October Lecture Series

Middle East and Muslim cultures

Wednesday, October 6, 12:20 to 1:15 p.m. Room BG-11

Small Auditorium — Bonnell Building

Al Qaeda and U. S. Policy in the Middle East

Professor As’ad Abukhalil, Political Science Department,

California State University at Stanislaus

Professor Abukhalil is the author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power and Bin Laden, Islam, and America's New "War on Terrorism” Co-sponsored by Penn Middle East Center.

Friday, October 8, 1:25 to 2:20 p.m. Room S2-3

Islam along China’s Old (And Modern) Silk Road: A Clash or Dialogue of Civilizations?

Prof. Dru Gladney, Anthropology Department,

University of Hawaii

Professor Gladney is the author of Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic and Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects. Co-sponsored by Student Activities.

Tuesday October 12, 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. Room S2-3

On the Front Lines of Peace and Social Justice: Israeli Women Speak Out
Professor Hannah Safran, Women's Studies Department, University of Haifa and Professor Safa Abu-Rabia, Political Science Department, Ben Gurion University
Professor Safran is co-founder of Women for a Just Peace.
Professor Abu-Rabia is an activist who works with Bedouin women and children's rights. They are on a lecture tour of the US to talk about the peace and feminist movements in Israel. Co-sponsored by Penn Middle East Center.

These events are sponsored by the Department of Education Title VI Project, The Middle East and Cross-Regional Connections

For readings or further information please contact
Fay Beauchamp, x8668, fbeauchamp@ccp.edu

Diane Freedman, X8547, dfreedman@ccp.edu

Safa Abu-Rabia

My name is Safa Abu-Rabia and I am an Arab-Palestinian who graduated from Ben-Gurion University. My father is from the unrecognized village "Kohleh"
in the south of Israel, and my mother is originally from a former Palestinian village which was destroyed during the 1948 war. Today her family has spread to the town of Nazareth (those who stayed in Israel while the others are in Arab countries). They are both Moslem. I have three sisters and one brother.

I was born and raised in Beer-Sheva into a new reality, the reality of post-1948, the reality of being a citizen in the state of Israel. Since we all lived in a Jewish environment, my parents thought it would be better if we studied at an Arab-Bedouin school, so we could get to know our language, religious and ethnic-cultural Bedouin costumes, and our identity as Arab-Palestinians. However, the level of teaching at the Arab school was lower than at the Jewish school and as my parents wanted us to get a high school academic education, we moved to a Jewish school in Beer-Sheva to continue our studies.

At this Jewish school, I studied Jewish history from the Zionist point of view. This history consciously ignored the Palestinian presence in the country and promoted the main message claiming that the empty Holy Land of Israel waited for the return of its original people - the Jews.

Contrary to the written books and documents that prove this "truth", I have been exposed to another version of the story. My mother's family used to take us to what was left of the abandoned Lobiea village (which is a forest today), and used to show us where she lived, and where their home used to be. My father's family always lived in barracks, without any elementary services like water, electricity, health, education or social services. For over 55 years they demanded recognition from the state and their rights as citizens, refusing to move to 'recognized' villages and leave their lands which they lived on for hundreds of years, long before the existence of the State of Israel. This oral history and national heritage raised serious questions and conflicts for me, such as who is right, who was here first, and why is my heritage being ignored so cruelly in all the formal institutions, books and documents.

With these questions I went to university, where I decided to confront them. That is why I decided to learn Middle Eastern Studies for my bachelors
degree. As part of my studies, I conducted research on the "Nakba" memory of the Palestine of 1948. After that, I decided to continue my research at the
level of a masters degree in anthropology, and I focused on the topic of the immortalization of Bedouin Nakba memory, and the formation of Bedouin
national identity.
I believe that knowing the problem is part of the solution, and that is why I insist on exposing the Jewish side to the problem from our perspective, by
understanding its roots. I also believe in practicing consciousness-raising with both sides in order to solve the problem. Based on this belief, I
coordinated a program for coexistence between Arab and Jewish women, which focused on exposing both groups to their cultural-ethnic differences and
similarities. I also coordinated a school program for children so they would have a chance to know the "other" from an early age, before they had to
confront feared images and stereotypes.

Today, I am an active member of the Coexistence Forum for Arabs and Jews. I believe that living in a reality of conflict does not excuse me from my responsibility and duty towards my society. As an educated Bedouin woman, I feel that I need to do more for my society, especially for its weakest and
most discriminated members - women. That is why I have joined Shatil (The New Israel Fund's Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change
Organizations in Israel), and today I am the coordinator of the Bedouin Women's Empowerment Program, which reaches out to Bedouin women and
raises their awareness about their rights.

I live in a state of war in the Middle East and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the situation is escalating. Being in my situation and having my personal experience and my history of activities for coexistence between Arabs and Jews, I feel that I can contribute to the campus tour from a unique perspective: as a Palestinian woman, citizen of the State of Israel, who is marginalized both by Jews and by Arabs -who relate to the Bedouin only as a collective traditional group of society and not as individuals. I also feel that I can learn much from exposure to other areas of conflict besides Israel, and from exposure to other methods and strategies for resolving conflicts.


Hannah Safran

Hannah Safran served as the coordinator of Isha L¹Isha - the Haifa Feminist Center between 1987 and 1996 and was involved in creating new projects for
women such as the hot-line for battered women and the emergency shelter for battered women. She is particularly skilled in organizing and used her experience in working with different groups of women on different projects, as well as in the organizing committee of the National Feminist Conferences.
In recent years she continued to volunteer at Isha L¹Isha where she also writes a personal column in the bi-monthly newsletter published by the organization.  She has also been involved in creating a new organization for economic empowerment of poor women using micro-credit as a tool for changing
women¹s economic acumen.

Between 1996 and 2001 she went back to the University for the Ph.D. studies which she has recently completed.  Her dissertation focuses on the history
of feminism in Israel in the 1920s and in the 1970s and examines the influence of the American feminist movement on local movements.  During this period she worked as the coordinator of the Women¹s Studies program at the University of Haifa and contributed her skills to the creation of the Israeli Association for Feminist and Gender Studies whose goal is to promote women¹s studies at the universities and in society.

In addition to her work at the University and in the community, Hannah has been active in Women in Black, a weekly vigil against the Israeli occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  She has been active in creating and participating in the Coalition of Women for Just Peace, a coalition of eight women¹s peace groups working to create an atmosphere of peace and bring about a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  She has also represented the Coalition at UN conferences and in tours of the US. 

She has two grown children. Her son joined the army against her will but promised not to serve in the occupied territories, not to kill and not to get killed. Her daughter refused to join the army and has recently completed one year of national service, teaching Hebrew to Bedouin women in the Negev.
Hannah is currently teaching at the Women¹s Studies program at the University of Haifa and lecturing widely on women in Israel.  She continues
to take active part in campaigns and actions to promote peace and women's rights in Israel.