Dr. Ibish discussed the history of Arab Americans in America, the emergence of a political identity and on ways for Arab-Americans to impact current established political and policy discourses.
Although Arabs have been emigrating to America for more than a hundred years, Dr Ibish suggested two waves of emigration as being of more importance. The first, called the Great Migration, from the late 1900s up to early 1920, saw predominantly Christian emigrants from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The second followed a relaxation of American immigration laws in the 1960s and saw, again, large numbers from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine but also from Iraq, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. This influx altered the demographic nature of the Arab-American community with larger numbers of Muslims countering the predominantly Christian population.
The Arab-American population is estimated at 3.5 million and according to Dr Ibish it is a successful community, hard-working, well-educated with higher than average incomes. They have not, however, developed a community identity or established political organisations to match these achievements.
Dr Ibish believes that it was partly the 'gleeful' media response in support of the Jewish cause during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War that shocked many Arab Americans into a gradual political awakening. That year the Association of Arab-American University Graduates was formed and began to define for the first time what it meant to be an Arab-American. The academic approach and influence of Arab nationalist ideals on the founders meant that the organization failed to reach out to a majority of Arab Americans. Furthermore, divisions in the Arab community fuelled by turmoil in the Middle East, such as the civil war in Lebanon, made collective activity more difficult.
During the 1980s more organizations were formed such as The American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) that aimed to challenge discrimination, defamation and stereotyping and the Arab American Institute (AAI) which focused more on political representation. These two organisations have changed little in size since the 1990s and have since been joined by numerous Arab-Muslim organizations that sprang up during the late 1990s such as the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). None of these organizations, according to Dr Ibish are particularly strong or effective representatives of the Arab-American community.
He went on to suggest that the Arab American community was possibly poised to become more vocal and visible on the political scene but that the events of 9/11 perhaps temporarily delayed this progress.
Dr Ibish considers that Arab Americans labor under a number of false beliefs and cynical outlooks that prevent them from influencing policy and political discourse in America. Many, he said, falsely believe that they will be investigated by the government if they support or become members of organizations or become more vocal in pushing for causes they believe in such as Palestine. There is, furthermore, a common belief that nothing they say will change policy and that change will come if they wait long enough. Dr Ibish's deplores this 'wait and see' approach suggesting that achievement is not a 'fruit on a tree' that is going to drop into your hands but something that has to climbed-up to and taken. He believes that Arab Americans can definitely influence policy discourse but that they first have to be able to translate their traditional tenets into receivable messages that the established policy environment can relate to. Dr Ibish thinks it is vital that any attempt to gain a foothold or influence policy must demonstrate a credible commitment to American national security. There is common ground and it is perhaps better to use this to start dialogue than reiterating radical discourse.
From experience working with the American Task Force for Palestine (ATFP), Dr. Ibish inferred that one of the problems with traditional approaches to communicating the discourse on Arab American affairs is because it is based on issues of justice, human rights, international law and history. He suggested that what the average American wants to know is how and why decisions to support certain Arab causes will affect or impact their lives. In trying to propose answers directly to these concerns the ATFP has successfully gained a foothold in establishment policy discussions.
The future challenge Dr Ibish stated is pedagogical. Given the assumption that there are no 'mechanisms' or barriers - how can Arab Americans be encouraged to become more involved in American policy rather than politics.
