Elaine Hagopian

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 17:54:33

My first contacts with the MIT Arab students was after the 1967 war. I had just taken a job in Boston at Simmons College after leaving Smith College. I hitched up with a group called AMARA, an offshoot of the failing Syrian-Lebanese Federation in the USA. The principles in that organization were people like Yvonne Homsy, Frank Maria, Evelyn Abdalah Menconi, Sam Hussein, George and Ida Mudarri, and others. Evelyn was always the great outreach person, and had regularly contacted the Arab students in the area for different programs.

Given that the war had just happened, AMARA and the students teamed up to do political education programs. The main students with whom we worked at that time were Mujid Kazimi (now at MIT in Nuclear Engineering) and John Makhoul (now at BBN). Kanaan Makiya and Ahmad Chalibi were also around, but they were not as active on the Palestine issue as the others.

In 1967, the founding meeting of what became the Association of Arab-American University Graduates was formed, and I became active in that organization, but continued to work with AMARA locally. Mujid and John eventually joined the AAUG, and later each were voted in as President of the Association.

The programs we did together with MIT and other Arab students elsewhere were primarily focused on US Foreign Policy in the M.E., Palestine and Arab Nationalism. Joining in these efforts were the Harvard Arab Students, especially Ismail Serrageldin, later to be at the World Bank, and today working with the Alexandria Museum in Egypt. Ismail was particularly helpful in translating a lot of Arabic material coming out in the ME on the war.

In 1972, when President Nixon issued Operation Boulder, aimed at investigation Arab-origin people whether citizens or not for their potential for terrorism, Attorney Abdeen Jabara of AAUG put out a "know your rights information paper" that we distributed to citizens and students alike. It was a tense period, but through it all, the MIT Arab students continued to sponsor important educational programs.

When the Arab students of the post-1967 war graduated, we lost touch with the remaining students, although Arab students from around the country joined AAUG as student members.

My next enounter with MIT Arab students came in the 1990s. This was the golden age of Alan Shihadeh and Mona Fawaz. Of course there were other outstanding and active students, but these were the two who were consistently there. They sponsored talks on Iraq (first gulf war and then sanctions), US Foreign policy, Palestine, and film series on Palestine. They also sponsored cultural programs. Joining their activism was Nadine Touma from Lebanon who was a student at Wellesley College. She was a courageous organizer of events, some of which were at Wellesley.

The Trans-Arab Research Institute was formed in 1999, and held its first conference on the Right of Return at Boston University. Alan had gone to Palestine and taught at BirZeit as a way of helping students be creative about using the enviroment for engineering principles. Mona, joined by BU Arab students, and many others contributed to the success of the program both by doing some of the grudge work and by chairing a session at the conference.

Once Mona and Alan were no longer at MIT, the Arab Students who came after were not particularly active. Now we have in the present students (2004) an informed and active group who will participate in the Nov. 6, 2004 Conference co-sponsored by the MIT ASO.