Local Arabs speak out
about what they believe is
necessary for Mideast peace.
grudges against Jews or Israelis. "I was
born and raised with them," he says.
"They are human beings."
He believes there will be no peace until
a Palestinian state is established. "We
don't want the whole thing," he insists.
"But you can't take half my home, then
all my home and not budge. All peoples
have a right to freedom, to justice, to a
homeland."
The former president of the American
Ramallah Club, Mr. Shaheen is active in
the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce, the
Rotary Club and the Salvation Army. He
believes most Palestinians support a two-
state solution.
His message to the American Jewish
community: "You'll always have trouble
if you don't give Palestinians their
autonomy." He wants U.S. Jews to
pressure Israel to give up land for a Pales-
tinian state. "When will you realize that
I'm a human being just like you?
"The Jewish mothers are crying; the
Palestinian mothers are crying. Their
children are being killed. When is it going
to end?" he asks. "Both peoples have suf-
fered long and hard. It's enough."
The solution isn't quite so simple for
Ismael Ahmed, director of ACCESS, the
Arab Community Center for Economic
and Social Services. Mr. Ahmed stresses
that he is speaking his own views, not as
a representative of the center.
Mr. Ahmed agrees that the Palestinian
issue is in many ways still the core of
Middle East problems. But he is also con-
cerned about the lack of democracy.
"I see no democratic government in the
Middle East," he says. That includes
Israel because Palestinians there are sub-
jugated, he says. West Bank and Gaza Pa-
lestinians are anxious that Soviet Jewish
immigrants will take away their jobs.
They live with the constant fear of
"transfer," that they will be shipped out
of the country.
"We are now at the crux," Mr. Ahmed
says. "The future may lead us away from
compromise.
"I don't know about the sentiment in
Israel. Have the Scuds made people
hungry for peace or the opposite?"
Mr. Ahmed believes the United States
must play a critical role in any Middle
East peace negotiations. Everybody else,
he says, is unable to move, "stuck in
neutral."
Like Mr. Shaheen, Mr. Ahmed says
most Palestinians are ready to settle for a
two-state solution. He says Palestinian
leaders have made their view known,
only to have it repeatedly ignored by
Israel.
"Israel is in power; the Palestinians are
not," he says. "That's the blur here. The
Arab community is not prepared to make
any more compromises, because all that's
left to give up are national aspirations or
human rights."
Mr. Ahmed supports an international
conference and believes Israel must give
up territory for peace. Even if it relin-
quished the Golan Heights, the West
Bank and Gaza, Israel would still be in a
position of power — especially because its
biggest supporter is the United States, he
says. And its economics would improve,
bolstered by trade with Arab nations.
"The problem is that there are two
peoples with two different national
aspirations and two sets of national
rights," he says. "But the way to deal
with that is not by subjugating one of
those peoples."
wo journalists, two different ap-
proaches to Israel.
Amir Denha is editor of The Chal-
dean Detroit Times. The offices are in
Southfield, not far from Oak Park and the
T
Illustration by Rick Parisi