Palestinian Heritage Foundation Holds 17th Annual Banquet
By Jane Adas
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
December 2004
The 17th anniversary banquet of the Palestinian Heritage Foundation, held
Sept. 12, was devoted to a memorial for Prof. Edward W. Said. Last year's
honored guest, Dr. Clovis Maksoud, sent a letter from Jordan in which he
remembered that Said, very near death at that point, had sent a message
regretting his inability to attend the tribute for Maksoud: "Imagine that Edward
even thought of the event at that moment!" Maksoud further wrote that Said was
disdainful of compromise under the pretext of realism, but was passionate about
the need for reconciliation, not only to heal wounds, but also to animate the
integrity of common humanity.
Said's widow, Mariam, told the guests that her husband's political involvement
began during the Vietnam War. Because his education had been Western, he
re-educated himself by reading non-Western writers and learned to link the
Palestinian issue to other struggles. Separation between peoples is not a
solution, Mrs. Said concluded, arguing that our only hope lies within interaction
and cooperation, as in the East-West Divan founded by her husband and the
Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. The family is striving to keep
that project alive, she said. In that spirit, the Palestinian Heritage
Foundation donated proceeds of the banquet to the National Conservatory of Music
in Ramallah.
Keynote speaker Dr. Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies
at Columbia University and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, said it
is natural for a community that has been subjected to racist hostility to be
proud of its intellectuals. Arab Americans should cherish the memory of Edward
Said, Khalidi said, but warned against creating a cult of devotion. What the
community desperately needs now, he emphasized, are not shining leaders, but
institutions that are not based on a personality. He pointed out that in its
greatest time of crisis, the Jewish community failed to influence the U.S.
racist immigration policy in the1930s because its institutions were
insufficiently mature. Since then, as we all know, they have built powerful
institutions.
Khalidi exhorted the Arab-American community to quit focusing on the role of
individuals, to quit waiting for a savior, but instead to build institutions
that are so strong that those in power cannot afford to ignore them. He
acknowledged that this requires hard work, time, money, and self-effacing
teamwork. It requires skills in fund-raising, management, public relations and
accounting, and is far less glamorous than relying on charismatic leaders. But
it is what is most necessary to change the situation, Khalidi insisted.
Much of Said's work was directed to American audiences, Khalidi explained,
because he understood that the challenge of furthering the cause of justice and
redressing the image of Arabs lies here in the U.S. The same reasoning inspired
Farah and Hanan Munayyer to establish the Palestinian Heritage Foundation. The
Munayyers frequently travel with their collection of Palestinian and Syrian
costumes and embroidery to educate Americans about an aspect of Arab culture of
which they otherwise would never have heard. This past year the couple presented
lectures and exhibits at the Museum of Natural History in New York, the White
Plains Public Library, the Ibn Rushd Arab cultural organization in Richmond,
Virginia, and the Heritage Museum and Center in Pennsylvania.
The Munayyer
collection was recently augmented
by two generous donations: the late Hala Maksoud's collection of Arab costumes,
donated by her sister Hania and brother Ousama Salam; and a unique set of
antique dolls dressed in Arab costumes made in the late 1940s by Palestinian
refugees at UNRWA camps in Lebanon, donated by Ambassador William Stoltzfus.
Ambassador Stoltzfus being recognized at Banquet