <br><br>
As with many immigrant communities, New Orleans’ Palestinian community is
both spread out and insular. Families are located in various suburbs on
New Orleans’ Westbank (on the other side of the Mississippi river), but
there isn’t a particular neighborhood where most live. The community is
rarely discussed in national coverage of New Orleans, or even in the
local media. “Growing up, I didn’t know there was a Palestinian community
here,” Mansour says. “I guess because we’re a small population and were
not making headlines.” <br><br>
Many of New Orleans’ Palestinians are from a handful of small towns and
villages near Ramallah and Jerusalem, such as Silwad, Al-Bireh,
Al-Mizra’a, and Beit Anan. They are often small business owners, owning
restaurants, convenience stores, and clothing stores. In the
aftermath of Katrina, much of the city’s Arab community was displaced,
losing both their stores and homes. “A lot of us lost businesses,” says
Salem, “and many from our community moved to other cities.” Although they
no longer live here, many of those that are displaced still feel
connected to the city. “I know guys that are in Dallas now,” Salem says.
“But every time we have a protest or something else happening they call
and ask what happened. They miss living here.” <br><br>
For those that have returned, rebuilding has been a struggle – as it has
been for other New Orleanians in this city where a third of all
properties are still empty. Sandra Bahhur is a Palestinian-American
woman originally from Al-Bireh. A nurse and restaurant owner, she has
been a strong voice for social justice in New Orleans. Sandra's home in
the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans was so destroyed by flooding
that she couldn't get the doors to open. Her business on Carrollton
Avenue was destroyed, just days before it would have been ready to debut.
They had been working all day on the restaurant the day before the
hurricane, as they did many days. “We had just bought a new oven, new
refrigerators, new kitchen equipment,” she told me days after the storm.
“Everything's destroyed. Our home is destroyed, the business is
destroyed. We lost everything. Everything.” <br><br>
Like many New Orleanians, Sandra and her husband Luis love New Orleans,
and refused to give up. After two more years of work, their
restaurant reopened in late 2007 to positive press coverage and full
houses. However, Sandra and Luis were never able to fully recover from
the debt they went into to rebuild after the storm. With the recent
economic downturn, the restaurant hit hard times, and closed permanently
last month. Although they love the city, Sandra and Luis’ future in New
Orleans is uncertain.<br><br>
</font><h2><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>Changing The
Media </b></font></h2><font face="Verdana" size=2>Although disappointed
with local media coverage, activists have created powerful video and
images documenting their own movement, and spread the word through social
networking sites, email, texting, and word of mouth. 2-Cent Entertainment
- a group of young African-American video activists who are responsible
for some of the most exciting media organizing happening in New Orleans
today - made a pair of powerful videos documenting the activist uprising,
which have been widely distributed online. <br><br>
The young activists that organized the actions are determined to make
their mark in the city, through changing the media landscape and shifting
public opinion. “We’re a part of this city,” says Emad Jabbar. “We
identify with it. If you ask most New Orleans Palestinians where they’re
from they’ll say New Orleans - especially the young ones.” It was this
spirit that led dozens of Palestinians to join with African American
community leaders in last month’s annual Martin Luther King march.
Community leader Maher Salem explains, “My cause, my goal is about the
Palestinian people, Gaza, and freedom for everyone. However you describe
me – businessman, father, community leader - what I am is someone who
stands for justice.”<br><br>
As they move forward, Palestinian activists in New Orleans are excited at
the possibilities. “People call me, come to me in the street and in the
Mosque, and ask me what are you up to, what’s next,” says Jabbar. “Our
organizing in New Orleans is moving forward. People in the community are
passionate, and have a lot of energy. We just need to keep stepping
up.”<br><br>
<b>Jordan Flaherty</b> is a journalist based in New Orleans, and an
editor of Left Turn Magazine. He can be reached at
<a href="mailto:neworleans@leftturn.org">neworleans@leftturn.org</a>.<br>
<br>
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