Transcripts For CSPAN2 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee National Convention 20170922

I was just curious. My first question actually, sam, i only have the pleasure of meeting him today but ive known sam for a while. He works for a member of congress, so sam, you are unique in the sense that youve heard this term here in arab american and a hispanic american. The Hispanic Community, theres a lot of similarity between the Arab Community and the Hispanic Community. One that we can never replicate are the numbers. The Hispanic Community has large numbers and has developed clout but it took a while for their community to mature in terms of their political activism and their understanding of how they could be involved as a communit community. Its not to say that the Arab American Community and the Muslim Community or any other labels, the previous conversation we had prior to this panel, but what are some lessons you learned as being not only a hispanic american, but a chief of staff to a hispanic member of congress where you saw the Hispanic Community mature in terms of its activisms, and what are the lessons you can share with us so we can replicate some of those same tactics. I think first and foremost , the community is maturing still. Its not yet mature on the latino side. Most importantly, its engagement and its people running for office. What we did in california, i was very young one prop 187 happened but it was an effort to basically attack latino families. It was not too far off from what donald trump is trying to do today. What we saw in the aftermath was the largest registration numbers in history throughout southern california, and over time, more candidates weather was city council, state legislature, name your position, we are running for office. What that showed his we are here and we are here to stay. I think for our community, the more extreme would be the japaneseamerican experience in the aftermath of world war ii. I studied a lot, as a student because i was trying to see how i could help them be a voice for my communities. You have good examples where the community started electing people to congress to make sure that never again with the community we marginalize the way it was in the aftermath of the american tragedy. It starts with getting our folks up there. Even more so, it using the different avenues that we all have to tell her story. In Orange County, whats going on with our arab american caucus is they are having local conversations. Theyre using the love of our culture of community and food to bring others into learn about us. Its called hummus not hate. A lot of us are immigrants. We have to put her head down and work. My parents never could afford the time to really get in involved other to vote. Whether youre bluecollar job are you own a business, you dont have, voting is a luxury. Getting involved politically is a luxury. Today its a necessity. The Latino Community saw that and the reason why the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is nearly 30 members today is just waking up one day and saying this is now our election and our country and were to get organized. As a community, the Democratic Party needs us more than we need them, in some ways. In Orange County we have four seats open for congress where we have a chance to win them. Hillary clinton won the seed by 8. 6 . Theres no way to win without the arab american being involved in Orange County. Our community is a critical part of the vote. We have to own it. The Latino Community has owned it and said we are here and we will make a difference on this. Thats how you evolving get more political power. Its getting gauged and vote and support candidates because it also shows were at the table and were playing this game too. This really is not just on the two of them. Its on us as a community. One of the things that weve talked about repeatedly is yes it is incumbent upon every Single Person in this room to go out and vote. How you vote is your own personal choice, but you have to vote. More importantly mama because her community is up against it, we have to do more. We cant just go vote. If you have friends and relatives and neighbors were not registered, get them registered, the same way you would get on the case about not mowing the lawn or making sure their put their trash where it needs to be, make sure they are registered to vote. Its as simple as that. It sounds corny, but the one day of the year for every Single Person, no matter how much money you make my no matter where you live, where every Single Person is on election day. Its only our own fault when we dont reflect that were voting. Its incumbent upon everyone to not only do their part themselves but to make sure your friends and your relatives and your neighbors and what have you, are voting as well. So in michigan, obviously the highest. Capita representation of our Community Even though california has more arabamericans as a whole, michigan the more concentrated. You are not in what is historically dubbed as Little Arabia or little lebanon so what do you need to do to get our community out and support you, knowing that if you do get elected, you will be getting elected by people who are nonarab or non muslim or non lebanese. How are you planning to balance the outreach to our community knowing you will need people outside our community to be successful. So the districts, while yes it doesnt include dearborn, most specifically which is what we all think of when we think of michigan, and it is where i grew up, but nevertheless, the district still has a 10 12 middle eastern and asianamerican community which does include a high concentration of Muslim Americans as well and a growing community. I will answer your question, but part of my plan does include engagement and outreach and mobilization of the community. Im in an area that is considered purple, it can be flipped. It is an open seat. The recent incumbent mentioned he is not running for reelection. It made this race more competitive. I scared him away, is what i tell people. Number nevertheless, it will take a little bit more than just the Democratic Base to win the seat. So, a part of that, a piece of that puzzle is expanding the electorate. Thats why ive always done Voter Engagement and mobilization within a more vulnerable communities. In this district it can go a long, long way. It can take time to appeal to people outside of the community as well. I run on a message of bringing us all together. There is a Common Foundation that we all believe in progress. That can mean anything to working with the community, getting your message out there so people understand why universal healthcare and why having affordable healthcare and healthcare expansion means progress for all of us. Means progress for the community. Also, there are other things like Small Businesses are big group in this district. Small Business Engagement to empower our Small Business owners, especially momandpop shop. I wont go into how theyre categorized, but usually there are real problems we are facing now and thats why we are in this and flipping our lives upside down. We believe there is so much to fight for. Part of that is being able to have a voice at the table so we can protect our community. We can protect immigrant communities because we are absolutely at risk with the current administration. Even if we have some sort of hope that maybe it will flip in 2020, what its done is said it is home of whats acceptable. We have to show its not acceptable because the narrative also matters. That is the other really important piece. Someone recently said, they were a voter in california and they said youre just gonna vote on think so how does that make a difference for me. I thought because the minut narrative is important. If you dont have people who have that platform and who are at the table were able to speak on your behalf, then you dont have representation and theres no one properly informing the narrative. In my district, Hillary Clinton won the district by a percent, 8. 6 . Congressman royce one by 14. He largely won because we didnt have a candidate against him last time. When you look at the district numbers, its 5050. All the National Reports show straight up 5050. The question becomes a couple things. Can you turn out the democratic voter and keep them on your side . Can you bring in independence and have them be part of your story and on the republican side there is a lot of frustration and anger with whats going on. If you can give them an alternative if their hiring. Its not just the . Firing someone. You may not like donald trump, you may not love your congressman, but not just a replacement like that. Its got to be can you hire someone. My conversation focuses on a couple. Number one im local. I grew up there. My parents story is the same immigrant story is so many families. Whether its someone who came here, these are working families just trying to get ahead for the next generation. Number two, i can do the job on day one. I know how government works. Having someone up there who can get stuff done and make sure we have a voice at the table and that we are moving our conversation forward, and number three, youve got a grant back into who we are as americans. This is a question of whether not we are Donald Trumps america over the america we all know and believe in. I think most people get that. You have to talk about it, thats who we are, but also get back to some of the issues that really unite us. People want to make sure they can pay their bills and they want to make sure the their kids can get ahead. Thats what this countrys always been about. Lets get back to basics. Lets talk about that American Dream. Its slipping away from everyone. Everyone is frustratin frustrated. But donald trump is not the source of that frustration. This guy is not the solution for that. We need to show that we have solutions. We use some of the worst roads in california. People are being priced out of their homes in rates that weve never seen. To buy home in Orange County, you have to make 174,000. Next generation cant live where they grew up. That cuts across parties because it is the aspiration of who we are in the country and what its about. I can do the job and i can talk about some of things we want but lets get our Community Back and make sure the next community can have the American Dream that was set up for us. I would like to open it to a few questions. We will get your microphone. I am with the Holy Land Foundation and i am first generation american. What you said is beautiful. I love democrats but not Hillary Clinton. My interest is what is your agenda about palestine and syria. We talked about politics and all that stuff. I want to hear your views on what you are going to do for us. We work on human rights issue. We need congress support. [applause] i will go first. My opponent is not helpful to our community at all. Hes not helpful to anyone in general, hes just there. In one sense, with someone like ed royce, is just trying to attack attack and not really thinking through the Foreign Affairs and challenges. Hes one of the architects of the iraq war. He was doing that without any thought of consequence. Things are getting harder and harder. What im talking to people in the district, my response back is what has he done for us lately. Since donald trump has been president , he has said next to nothing. He was attacking president obama on his diplomacy in iran and hes mentioned nothing about some of the behavior coming out of the white house. When it comes to the region, how i look at it, we will have to have our voice their so we can be at the table. It does go back to telling our story and reminding people that a lot of us are firstgeneratio firstgeneration. Whether its palestine and advocating for a two state solution for syria and making sure that every voice is heard and were trying to find solutions to some of the challenges, or is making sure that there is a voice in congress. Its first instinct isnt lets go to war in the region, its lets work with International Community and find solutions that are longterm, because what happened is washington has been triggerhappy on a lot of the stuff without thinking through the consequences. When i was in jordan after i went to visit my family, what we saw was that the countries changed because of a lot of iraqi refugees. Now theres a lot of syrian refugees. Theyre changing the nature of a lot of these because we are having a very shortsighted Foreign Affairs from americans perspective. We have to think through this more. We have to think about putting in next generation of leadership. We are not thinking through solutions, we cant have another generation grow up with a clenched fist, whether its talking about israel and palestine, we can have another generation lost to just being angry at each other. Thats not the path forward. We really do have to turn the page because the challenges are only gonna get greater as we enter Climate Change and things like that. When i said, if were not at the table were on the menu, i think weve seen that. When i look at whats happened in the middle east, i see there has been a lack of representation of people who understand the area and the culture and those were helping make the decision. Not to sound repetitive, but that is absolutely why we need more people from our community at the table because we can have that voice. If we dont fully understand, then we are representatives of you and know exactly where to go back to find answers, to go back to organizations like abc and a number of the others where there is policy experts and people who understand the issue. That is what is missing right now. I think you can ask any staff person of abc in this room, whats that direct line. Its probably. When you have people who are serving those commissio positions you have that direct line to influence policy. To argue that diplomacy is the answer and not war, to be able to make others understand how we can actually get to a two state solution. I dont even know what the answer is in syria anymore, but i will say i believe its gotten to this point because we werent at the table. You didnt have people making informed decisions and really understanding the dynamics in syria on the ground and what was happening. The answer isnt to give up or say its never going to change because i think the has gotten to the point because we havent had that position at the table and we havent had those strong lines of communication. Im just going to interject a little bit myself. I thought something you said really struck me. A few years older than both of you, id like to think that too much older but i never really worried or thought about my community in terms of being disenfranchised. They are having work in politics before 911. I did see it all the time. When i came to the hill, if you are too outspoken, you iran the risk of not being able to get certain jobs or in certain places within government. What i would like to emphasize to everybody, whether your primary issues are foreign or domestic, for me, not that i dont care about israel and palestine, those are all critically important issues to me but theyve heard me say this before and anytime ive been on a panel, my grandparents came here in 1989 so identify much more as the american side of my background than the arab side. Its just the reality. Its Civil Liberties and how we are treated as arabamericans that has really been the core of why i have chosen to get more active in the community and i know youve heard both say this a lot but having a seat at the table really makes a difference. Im can appoint something thats very specific that has happened in the course of last year. Obviously this Russian Investigation has gotten a lot of political news play, what have you. If you recall, one of the points during the investigation when you are talking about the unmasking, if that rings any bells to anybody in terms of one wiretap communications, they might be wiretapping somebody based on a warrant from overseas or what have you and then you unmask the people with whom that particular form content was speaking and michael flynn, the former National Security advisor got caught up in that, all the sun there was this outcry about unmasking because somebody who was a political ally of certain people in congress was unmasked. When that happens in our community all the time, but there was nobody, literally nobody at the table right after 911 talking about how these kind of things were going to affect our community. Our Community Gets on mast all the time and nobody says a word about it. That affects the ability for people in our Community Get jobs and housing and be cleared for post graduate all these kind of things that you may not think about so i just raise that to say that if you dont hear our candidates talking 247 about israel, palestine or syria or iraq or ron or the split between them, doesnt mean they dont care about those issues. This is personal opinion but i think someone from our community is going to be better suited to deal with any of those issues, whether it israel, palestine or whatever because there are member of our community. I may wholeheartedly disagree , i think the general would like to know little bit more about those positions that i think its a little much for me to inject patches having us at the table is really part of what were trying to accomplish. Forgive the interjection. Its just something i saw because i was in congress when the patriot act was passed. It was like preaching to a brick wall. Nobody wanted to listen what i was saying. All the things that are happening, anyway, ive said that. First of all, palestine is a domestic issue when we give 3 billion a year and when pro israel groups, they employ islamic public techniques against americans and their lobbying. Its not a Foreign Policy issue. We give 3 billion a year. It is a domestic issue. It might be misunderstanding of the american Arab Community to think we separate those things in our mind, we dont. War with syria is a domestic issue but i dont think this is time or place to make a litmus test although i would hope they would vote against, but theres nothing wrong with our community asking candidates from our community to say if we help you get elected, we expect you to vote against funding for israel. Thats one thing we all agree on. Who cares about how the game of thrones is doing. Let me say what abc cant say and what they have alluded to a little bit. Everybody in this room, please, give them money. Go give them money. I give money today, go to their websites, give them money. They need to have fundraising goals we have to reach, week to have to get them in the congress and i can speak for her could have known her very long time, she will be a jewel of community in congress. She is very important for us to happen there. Give her money. Gives him money to come im sure hes a great guy. Lets make sure we get them in congress. A question, im sorry, im not sure if your muslim so i dont know why should directors question to you. Its about islam a phobia. There is so much, theres a Pernicious Campaign to demonize muslims and delegitimize us, theres this narrative that muslims are trying to impose sharia in the u. S. And there are groups that are very, very active and any muslim who stands up risks being attacked. There will probably be a narrative that you are going to go. [inaudible] the constitution. [inaudible] im just wondering if youve confronted that and have you thought about that and how would you react to that. You worry that might influence enough people and create like a real hate storm around your campaign . Within 24 hours of my announcement, twitter and social media trolls were out and theyve been out. Have had all sorts of accusations come my way, everything from im going to support that law or bring foreigners here. One tweet said Something Like it promotes open bird transporters and free stuff. I thought who doesnt like free stuff, why is that about thing. This was an actual tweet. It got retreated. Its cococococo already and i expect it will continue. For me, its white noise because i really knew it existed. Thats why im sitting here and im running for congress. I believe that narrative is important. Its Something Like 52 of americans say theyve never met a muslim or dont know muslim. Then i often compare that to how there are 6 of domestic terrorists acts have been committed by muslims and 94 have not and yet it often seems like the policies and legislation that are directed toward countering domestic terrorism are focused on our community. It feels like its constantly geared toward our community. That is the disparity that people just dont understand muslims, they dont know who we are, what we believe in, what our values are, and some people might not ever want to know, that doesnt mean we wont still try to tell them or speak out for it. I have been a part of activist groups and organizations and starting a mission locally to fight back against legislation across the country because another very important piece to this is yes we need to run for office and have a seat at the table, but thats why groups like abc and others are so important because we need to have background game, you all need to get active in your communities and find a local organization that is working toward pushing back against this and everything from voting and make sure you hold any member who introduces or passes or votes for that type of legislation, you hold them accountable by their vote or you call their office and visit them and asked them why. We need to stand up to them. We need to have people held accountable. It was just quickly come in. My father is a greek orthodox. What i do know from my experience working in politics, the Muslim Community hasnt been at the table. What happens is its a mystery, not just to the broader American Public but also to elected officials. When i was chief of staff, i was chief of staff for freshman member of congress and our communities have to be the first one in the room talking to these new officials in telling their story, whether its on Foreign Affairs, were never there. I was working for the congressman as chief when we were deciding whether to do the redline vote on syria that obama had set forth. There was no arab Advocacy Group that walked in my office when i was chief of staff. Other members of congress arent hearing from their community. There are not being invited to speak and get in folks, and not on us. Thats on all of us up for not telling that story and being engaged. People dont know and people arent hearing about it. Theres so many Different Things that come your way, whether youre a candidate for elected official that its really hard to get specific data. So it is incumbent for us to be there. After the election, the person that should be done is invite whomever is elected to visit the local mosque. Give them a tour, let them meet the young kids that are changing the community and are part of that community. Invite candidates to speak at the mosque for any Community Event. One of my first event is a candidate was speaking at a sikh temple. No candidate had ever spoken of that temple. Emily keep going to Different Community centers in mosques and churches and having a conversation because thats the only way to get people to feel like we want to represent everyone in the district but its got to be a twoway street so with candidates, invite them. Thats how it changes thats how you change the narrative. Its only a small percentage that have that hate and anger and a lot of its based on misinformation. If we are not putting our voices out there, that becomes the only voice, not just the loudest voice. Two things related, one is that youre quite right in saying you all talk about telling our story which i think is really important, i just finished writing a memoir trying to tell my story. I think we need to educate. This is what im hearing from a lot of you. We need to educate the American Public because theres so much counter information, very wellfunded but it brings me to something more of a socially related community and maybe youve seen that too. Im wondering how much, our Community Come from countries where they dont really trust the government. The government hasnt done anything for them, they feel powerless in terms of it in individual making any change. They come here and they do their best to make a living and give their children a Better Future but what i hear from people in my community is they want to be doctors and lawyers and thats it. What would it take to help them understand to trust that if your kid becomes involved in politics, that will help the whole community. Actually changing the mindset of our own community and taking responsibility for the , as much as trying to educate the American Public to show up. Also, what i see in this atmosphere of hate and fear mongering and prolific furcatio furcation, i think the Muslim Community is retreating because they are afraid. How do you address that fear . Growing up, my dad had one piece of advice when it came to politics. Dont fight city hall. That was the lesson he had learned. You dont fight city hall. My response was you dont fight city hall, you change it. I think a lot of it is that we have to get into the communion educate people because they have a lot of those same trust issues. You come from not paid through the government doesnt work to come here and it doesnt really seemed like its going to work. Thats not actually the case. We have two candidates running running for congress. Sometimes, they do a great job but we have to remind people we have shown the ability to get engaged but we have to make sure we keep getting people involved. In terms of building out these campaigns, you have to go everywhere to tell your story and nationalize the conversation hopefully next election will get more people to come in. The skepticism is there. An immigrant is a hopeful perso person. You dont move across the world go move somewhere and start a new life if you dont have some hope. It just doesnt happen. Youre not a natural cynic. A lot of times you come with cynicism toward politics. You have to remind people, as hard as it can be, you can actually build something more towards the future. I think we have to remind people of that aspect we have enough examples but we have to keep creating more examples on that heres what you can do. You can open up your home, invite your friends and family who are arab american or muslim or latino and who you believe have this attitude or thought process, invite them into your home and invite a candidate to come speak to them or an organization with civic and engagement. It sometimes that simple. Really, that is how everyone in this room can help make a difference and start with yourself in your own home. I often say im a Community Organizer by trade because thats how i started my trade as a Community Organizer. It was a little before obama made it cool so for me, i truly believe in Community Organizing and sometimes it starts at those simplest levels. Ive been involved in a number of organizations at activism levels to help do that education and that engagement and mobilization. Its hard and it does take a lot of work but we just have to keep doing it and keep pushing. It strengthens organizations like abc and others that are trying to bring us together at a National Level but we need to work on the ground at home as well. Just to pick up on that, you talk about the maturation of the Hispanic Community and its effect on politics, maybe , they dont know theyve ever met a muslim or what have you, its very similar to the Gay Community. The very quick transition you saw from this country going from majority of the population being anti gay marriage to come in a very rapid. Of time, i would say within ten years, when you talk about social change, that, in california which is supposed to be the progressive leader, they voted to impose restrictions on samesex marriage. In a matter of ten years, why because more people realize that gay friends and neighbors and their kids would come home with a friend from school who was openly gay. I mention that to say its very similar in the sense of go to some of those Community Events, and whatever way you feel most comfortable, talk about the community. If you have a concern about Civil Liberties raise it. If you have a concern about israel or palestine raise it. Something that just shows that the same person that is talking about those arab and Muslim Issues is also the doctor that i go to that afternoon or my dentist or the teacher. In other words, we are no different from anybody else. That is really what change the dynamic with respect to the Gay Community that everybody realized that they want these pariahs are different people, they were the same as everybody else and not immediately, in my opinion how the Politics Around gay marriage changed. I think will be very similar. Right now, the political discourse at the National Level on our community is not positive. One of the things were going to have to change and its an incumbent upon us, if you look at any ethnic group or religious group when a member of congress or a celebrity or something says something disparaging about africanamericans or hispanics or gays, there immediately get vilified and their poll numbers debt. We have seen that happen. Those are the kind of things we have to do better at changing and thats what does start. Quite frankly, that is on us. We can blame everybody else but its really on us to be more proactive in calling people out on a regular basis and getting our friends and colleagues to do the same. Do we have any more questions. Actually, you just said what else was going to say but ill say it briefly, im one 100 but i speak arabic and have a arabic wife but you need to come out of the closet. 62 of people have no idea, theyve never met a muslim. The point is, you may know some guy and you been bowling with him for ten years and your utterly clueless that hes muslim and that causes cognitive dissonance because this post be bad, but moe is my bowling partner, now what i do. My point is, go beyond politics. Every person in this room or every arab and muslim in the United States should get out of the closet, come out and cause cognitive dissonance. Thats the way to change things. I work for a magazine called the washington reporter on middle east affairs. We have congressional scoreboards and were keeping track of how people vote. Weve always been very tormented, conflicted, whatever we talk about arabamericans running for office because we put a bullseye on you for a pack. We are always afraid to try to help you. What can we do to help. Unfortunately i dont know the exact dynamics that you just mentioned so i dont have any exact answer to be completely honest, but everyone in this room can help somehow. Whether that is through a direct contribution or whether that is through connections and networks or through just opening up your rolodex to us, to be able to build those relationships so that we can push back against any negativity that might come our way from any group whoever they may be. Thats a big piece of what were doing right now. I tell people also, its true , im building a network as well because what i know is possible is that our community has the strength and the power and the resources to support us as candidates and make sure we are successful, but we dont have the reach on our own. Theres not enough of us who are engaged in the process. So helping bring people in to that process would also be incredibly helpful for both of us. You can tell me if im wrong. I know that the community can make a huge difference for us in the reach, thats whats limite limited. Im not as familiar in some of the dynamics, but what i do know is america is great whenever he voices at the table, when everyones part of the conversation, but it doesnt always happen. Going back, thats incumbent on us to be at the table and tell our story. I think if the chief of staff would take meetings with everyone and find solutions, i do think when it comes to the region we have to turn the page and have a Solutions Oriented conversation because we cannot lose another generation to just being divided and hating each other. No matter where you stand on the issue, no matter what, everyone agrees we cannot do that. Weve got agenda page. The way we do that is by bringing in new voices into the process and adding more people to the table. Americas great when everyone is arguing on where they stand and arguing whats best for the country in the world. Right now we are not at the dinner table arguing. We are outside. We are going to draw attention. I think youre saying help us get out there and talk to folks and get our backs on this because this does go back into dont fight city hall. You dont want to storm city hall by yourself. You want to add that voice and make sure every conversation is there. Just to address your specific question, when the knee about the kind of hate they saw, thats going to happen. Thats the political reality of a Muslim American running for Public Office or taking on any high profile. What i was going to say is its going to happen anyway so raising the profile. Its not just how many are being turned away at the border or forced to wait for five or six or 911, however many hours and turning it into something people could identify with. The heat will come. In my opinion, it is better to have those kind of Human Interest pieces where they can identify as a person something that brings it home to them that theyre not the dehumanizing factors. They are good oldfashioned americans running to represent their constituents and neighbors in congress. Both candidates discuss this idea on having more air voices at the table however we have several members of congress who are arabamericans. They reached out congress and agreed to support you moving forward. They are very vocal in supporting our issues while others have remained silent. I think you both contested primary so you may want to comment on that as well. My recollection, please correct me if im wrong, since we have two Democratic Candidates here, i think there are two democratic arab american members of congress. Are there any other democrats that im missing . No the rest are republican. And i with ruben there is a particular dynamic that you can speak to because its your primary. I think were both in the very early stages on this so we are functionally still building this out. But in terms of outreach a lot of times you have those conversations but theres a lot of pressure to stay out of primaries right now. Field we have four different people running. Hes not from the community and knows the community, but he is still running. We have another cell funder and a couple other folks. There is a degree of let me step back and see how this goes and thats kind of where building out our campaigns early and showing that broad support makes it easier for some of those members because there is a degree of when you step in and support someone. In terms of making sure people when theyre there have a voice at the table, we are self identifying as arabamericans running as congress. That doesnt always happen. Just the fact that we both see the need for that void is a little bit of a different narrative than traditionally the case. I dont think he will take my call because hes darrell and hes running against the town of democrats. But as this process moves forward and its showing your campaign is real and can you win. That changes the conversation in washington in general. This is my first quarter. That september 30 deadline is incredibly important. It does become the mark of our legitimacy for our race and why its so important. I know im not sleeping and im guessing youre not either because its a million miles a minute to get to this first deadline and it is incredibly important, and unfortunately, it is the Necessary Evil in this race. I will say this, yes we will eventually reach out and will do that and, i believe, from what i know im the only arab american muslim woman running at this level and i would be the first arab american muslim woman in congress ever, but its not just about, i think they were alluding to this, i do want to put words in your mouth, but its not just about where there parents and grandparents are from and their last name but look at their track record from even before congress. Its so easy to show up. Were both here because we see a gap in a voice that needs to be heard. We both have and we fought for certain rights in our communities and to strengthen our communities because we believe there needs to still be more of that representation in congress. We have ten or 15 minutes left in this program. I want to take the focus off this and put the focus on you. You have three people here were not new to the game. They are very experienced organizers and political activists. We have people from all the country. We have texas and florida new york and we want to hear what is happening politically in your local areas. All politics are local. Whats happening in your locations, and see if maybe they could help you give you some advice as to whats happening and how you can better tackle that issue or how you become more effective in those issues. Weve also joined of course often with very active on the political side. Despite our governor and attorney general. But weve made a lot of alliances in the community, and locally that are small groups that get together monthly, all the indivisible organizations are very well organized. We belong, we come from a very small town outside of austin called Dripping Springs and pay the Democratic Alliance of people in hays county and local county. They are all local and its very gratifying to see that there is some more awareness being raised at those local levels about issues, jenna, especially our issues. So did you want to say anything about my name is aqua mad and yes, we do live near there though technically were in austin. We have been very active within the community. The Muslim Community also, weve helped them a lot to get activated. We have about 26 million texans. About 480,000 muslims. I dont know how many more parrots, im guessing more city how many people you see. But we are being very active because the texas legislative thank god they meet once every two years. [laughing] so they met this year so we had a muslim legislative day, so we had over 200 muslims go there and we had about 2000 people came to protect the muslims i went to go into the legislator because last year they were attacked. The muslims that were there. But also now we people engaged in the process but we work very closely with the Latino Community. Texas is about 50 latino. They are not terribly represented in the government but we work very closely with them. Were trying to get a Muslim Community and other communities engaged in the electoral process. So what people are working with our revolution in terms of organizing and electing representatives. We also have people working with the Democratic Party i should say in san antonio and in austin. And actually tomorrow there is a fundraiser in austin, the Muslim Community is putting that. We had been very active with people that are running for congress and also supporting people who are running against roger williams, or was it William Rogers . Whatever his name is. Hes one of those terrible guys. We are pretty active in terms of when it comes to that but we are working very, very close with the Latino Community. I think that better chance of getting people elected in texas that arabs and muslims. Arabs are not the you because all the things that you have said. It im going to Say Something that my wife asked me not to say, but should make everybody here feel good about not being here recognized or not being, i mean nobody had met a muslim or something. We were having a meeting for the Democratic Party in mexicanamerican restaurant called suarez which is run by a latino family, all the workers there are from the family, from the flores family. You can tell they are latinos picked in the discussion for the Democratic Party they were talking about you should work with my notes and so forth. One lady stood up and said, where can we find the minoriti minorities . So dont feel bad if somebody doesnt know. Anyways, thanks. Well, a, i would like to make about especially members of our community who live in predominantly conservative or republican districts, you may not think i going to be supportive. They probably are not but what i would suggest, find some things in our community that resonate with some of the issues in the conservative community, the republican community. For example, and it may look at and say that as in the plot or. But you look at some of the things like in texas, i come from nevada,iwnership at seco od amendment rights, okay. If they dont want to hear about whatever issue is the most important to you. Again whether its domestic or Foreign Policy issue, put it in terms that may be able to relate to with respect to the most important issue. So like, for example, can ownership, Second Amendment rights. Chautauqua First Amendment rights and religious freedom or Civil Liberties. Look, we agree with you that there is some concern about an attack on the constitution of the United States. The same zeal you have for the Second Amendment we have for the First Amendment or the Fourth Amendment or some of the things that adversely affect our community. Put it in terms, now, they may be hypocritical state that doesnt apply or what have you. But when im talking to members of congress who at first or never agree on a position that in trying to establish on behalf of the community i say, i would talk about bds, for example, less about the effect of bds in the region, more so about the ability of americans to engage in boycotts without being criminalized or what have you. Thats the power of the government dictating what you can or cannot do. Thats language they understand with respect to gun ownership rate of what the government telling them how many guns they can own. Im just giving you one example. It does require being created. It may not work but its the thing where at the very least i want them going home after theyve met with you saying i wonder if they had a point. They may not but but i wonder f they had a point when you raise some of these issues that they may never have thought to be quite too close to equaling four. So thank you for that. I appreciate it and we do that, we do it on multiple levels. First on the local level, city government. They call in texas the blue dot in texas. On talking outside of austin. We have very friendly relationship with the city government. Basically when we need something from them, we get ten votes for, one vote against the same person votes against us. We have a friendly relationship with Good Relationship with them and so forth in the legislative body in texas as well. We have several people that we talk to and they support us and they sponsor activities that we have there. Just even idea about texas complexion and how these people think. The texas legislators are not reasonable people that you would expect to be in congress. Let me just be very clear. Ill give you an example of s. B. Format which is it that they sank to her cities legislative. They expect anybody knows but he respect they hold hearings on that. They said we will have come will listen everybody who wishes to speak. They have 600 people registered. They stood listening to them until 3 a. M. 594 people spoke against the legislators. 6 for it that is 99 against, one for it. They voted sevenfour, two against. They dont care about what we say. This is reality in texas. We talk to these people. We talk to the representatives but there is a level of, you talk about trump. This is the trump government multiplied by power ten. In texas. Thats who they are. We work with them as much as we can but the only way to deal with these people is absolutely positively replace them. We are looking for people to run for their districts and replace them. They dont care. Thats the bottom line. They just they dont care. All i would say just to wrap that, i welcome your comments as well, if it okay then you have to get the people who vote for them to care. Its one of the other. It cant be either or. It has to be either or but it cant be both or neither. And so if they wont listen to vineyard to get the people that vote for them to listen to you. [inaudible] one thing to broaden that out a little bit because you look at the national and we have a lot of people who dont care as well. Thats why this next election is that important. Thats what we need to get people from our community elected. Thats why we have to people in our community run. Even if youre in the blue dot in texas, you can impact what happens in the rest of america because theres two of us and theres many others that are out there trying to make sure america doesnt look like the read text in a lot of ways. The waste into that is by turning some of the seats. I think even, you might be in today disempowered in austin or outside of austin, keep building because things change fast. But then also embrace the urgency of right now we need to stop the rest of the country from turning in that direction and put a check on these guys in washington right here. By putting people in who can stand up and be a voice of reason and rationality. I will just echo that really. My name is courtney and this is heather. We are from Florida State university and we have heard you talk about republicans, democrats working class but had to ask about students because i am a student. We noticed a special as a collection of donald trump a lot of students in the middle east center at a university and justice in general were very nervous about the band and what his new policies and immigration were going to mean for them. I know this is a widespread fear amongst students at a country who are trying to finish potential maybe getting deported back to countries they never remembered living in. They havent finish their education, so that would be problematic for them to be a part of the working class. We, a lot of students to vote in these elections, how are you planning to reach out to the students and coming of representing their population, validate their fears and assuring them that youre going to work towards keeping them within the confines of a country and at their institutions . So ill say, even though i only watched a couple months ago, i have a pretty steady stream of volunteers and interns who have already been brought on to the campaign and i would say 98 are under 30. So the younger generation, the millennial generation is a very important piece for my campaign and for my candidacy. But students dont always vote and, unfortunately, a lot of times are overlooked as the constituency and as a voting block. We fully intend on working with come within the College Campus in and around the community and actually we have some things on the counter to go speak on campuses and find ways to engage the democratic groups and student on these campuses as will and will you bring them into the campaign, either as volunteers, as voters, whatever that they might be. And figuring out solutions to students, that is something i talk about very often as well. Figuring out really talking about what our many pathways for students to be able to get an education and get quality education is an important piece of my message and my campaign. And for that matter the university of michigan, which isnt in my district where i i went and just have some artistic was one of the first universities in the country to speak out against trumps muslim ban and say they would not with the administration to hand over information of students. I think continuing to empower universities like that to be able to take a stand against these Trump Administration are the top administrations agenda. But students and younger people in the youth vote like need to be more engaged as well. Everybody wants your vote. Everybody want to part of the campaign, and you all are a commodity but you dont always vote. I would really encourage you to get active on your campus, organize, if youre not already. Im always happy to take advice on how to do that, how to engage more young people into the campaign, how to bring out the youth vote. I do a lot on social media. Im as active as i possibly can be. Obviously thats when weight but thats not the only way. So im running in one of the youngest district in the country. The average age is 39. Its also what the most diverse as i mentioned earlier. Its 35 libido, 30 asian, 2 africanamerican, 2 arab americans. Weve got a congressman voting with donald trump 97 of the tiger a lot of this is telling he doesnt fit. We have two colleges, cal poly pomona and we running for its time for a generation to step up. I mentioned this is arabamerican much because it can be sitting in silence anymore. Its more of the millennial election. Our generation should take ownership of this country. If we will fight big picture issues like Climate Change, its good because our generation stepped up. If we will stomach should the American Dream is possible, go to school, get it good job, its only going to happen if our generation steps up. No one is talk about these issues which is why we had to get more young people out of old and have to be a voting bloc but not to be a voting bloc because it turned out we had a truck. Be able to but because people speaking tour issues. In my district theres more luxury to talk about these issues to people but when you talk about what hits the matt hoh. Thats have young people to vote and we ask a go in the community and the schools and talk to them. We have about five more minutes left. I want to add one thing. Get active on your campus if you havent already. Especially in registration drives. I mean, sam is right students to vote but they dont know enough. By persons the lowest the percentage of voters of the overall population of the percentage of you said 1834. Ezekiel 1825, there even lower. Maybe theres creative ways to get butter registration drives at Football Games or you have to work with the administration on that and i dont know what the rules are in the state of florida for registration drives and what have you on campus but those of the kind of things you can look into a maybe that something that a d. C. Can help provide some insight on. But being active among your friends and colleagues, in terms of getting folks registered, or go volunteer in somebodys campaign. Even if you cant get out to california or up to michigan, go volunteer in somebodys campaign down in florida. That something adc can definitely help you with in terms of getting in touch with the right folks on a particular campaign. Anyone of us up here, they willd be focus on their own campaigns, but i can help and adc can help. But volunteer even if its one weekend. Nice to do more but again thats an opportunity. When youre volunteering in phone banking or canvassing neighborhood, inevitably somebody would be like where are you from, or thats an interesting last amco what kind olast is that what lebanese. Back in a stuff. Again, thats all the stuff that really identifies, as people identify with our community when you get out and you touch things like that. Just strongly encourage you. We have two more. We will finish up with one last comment from the panel. Lets go over and over. I would ask you both to keep it brief. [inaudible] there is concern communities, organizations, even even very small, specially muslim communities even if youre not muslim, thats okay. Also be in touch with them, even the mosques. People in the mosque. There are people, welleducated people. A lot of Good Students who like to make themselves up in help themselves and help you. So many people, especially in Orange County. I dont know many, but in michigan there are a lot of ten people who want to help. Also they help each other. So i wish you all the luck, and good things. One more over here. So i want to touch on what 80 talked about earlier, about how to speak to republicans. Because im speaking as a republican, and this is my first adc event or idea because interested in learning about adcs perspective on things, what the issues are, but when it comes to talking to republicans and would you want to bring republicans into the fold, im a proimmigration reform, progay marriage republican. Im the kind of republican that you probably would like to reach out to. But but i feel like im at a Democratic Party event. Uninterested in coming to a Democratic Party event. Im interested in coming to an event, and it american event talking about issues that affect arabamericans. Because adc existed before donald trump was president. \80{l1}s{l0}\80{l1}s{l0} exist under barack obama, under george lucas presumably under bill clinton these issues are not unique to this particular administration. Some might be in certain aspects. These are issues the command has faced for a long time. So if abc truly wants to bring republicans into the fold and perhaps right of center independence, then some of the rhetoric has to change. Im not interested in coming to an event to how terrible trump is. I will admit i voted for trumpet my family voted for trumpet my father sam is lebanese, 100 they voted for trump. But it doesnt mean that theyre not receptive to whats being discussed here, but if the discussions about how terrible trump and republicans are, you will lose them. So moderate the tone a little. I certain things play better and in front of certain audiences, but moderate the tone a little bit. Ive experienced some of these things, not a lot of what other people have experienced, but in college i was the Vice President of our universities Arab Cultural association. I was on my resume when i first came to d. C. And looking for jobs on the other i had an office the refused to talk to me because that was on my resume. Ive gotten into arguments about how absurd it is that sharia law is penetrating the country. Its completely ridiculous. But im also a former hill staff. Staff. I work for two republican senators, and all that being said, not once did i ever see any media requests of adc or aai come across my desk. I couldnt dear to my member take a beating as a step i would have definitely taken a beating because im interested and curious. If theres no effort to engage and if all the rhetoric coming out is as a republican, antitrump, you are going to lose people like me. And im happy to speak of the things of adc cares about, but im not going to do it if the organization talks about how terrible republicans are in things like that. I just wanted to put that two cents in. There are issues you guys have discussed today that i care about, but i just, for the sake of widening the tent, i just wanted to say that. Thank you. From the organization we were founded under ronald reagan, 1980. We do, in fact, we do, in fact, reach out to republicans pick in fact, we work very closely with flakes office and, who else . A few others. [inaudible] so we have and we have been reaching out to congressional offices because we understand that politics is a pendulum. When did republicans are in party, one day the democrats. We worked under the Bush Administration we work with the Bush Department of justice and we had reached out several times to the current doj unsuccessfully, fortunately. I think part of your comment when asked what were talking about in texas, is the fact there are more republican legislators and democratic legislators so you have to teach everybody. You cant limited to one or another. You make and when you chief of staff that the organizations were not walking in your front door. Especially as a freshman member. I would say if we had a republican candidate here i think to hear more, a more balanced if you will, these are two candidates just purely political perspective, two candidates are running running and democratic primaries. So the fact is that is the rhetoric that is going to be persuasive, if you will. There is, i will say this as a democratic ive tried to keep my comments here as objective as possible, but there is the same debate now going on within the Democratic Party that i think its a with a number of Republican Party maybe six or eight years ago thats saw the rise of the tea party, is you have some aspects of the Democratic Party who just dont come if you even had your member of congress willing to work with this president , you may not be successful when you run for reelection. I dont like that because i came from a time when democrats and republicans worked together when i worked in the congress. But thats just the political reality. Maybe those are things that i can say can certainly you may want to say differently. Its come is the point is as committed 20 be reaching out to everybody because the simple fact is republicans control this town right now. As a democrat i may not like that but if you want to get anything done in this town you have to talk to republicans, simple as that. I guess i would say not as someone who represents adc but is on an 80 cpanel, this is a political panel, not so much in adc policy panel. We have two Democratic Candidates i think youll hear things on this particular because you have to Democratic Candidates that you may or may not hear on previous panels ever focus on policy per se, what have you. Having said that, you know. I also tgo ahead. I just want to briefly comment on that. Its a real simple side our community is not visiting. When i worked in the senate, same thing. Our community is not, very rarely if ever out there and meeting with a lot of these offices. For a lot of these numbers there is that yesterday. I think more broadly in the environment were in, theres a lot of economic inside that both parties kind of help create, but as candidates we are speaking to building out our campaigns and a lot of it is going to focus on who is president just as reaction but more broad enough to get an economy that is what you regard as i there. In my district its a 5050 district some talking to everybody and a lot of it is on that economic message of can you create jobs and get ahead for the next generation. So i think yes, we are both running as Democratic Candidates in a big part of what has pushed us to run right now is because of our dissatisfaction with whats happening with the current administration. I will say though, like im not looking to run an antitrump campaign. Im looking to any campaign on the message like cm was just saying that his campaign as well, that people are going to relate to, and with a positive message that talks about how were going to move forward from here. I think we both said that come finding those, themes, like other, threats, what we all believe in, how do we want to find progress in the Forward Together . Im tired of the negativity as well. We really want to talk about change and moving forward. And as someone who is been engaged in a very nonpartisan fashion as a command activist and candidates that engagement in the community, weve always pushed to work with members on both sides of the aisle when we do Leadership Development training, were not many people on being democrats or republicans. We recognize the need to be really represented in both parties, and i think us as individuals just have certain affiliations and a running as democrats for certain reasons, so maybe thats come out as more. I mean, like i said earlier i have many republicans from the community and outside the community who are saying and you change. Its getting, wanting to support me, not because im a democrat but because ive been bashing republicans because i have been doing a lot of that, but because they believe in my message. Has those same diversities. On that note, thank you. We are going to take about 10 minute break and then we are going to start the next panel which is on the media. So hope to see you back in about 10 minutes, thank you. [inaudible conversation]. [inaudible conversation]. [inaudible conversation] the american rabbit Anti Discrimination Committee convention taking a short break now, do back in just a few minutes. With a session on Media Training and how to respond to hate crimes. Later there will be a Panel Discussion on the violence in charlottesville. While in this break, a portion of the american antidiscrimination conventions earlier panel on ongoing territorial dispute with israel. Were going to start the convention, first on the half of the adc board and staff id like to welcome everybody here. This fine evening. We can off our 37th annual convention with a discussion on palestine, one state versus to state. Which is maybe the best interest of the palestinians now in light of the Trump Administration so with that, i want to turn it over to our moderator. Thank you so much. Good morning everybody, thank you for coming out today, my name is christopher do director of opinion and analysis, ill be moderating todays panel, one state or two state solution, whats best for the palestinians. Thank you to everybody at the adc who have organized this important subject and this weekends conference. Quick note on the formats, we will start with brief introductions and each panelist will speak for 10 to 15 minutes, in support of the one state social solution, we will have a back and forth before opening it up to the audience. One state or two state solution, whats best for the palestinians . For more than a quarter century the one state solution has been the paradigm for making peace and its been challenged by new generations of policy and activist who believe it impractical given the realities on the ground created by israel and undesirable. They argue that a one state solution which crabs and jews have been a single Democratic State is the best way to realize rights of all palestinians including palestinians in israel and palestinian refugees. Critics of a single state pointed to south africa as a model. Inspired by this portfolio, the Us Civil Rights Movement advocated the boycott of sanctions to protect economic and political pressure on israel to give back palestinian rights. With a new Trump Administration holding the most hard right elements of israel for any withdrawal of the article of occupied territories it seems the one state solution is more distant than ever. It trump declared it didnt matter whether to him if the goal is a one state or two state solution, undermining longstanding us policy in support of two states. While a state Department Spokesperson said if the Trump Administration declared the court 42 state solution it would demonstrate quote unquote, bias on its part. Advocates of the two state solution argue the best way to realize palestinian rights is in a separate state and the only realistic solution anyway due to israels intransigent consensus in support of it. A poll released last week by the palestinian central policy and survey Research Shows 52 percent of palestinians support juice eight solution while 32 percent support a one state solution. Demonstrating the pessimism that many palestinians feel, the same poll showed 52 percent believe that the two state solution is not viable anymore due to israel edelman construction. Moreover, result vary depending on how and when the question is asked. The polls in february show 44 percent of palestinians supported the two state solution at that point. Interestingly the same poll shows a majority of palestinians in israel support a one state solution. Israel is equally opposed to both creating facts on the ground to cement control over all palestinians. There are 600,000 Israeli Settlers living on occupied Palestinian Land and more than 100 settlements all over the west bank and east jerusalem. They represent the greatest obstacle to the creation of a palestinian state and the realization of the two state solution. Centuries after the jewish global in palestine declaration, nearly 70 years after the us partition plan calling for an era jewish state in palestine, 50 years after israel began its occupation of the west bank and gaza , palestinians are still debating what political frame would best suit our national order. Wewill continue that conversation here today. I will introduce our speakers. First we have near the heart, american media, writer and academic and adjunct professor at the university of Detroit School of law and lectures on politics, society, the arab world and islam. Hes addressing ties at Carnegie Hall and washingtons Kennedy Center for the performing arts. 2015 on the year organize a comedy festival from around the world, he possesses a law degree and a masters in us studies and ann arbor and he is the maker of the film we are not white about era americans being recognized. On your will be speaking of a one state solution today. As art is the trainer focusing on leadership, advocacy and negotiations, used dvd delegation in washington dc from 2011 to 2013 and between 2003 and 2008 he was policy leader including the president , Prime Minister and various ministries. He is involved in several nonviolent initiatives in palestine and the us, speaking support for the two state solution. Newer eric is a civil rights attorney and assistant professor at the school of integrated studies at george mason university. Her scholarship explores civil rights law, refugee law and critical race series, she is at Temple Law School and Georgetown School of service, a compounding editor of the ez. Nora works as a Legal Counsel for the Congressional Committee and its legal advocate at the center for refugee and residency rights, and multimedia production pursuing solidarity and the 20 minute documentary got on. Hes been pursuing a project tentatively titled justice for some, palestinian struggle for freedom. He will be supporting the one state solution. Thank you all today and apologize, i was not involved in organizing todays panel but i will make sure the conversation is a balanced one so if you would be so kind amer zahr, would you start us off. Good morning everybody. Im very happy to be here, especially kicking off the convention and on stage with misara nura, activists and im just a comedian for hire. This whole discussion has gotten a little hotter this year because if you remember, back in i think february, one of the first visits to the white house was benjamin netanyahu. And they had the whole press conference in the white house, and trump started talking and he said something about, sure, two state, one state, whatever. Something very trumpish and the discussion started again. There are a few principles i think we have to start with when we talk about whether or not there should be a one state or two state in palestine. First of all, israel has shown us not just in the past 50 years but in the past 70 years that it has no intention of going anywhere and especially when it comes to the west bank. So in the west bank, we have now as chris said somewhere in theneighborhood of 600,000 illegal settlers. Some of the largest israeli cities, i guess they can now be called, i mean, they are settlements, exist in the west bank. You have these huge settlements around jerusalem. You have arielle which is one of the biggest settlements and they built a university there. Generally, when you build a university somewhere, you are not planning on leaving. So the notion that israel would leave any part of the west bank, especially the populated areas, is a dream. They shown us that they are not interested in doing that. Also, we have to wrestle on the principle that all of palestine is occupied. There is no, you dont just say the west bank is occupied and the gaza strip is occupied, all of palestine including what we call 1948 palestine or the recognized borders of israel, sort of recognized borders, all of it is occupied, all of it is a colonial enterprise. The west bank and gaza strip were a progression of what happened in 1948. When we talk about them in separate terms we start to dismantle palestinian identity which has been a problem to begin with. Also, we currently in many ways have one state. One state means that there is one entity sort of ruling over everything. That currently is whats going on. Elon pocket has talked about this many times and right now we have one state, it just functions legally in different ways for different people based on where they live but more importantly who they are. But everything is administered, occupied, governed by israel. When we talk about one state versus two state, the problem is we get into a question of to me, a question of Palestinian National identity. When you recognize the two state framework and you work within it, what you are doing by default is acquiescing to this idea pacifying palestinians into different categories. Right now theres five classes of palestinians throughout the world. There is the west Bank Palestinians who have one legal status, the jerusalem palestinians who have a legal status, they live inside israel, they get some benefits from the state, pagan rome freely, they dont vote for the Prime Minister, their status can be taken away. Then you have the fourth class which is palestinian citizens of israel who technically are full citizens but of course completely marginalized by the state. For instance, era schools get one dollar for every student or sorry, era students get one dollar for every three dollars that jewish students get inside the israeli Public School system and the fifth class of palestinians is the palestinians in the diaspora who are part of the palestinian Global National identity but have no place it seems in any of the frameworks for especially as far as israel is concerned. To me, the one thing that oslo is done that is more dangerous than anything else is it has dismembered a Palestinian National identity. Among ourselves, we dont see ourselves differently. We dont see ourselves as somebody from nazareth, different some from somebody from ramallah but oslo in the flame work of the tuesday discussion and recognition on seven borders is this whole thing as has dismembered us in a certain way and those who participate in that district horse should be furthering that sort of idea. So i am in favor if it is not clear yet of a one state solution and i have six reasons that i think it would work. And i think that we should move forward. One is what i call the following effect, the story from the bible, dont split the baby in half. Right now if you have any of us on stage, any of the palestinians on stage to draw their country, we all draw the same thing. We draw that triangle that looks like mandatory palestine. Its all the same to us if we get that attitude on our bodies or a pendant around our necklace, thats what we get. The funny thing is if you ask an israeli to draw their country, they draw the exact same thing. They dont draw it without the west bank and gaza strip and we dont draw it without the west bank or without the rest of palestine. So next essentially, we are all talking about the same piece of land, the same area. If you split in half as we saw in the bible, it doesnt work out. Not only is nobody happy but no one really recognizes all of their disparate parts. Number one, lets not split the baby in half if wedont have to do, theres no reason that we have to do it this time. Number two, this is more of a logistical thing. The Financial System of an infrastructure actually would not have to change at all. Currently inside the west bank and gaza strip, from an infrastructure or financial point of view everything is israeli. Everything is done by the occupied power, that should come as no surprise to anybody. Even in gaza where its been overtaken by all this discourse we hear all the time, they didnt create their own currency or their own Financial System. Everything is run under the israeli Financial System and infrastructure. Telephone companies that exist in the west bank, water, utility, all they do is buy from israel and resell palestinians. A stateless palestinian in the west bank pays more for her cell phone bill than an israeli who lives in tel aviv because they are buying secondhand, reselling. Infrastructure is still there, everyone uses the shingle and he uses the shingle to, its been around a long time so if it was good enough for them, its good enough for me and you dont have to change anything. Number three is the settlement issue. And in a weird way, one state solution would solve the settlement issue. Settlements become part of one state. People stay or not, thats a different story. Of course there are still issues of confiscation and of reimbursing people for their losses and these kinds of things which are lives of individuals that people should always uphold but number four, and this is a big one is jerusalem. Now, to put on a nerdy law professor parttime law professor had for a second, jerusalem is and always has been since 1948 this living under this latin term called corporis separate item which means it has its own status and the partition ideas of the un in 1947 and 48, jerusalem was going to be an International Zone kind of like the vatican and that has never changed under international law. So jerusalem, the entire city of jerusalem west and east belongs to nobody and is under no ones sovereignty. That is why because israel for claims their capital as jerusalem, nobody recognizes it because the un has never recognized anyone has sovereignty over that city. Thats why no countries locate embassies there, thats why such a big deal in america whether we move our embassy to jerusalem. Thats why we had the Supreme Court case a couple years ago where there was a Jewish American family whose child was born in jerusalem and they wanted to have his passport say israel and the state Department Said no and there was sort of a legal constitutional crisis between legislative and executive. The Supreme Court not saying the executive gets to decide this and the states as if its not part of israel is not part of israel. They could retain as many israeli politicians the internal undivided capital of whatever this new country is called but it could become open to the world, open to everybody who lives there and become the capital of this state. Number five, i dont know how to say this one. We palestinians, we reproduce a lot. We love each other very much. We have for the last 70 years and more. When netanyahu called us a demographic rex, hes right. We are. We are a merit major demographic problem or any sort of racist apartheid that is going to exist in our land and israel has never really decided how to deal with this fact. Everything that israel has done for the past seven years is to get rid of us and they are very bad at it, theyre not good at all and the opposite effect is happening. In 1948 when they kicked out palestinians from what we now call israel, the green line who i think many people in this room, tons of refugees from 1948. They kicked out 750,000 palestinians. However, 150,000 palestinians remained in what is today israel. For those 150,000 palestinians had grown as a normal, average population growth rate of the world, they would be after 70 years Something Like 50 500,000 but they are not. They are 1. 7 billion people. So this is something thats been going on for a long time and if theyre going to get rid of us whether its by the west bank and gaza or inside the 1948 borders of israel, its not happening anytime soon so this is a problem that only exists, you only see this as a problem if you believe in an ethnic supremacist, racist idea of the state. If you get rid of all those ideas, its not a problem. Ideally, number six is what i call holy disney which is our economy in palestine would be the most amazing economy in the world. Right now, palestine is cut off from maybe 1 billion or more people through the world who dont go either because they have Public Relations with israel or they are afraid of the political, im from nazareth like jesus but im from nazareth and i was a nazareth a few years ago and i couldnt get a hotel room because there were pilgrimages, mostly from africa at thattime. Now, that was under the current situation. If we were to open up the country, make one state and make relations with the whole world, they would have to build 50 hotels innazareth and jerusalem. The resource, there are other resources throughout the arab world that people use to fill their economies, oil being the primary one. The Natural Resource in palestine is god. God is our Natural Resource. And its renewable, completely renewable, never diminishes so you have this economy that would rival any economy in the world, especially given all the land is, how small estate is. It would be an amazing economy, everybody would get rich. But under the current circumstances of course, that cant happen. If it was opened up, it could. So obviously we have to both sides would have to make a few sort of existential confessions. There were would no longer be any thing called to say, there would be anything called a palestinian state necessarily. A state as weird as it might sound to some people although its not that weird of an idea. Just a state of its people regardless of ethnicity, religion, try, just a regular old secular democracy. Its worked in other places in the world, doesnt seem like a crazy idea so thats what both people would have to give up some sort of idea of a palestinian only state. Obviously practically, some other things would have to change you would have to have a flag. And thats a little onesided so you have to change the flag and maybe it would be like a brown, green and brown, Something Like that were change the name of the state, obviously. You could change the name of the state to many Different Things. Holy land, abraham stand. Paul called holding jerusalem, call the whole thing palestine, already ends jewish, doesnt matter so but you would have to obviously make some real world but these are things that people would have to agree over but at the end of the day, the only way that we unite palestinians, to be the most important element is making sure that palestinian identity is united. And it really gets totally united with all palestinians under the same umbrella if we start changing the discourse, and thats what this is all about. We can talk about it academically but its about getting our, get us collectively to change the discourse you only talk about a one state solution. There is a statute of Nelson Mandela in there for a few years now. We are not acting like this. Nelson mandela did not ask for some separate state inside south africa. He asked for the rights of all his people under all the land from the empathy that was governed. Its about time we palestinians start to structure it. And now back live, to this all Day Conference with the american era antidiscrimination committee. The next panel will present in a few minutes with a action on Media Training and how to respond to hate. We are running a few minutes late and i apologize about that. Our next action is an important session, its a strategic session and one that will give you a lot of valuable information that you can take back with you and use on the ground and at home. Andparticularly with those that are active on our issues , we hope you take away a lot from this session. Its posted, sorry presented by listing a boundary from recent media which is a Partner Organization that we work with. And it will get into their current program. Susanna, if you want to, thank you. That you are dead and good afternoon everyone, hows it going. Good. Are you all still awake, still with me. Hopefully none of this information will put you to sleep. And i tried to make it as sort of informative and interactive as possible. So a little bit about recent media, i am the senior media associate in the security and rightscollaborative. We bill ourselves as part pr firm so instead of having a set corporate client, the issue areas are our clients and we have three collaboratives, peace and security which is filled with Nuclear Security issues, money and politics which work on money now and Voting Rights and the security and rights collaborative works on issues regarding racial profiling and discrimination against muslims in the south asian Community Support work is really increasing the capacity of the various organizations are organizations that work on this issue area and that includes working with someone from arab and south asian community. Im going to abbreviate that to the Muslim Community so when i say around you know what im talking about as well as working with allied Group Organizations that are letting their voice to the fight against the program. We also work in the arts space promoting domestically and abroad and presenting a more proactive presence so we do everything from Media Training to building relationships with reporters to Crisis Response and talking points. We do polling and analysis, we also have a digital director which works on our messaging so thats a little bit about rethink. Here we go. The first thing im going to talk about message testing. That we did on this issue set over the past year but i wanted to contextualize that a bit fourfold talking about sort of social psychology as a principal to keep in mind when you are trying to convey an idea to the audience. Im a total social psychology nerd though im going to be talking about a special book in the afterwards if you dont catch the name, but i read about this vociferously and have all the podcasts about this topic and i might cite some of them through my presentation. The first theory im going to talk about is cognitive. Being an effective communicator means knowing kind of where your audience is from and that includes working backwards and identifying your audience first and foremost. I talking to my face, by talking to the choir, and my wanting to move, do i want to the opposition, move the opposition. With cognitiontheory, this is really, the audience is always going to draw from their experience, not yours. So often when you start from a place where you are talking to someone and trying to convey something to them, that completely goes counter to a belief that they hold very strongly, they automatically reject that. No really whats important is trying to find the shared Common Ground and i heard a little bit of this, finding that share Common Ground with your audience sometimes is not always thinking about what you want to convey thinking about who you are trying to reach and working backwards to figure out what the most effective way to reach that audience is and obviously this is a place where you start the conversation so we are very much fans of the inverted communications where you start as broadly aspossible to bring your audience in and you take them on a journey to the bring them to the fact you want them to understand. Cognition theory goes to , theres a book called thinking fast and slow by daniel kaman and he talks about the systems in the brain, system one and system two. Someone is fast, intuitive, emotional. Its very visual, relies on the senses to sort of make a judgment immediately. System two is more deliberative, more rational. It works a little slower and even beings like to think that when they make a decision, we make a decision based on system two. When in actuality, when in actuality, you make decisions using system one immediately and then use them to to rationalize that decision. Right . So thats why its impta