The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 21, 1993 - 3 Paestinians prepare to iight in Gaza Strip .GAZA CITY, Occupied Gaza Strip I(AP) - The Marj Al-Zahour Mosque Singers took to the stage in camouflage fatigues during a purported sports rally *organized by the Islamic fundamental- ist group Hamas on a broiling after- 'Today we are fighting with stones andknives," the 10 boys sang. "Tomor- row we will fight with pistols and ma- chine guns." The 8,000 spectators chanted ap- proval, and roared when the poets, poli- ticians and prayer leaders called for attacks against Israel and for tearing up the PLO's peace treaty with the Jewish 'Mate. Palestinian factions are girding for the fight toprove they can control ,tk the Gaza Strip. .Some hope to undermine the pact's establish- Anpent of gradual * self-rule in the -Gaza and West tt Bank._ Trying to Arafat fight the plan now is like trying to tell a starving man thata delicious platter of food is riddled with poison, especially since a friend brought it," said Abu Mohammed, an organizer for the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. 9" 'Now most people are happy. But when they confrontreality it will be the hour for the Muslims," he said. -. PLO chair Yasser Arafat and his backers promise better times in Gaza through a huge injection of aid, plus a r,.strong police force to restrain dissent- ers. ThePLOcahcelledall public rallies, saying they were disruptive in light of the~ recent moves. eAny government trying to establish control and inaugurate development for the 800,000 Gazans faces enormous problems. The number of residents per- initted to work in Israelhas been slashed from 80,000 to about 20,000 due to security fears, and remittances from wpm Persian Gulf states dried up because the PLO supported Iraq during the Gulf War-. * ' The economic hardships of the past -two years have largely destroyed the ofeeling of solidarity and shared sacri- fice built up by the intefadeh, the 6- year-old uprising against the occupa- tion. "People are celebrating because they think they won't have to pay taxes, insure their cars or pay municipal fees. People think they can just grab a bag *Wand collect money," said Salah Abdul- Shaft, an economist who distributes European financial aid. 'This will create big problems for the coming government," he said. An initial $3 billion in aid is pro- jected. "Arafat does not have much time. He cannot tellFrom his four-room ce- mfent shack in Beach Refugee Camp, 41-year-oldAwad Ismael Al-Najjar and 17 family members look over a garbage dump toward the strip of Israeli coast once belonged to his family. "What can we get better? At most W will get the charity of a new two- :bedroom house," said al-Najjar, whose 19-old-son died by blowing himself up outside an Israelipolice station lastweek. "What I understand from this agree- ment is that I have no right to get back t my land." Proposed MSA budget to raise groups' funding m ,y . . kr h Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a Bakersfield, Calif., abortion clinic, is shown after it burned to the ground in an early morning fire yesterday. The clinic and three other office buildings were destroyed, and loss is estimated to be at least $500,000 0" Fire destroys abortion clnC; igosa Rt~r SU~e~tarson, By KAREN TALASKI DAILY STAFF REPORTER Maybe it's not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the Michigan Student Assembly could make finan- cial dreams come true for many Univer- sity student organizations. With itsproposed 1994budget, MSA leaders said they hope to dramatically increase the amount of money student organizations are eligible to receive - and to ensure that each group receives the full amount it requests. MSAoffers funding to student orga- nizations to use for financing special projects or events that will benefit a significant portion of the student body. Because of the volume of requests and budgetary restraints, many student organizations tend to be dissatisfied with the amount they receive, said MSA Vice President Brian Kight. "(The assembly) doesn't like to say no, so it funds a lot of groups but only a little bit," Kight said. "As it is now, student groups almost never get the whole amount." The proposed budget will allocate an additional $20,000 in funding to the Budget Priorities Committee, which is responsible for distributing money to the University's student organizations. The assembly will vote on whether or not it will accept the proposed budget at its regular meeting tonight. Although MSA has come under fire recently for proposing drastic cuts to other groups - such as the Ann Arbor Tenants' Union - assembly President Craig Greenberg said he feels the new budget will provide better distribution of funds for all parties involved. "Over 120 groups come to MSA with requests for money each year," Greenberg said. "Funding studentorga- nizations is one of the most important things we do as a student government." MSA received more than $100,000 in funding requests from student groups last year. Yet only half of that amount was officially allocated to student groups because the assembly's budget cquld not afford any more. "The budget is usually always allo- cated to its fullest," said Greenberg, an LSA junior. "Groups can'talways getas much as they request.They rarely get all of what they want or need." MSA members also hope to change the way the Budget Priorities Commit- tee notifies student organizations that they have been given the money they requested. About 5 percent of funds distributed to student organizations goes unused from either lack of interest or because the proposed event was not held. Money that is not used can be reallocated to other groups later in the year that might not have been funded otherwise, Kight said. "We want to make sure that groups get notified and then (MSA) can get tough when they don'tpick itup," Kight said. "MSA hopes to increase the aver- age amount groups can receive and the number of groups that can receive fund- ing." Organizations that want to receive funding must be student groups recog- nized by MSA and may only request funds one time each semester. BAKERSFIELD,Calif. (AP) -An abortion clinic that had been the target of frequent demonstrations was de- stroyed before dawn yesterday by a fire that investigators suspect was set. The four-alarm fire also destroyed two adjacent buildings housing up to a dozen smaller businesses. Damage was estimated at $1.4 million. The fire began at about 4 a.m. in the offices of Family Planning Associates, city Fire Marshal Larry Toler said. An initial investigation pointed to probable arson because of "the nature of the fire, the way it spread so fast and the fact that it burned so hot," he said. Police officers answering a burglar alarm found flames shooting through the wood-shingled roof, Toler said. Trees and electrical lines across an alley about 30 feet from the fire were scorched. The clinic had received no threats, said Mike Monji, regional manager for Family Planning Associates. Bakers- field is a farming and oil industry city of 200,000 residents 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Nationwide, there has been arash of vandalism and violence against abor- tion clinics, including the shootings of doctors in Florida and Wichita, Kan., this year. But there had beenno hint from anti- abortion protests that there would be violence at the Bakersfield clinic, said Debbie Oldson, a legal assistant with a law firm that lost roughly 500 client files. 'The demonstrations never worried us," Oldson said. "They were very peaceful." Sue Finn, a spokesperson for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue said from Los Angeles she didn't be- lieve the fire was set by an abortion foe. "We don't assume that it's a pro-life person until someone is found or caught," she said. Spanish lecturers accuse 'U' of hiring unfit replacements JUGGLING ACT By NATE HURLEY DAILY STAFF REPORTER A handful of Spanish lecturers say they are hearing a "giant sucking sound" of their jobs being sent to Europe, and they don't like what they're hearing. These members of the Department of Ro- mance Languages and Literatures lodged com- plaints against the department, claiming an "eth- nic purge" is occurring as lecturers from mostly- European Spanish-speaking countries replace Americans from Latin American countries. Representatives from the department said the new lecturers are being transplanted to bring diversity to the Spanish curriculum, and have cited similar teacher-exchange programs in other romance languages, such as French and Italian. To support their accusation that the reasons for not renewing their one-year contracts are not legitimate, the displaced lecturers claim that the new lecturers are unfit to teach and that they failed their English proficiency tests. Sarah Briggs, a representative from the En- glish Language Institute (ELI) - a facility on campus that tests teaching assistants (TAs) and sometimes lecturers - said 11 lecturers from the entire Department of Romance Languages and Literatures were given tests. . Department chair William Paulson, said five tests were given to Spanish lecturers, four to French and two to Italian. "One cannot actually say that some lecturers failed and others passed, because the test was intended to be diagnostic." But, "several lecturers, including some of the four newly-hired lecturers in Spanish ... had relatively lower test scores." Briggs said, "What we're particularly focus- ing on is a language-in-use test." The institute would not release any of the test results. Paulson said the lecturers with low scores will receive additional training from the institute. Of the 14 lecturers who taught Spanish last year, three did not have their one-year contracts renewed. They accuse the department of replacing them with inferior lecturers. "They let people go who are citizens of the United States, basically unemployed them, put them out of work, brought in foreigners who have less education, less experience and of course have never been evaluated here at the University," said Jon Heaton, a Spanish TA. Heaton's wife, Lupita, is a Spanish lecturer whose hours were reduced. John Chamberlin, LSA associate dean for aca- demic appointments, reiterated that the lecturers were only on one-year contracts. "It's not so much that someone was fired than that they might not have been renewed," he said. Heaton was critical of the department's claim that the lecturers were needed to balance out an exchange program. "In the French department, they have an ex- change program. Some of our students do go to France as lecturers and some people from France come here. In Spanish, there isn't any exchange like that." Paulson said one of the five new lecturers is an annual exchange with the University of Seville. "The position is offered in exchange for the right of Michigan students to enroll in that University under the Michigan-Cornell Program in Seville." He said this year's lecturer replaces last year's. He said the other four lecturers were hired under aplan devised by the directorof the Elemen- tary Language Program in Spanish. EUZABETH LIPPMAN/Dally "Zeemo the Magnificent" amuses himself on the Diag yesterday. 77 RedadClose but no Suguira i n Daily Sports Student groups U Saint Mary Student Parish, Lector Training, 331 Thomp- son, 7 p.m. U Christian Science Organiza- tion, weekly meeting, Michi- gan League, check room at front desk, 7 p.m. U Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Club, mass meeting, Michigan Union, Anderson Room,7 p.m. U U of M Actuarial Club, Intro- duction to Actuarial Science at UL Panac't 1aindsDrina Dow Building, Room 1005, 6 p.m. Events Q Opportunities for Area Stud- ies Students with The Will- iam Davidson Institute, spon- sored by the Center for Russian and East European Studies, Lane Hall, Commons Room, 4 p.m. Q The Black Panthers, film spon- cnr-Ad h the Manist Interna- Q Global Implication of War and Peace In Bosnia, Nile Harper speaking, sponsored by theEcu- menical Campus Center, Inter- national Center, 12 p.m. Q An Invitation to the Chinese Garden, sponsored by the Cen- ter for Chinese Studies, Lane Hall, Commons Room, 12p.m. Student services Q Career Planing and Placement Infnrmatinn Sessinn Anell tudent Alumni cou ncil1 Mass Meetings 7:00 PM Monday, September 20th TI.. ft -. o0j mmr~a..L ...% a - A% I v 1.7 6.. 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