The Arab American News
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Extraordinary school, extraordinary student
DEARBORN — Each year, countless high school students dream of earning the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school. Samantha Yassine But very few of them get the chance to do so as quickly as Samantha Yassine of Fordson High School. The 17-year-old junior will depart for Harvard's summer school program on June 21st...Group observes Nakba anniversary, newspaper honored for 25 years of service
DEARBORN — Commemorating the Nabka is never easy, but for the peace and justice activists who organize somber and rallying observances every year, the importance of marking the anniversary can't be overstated. Palestine Office Michigan head Hasan Newash The Palestine Office of Michigan commemorated...
Pope’s visit a political minefield
May 16th, 20090 This past week, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Because he is a pope whose past comments have rankled Muslims and Jews alike, many scrutinized his every move. Given the context of a renewed American and European push for peace, which is seen as being at odds with the new Israeli...Hamas against Zionism, not Judaism
GAZA CITY (IPS) — A founding member of Hamas says he hates all weapons and insists that his organization is not anti-Jewish. A Palestinian holds a symbolic key during a Nakba rally in the West Bank city of Nablus May 14, 2009. Palestinians will mark "Nakba", or "Catastrophe", on May 15 to commemorate the time when hundreds of...
Families down to a meal a day
May 16th, 20090 Palestinian refugees in Gaza. GAZA CITY (IPS) — Um Abdullah cannot remember the last time she was able to feed meat to her eight children. She does know that for the past week the single meal she cooked for them each day consisted only of lentils. And that on one day, she had received aid coupons from the United Nations,...Some give, some take
When President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visit Washington this month they will bring to U.S. President Barack Obama "a comprehensive project for Middle East peace" that will cover "not just the Palestinian issue but all that is related to Israeli occupation of Arab territories," Abbas said in Cairo...Cronyism all the way
RAMALLAH — Mahmoud Al-Abed, 26, has given up trying to secure the passport that would allow him to travel outside of the Gaza Strip to continue his higher education in a Malaysian university. Like many Palestinians in Gaza, Al-Abed doesn't have a passport because they are supposed to be sent from Ramallah and, due to disputes with the...
Iran releases jailed U.S. journalist
May 16th, 20090 A U.S.-born journalist jailed in Iran on charges of spying for the United States thanked those who helped win her release on Tuesday, after a court reduced and suspended an eight-year sentence handed down last month. U.S. born journalist Roxana Saberi (R), released from prison on Monday, stands next to her father Reza Saberi as...Yemen on the brink of war?
On May 3, the US Embassy in Sana'a issued a statement on the political violence in South Yemen that claimed eight lives last week. The United States stressed that "Yemen's unity depends on its ability to guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law." What the Yemeni government calls unity, the protesters call...Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay
Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests. Israeli settlements Economic damage: The...How to make the neocons crazy over the Middle East: Tell them the truth
Old Charlie Krauthammer, the neocon who won't go away, is at it again. Charlie Krauthammer Now he's hammering at an old favorite target — the Hamas party and its political leader, Khaled Meshal — and its new accomplice, that scurrilously liberal newspaper, the New York Times. The Times' latest moral fault (according...
NAACP A century of freedom fighting
May 16th, 20090 A hundred years after its establishment, the nation's oldest civil rights organization is still expanding its influence, taking on universal issues and bringing more causes, movements and communities under its wing. Rev. Jesse Jackson, L, CNN analyst T.J. Holmes, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP Detroit chapter President Rev....Group to observe Al-Nakba anniversary
DEARBORN — The Palestine Office-Michigan is preparing to commemorate the 61st anniversary of "Al-Nakba" — Arabic for "the catastrophe" — with an event at the Hyatt Regency, 600 Town Center Drive in Dearborn at 6:30 p.m. A Palestinian child, wearing traditional clothes, takes part in a march at the Ain el-Hilweh refugee...Ticket-fixing scam uncovered in Dearborn
DEARBORN — A local police officer will be forced to stand trial after he was charged with operating a traffic ticket scam in the city of Dearborn. From top left, counterclockwise, Ramirez, Hojaije, Charara, Nimer. Dearborn officer Alex Brian Ramirez will face five separate felony charges, each carrying a penalty of five years...LAHC awards scholarships, newspaper honored
DEARBORN — The Lebanese American Heritage Club of Dearborn held its 21st annual Arab American Scholarship Foundation Dinner on Friday, May 8 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn, awarding scholarships to 55 local students. The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani, C, accepts an award from Lebanese American Heritage Club......
Soldier rampage hints at stress of repeated deployments
May 16th, 20090 WASHINGTON — Military police on Tuesday charged Sgt. John Russell, a soldier on a 15-month tour to Iraq – his third deployment to the country – with murder in the shooting deaths of five soldiers at an American base. Sgt. John M. Russell, the Army sergeant accused of killing five fellow soldiers in Iraq, is seen in a...Gibran Award recipients honored for promoting cross-cultural understanding
WASHINGTON — Since 1999, the Washington-based Arab American Institute Foundation has honored groups and individuals working to foster cross-cultural understanding with an award named for the poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran. The Lebanese-American is perhaps best known for his 1923 collection of poems titled "The Prophet." But he is......
Arab students allege discrimination at UMD
May 9th, 20090 DEARBORN — A group of Arab American students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn have raised complaints of discrimination after a student government election left them feeling excluded and ignored by university administrators. University of Michigan-Dearborn students campaign during student government elections on April 23....
Unstable Pakistan threatens the world
May 9th, 20090 America's attention has for several years been focused on the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for good reason. Thousands upon thousands of American troops, along with tens of thousands of civilians, have been killed and maimed. The consequences for the world from these ongoing wars weigh heavily upon everything from global...Egypt: Viral time bomb set to explode
CAIRO (IPS) — It is a health crisis of alarming proportions. Up to nine million Egyptians have been exposed to hepatitis C, and tens of thousands will die each year unless they receive a liver transplant. An Egyptian laboratory technician in a medical research facility in Cairo. Health authorities are taking steps to stop the...Federal agencies meet with community leaders, deny forcing Muslims to spy on mosques
Arab American and American Muslim community leaders attorney Nabih Ayad, L, Allie Berry, Imad Hamad, Osama Siblani, Dawud Walid and Nadia Fadel address law enforcement officials during an April 30 meeting in Dearborn addressing tensions over surveillance that have risen in recent weeks between communities and agencies like the......
Longtime activist to receive community peacemaker award
A Livonia Arab American is being recognized as a community peacemaker by the Wayne State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, which is expected to honor the Vietnam veteran during a May 14 reception at the Next Energy building, 461 Burroughs Street in Detroit. Ron Amen, pictured with wife Mona Amen, is to receive an...Dearborn Stars back at it in ’09, Michigan Eagles kick off inaugural season
The Dearborn Stars welcomed the new season at a gathering at the Lebanese American Heritage Club this week. PHOTO: Tariq Abdal Wahid DEARBORN — The Dearborn Stars' 2008 season was a successful one as they became one of the top teams in the Michigan Premier Soccer League in their first season since 2000. The Lebanese......
ACCESS celebrates 38th anniversary
DETROIT — A crowd of more than 2,000 people settled into the Renaissance Center in Detroit on May 2 to celebrate the accomplishments of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services and to look ahead to the challenges of the future. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, C, poses with ACCESS leaders after...Disappointing turnout in Dearborn Heights school election
Once more, the voters of the city of Dearborn Heights showed us how every vote counts, or more specifically, how a mere 38 votes can deprive a qualified community activist like Wanda Saad from serving on the Crestwood Board of Education. In a special election held Tuesday, May 5, only a handful of voters cast their ballots, most of......
