Ask to Renominate Al-Marayati, Resist Anti-Arab McCarthyism
ADC Action Alert:
The House Minority Leader, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, has bowed to pressure from pro-Israel groups and withdrawn his nomination of Dr. Salam Al-Marayati to serve on a new Congressional Commission on Counterterrorism. In all likelihood, this will mean that there will be no Arab-American representation on this crucial Commission. Furthermore it is part of a deeply disturbing trend of McCarthyite attacks by pro-Israel groups on any and all Arabs in U.S. government who have ever expressed any criticism of Israeli policies. This pattern must stop at once and Rep. Gephardt must renominate Dr. Al-Marayati to the Commission. The ADC press release reproduced below provides more detail and can serve as talking points for any communication on this matter.
ACTION REQUESTED:
Please contact House Minority Leader Gephardt and ask him to reject the
outrageous and McCarythite false accusations against Dr Al-Marayati and to renominate him to serve on the Counterterrorism Commission
write to:
Richard A. Gephardt
House Minority Leader
1226 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
or call: (202) 225-2671
or fax: (202) 225-7452
or email to
Please cc all communications to
ADC Press Release:
Witch-hunt Against Arab-Americans in Government Grows, Withdrawal of Appointee to Counterterrorism Commission Again Demonstrates Exclusion Arab-Americans from Official Positions
Washington D.C., July 9– The removal of Dr. Salam Al-Maraytai’s nomination to serve on a new Congressional Commission on Counterterrorism is only the latest example of what is becoming the systematic exclusion of Arab-Americans from government appointments. Over recent months, almost every Arab appointee to a Federal government post has been attacked by pro-Israel pressure groups, with a disturbing degree of success. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply concerned that the witch-hunt against Arab-Americans in public life constitutes a new McCarthyism against people of Arab ethnicity.
It is shameful that House minority leader, Rep. Richard Gephardt, would bow to pressure from pro-Israel groups who falsely accused Dr. Al-Marayati of being a “supporter of terrorism” because he has been critical of some of the policies of the Israeli government. Now that his nomination has been withdrawn, it would appear that the Counter-Terrorism Commission will have no Arab-American or Muslim representation. The pattern of the new Anti-Arab McCarthyism demonstrated in the case of Dr. Al-Marayati is consistent: Arab-American appointees or government officials are slandered as supporters of terrorism, quotations by them or their associates criticizing Israeli policies are presented as evidence, and their removal is demanded. The result is the exclusion of Arab-Americans from foreign policy making
positions, or other government bodies or agencies where their voice is a badly needed contribution. The effect of this exclusion is one-sided and counter-productive government policies and positions.
The recent case of Joseph Zogby, the sole Arab-American in the Near East
Bureau of the State Department, was another clear example of this pattern. He left the State Department a few weeks after the same groups that attacked the nomination of Dr. Al-Marayati demanded that Mr. Zogby be fired because he had criticized Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the group which often initiates these McCarthyite attacks, also attempted to block the appointment of Al-Marayati’s wife, Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, by slandering her as a “supporter of Terrorism.” ADC demands an end to this anti-Arab-American witchhunt, fair treatment and access for all Americans, including those of Arab ethnic background, in government and the appointment of Dr. Salam Al-Marayati to the Counterterrorism
Commission.