Saturday, September 28th:

ADC-NY's letter to the Editor of the New York Post

28-Sep-06
To the Editor:

As suggested by your excellent piece “Schools Back Israeli Teacher Course” (regional news, September 27), the NYC Department of Education’s decision to allow the Israeli Consulate to train its teachers on Middle Eastern history after barring a respected independent Arab-American scholar from doing so is a blatant double standard. Moreover trainers from the Zionist Organization of America, which equates criticism of racist Israeli policies with anti-Semitism, will surely present a fantasy version of Israel’s history. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee objects to the introduction by any government or extremist organization of propaganda into our school system. NYC students deserve better.

Katherine Metres Abbadi
Executive Director
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee/ New York

Thursday, September 7th: Radio France interview (in French) cites ADC-NY on discrimination against Arab Americans since 9/11

http://www.radiofrance.fr/reportage/dossier/index.php?rid=&aid=310000667&formtyp\
e=dossier

or read it here

Sunday, September 10th: El Correo interview (in Spanish) quotes ADC-NY on discrimination against Arab Americans since 9/11.

http://servicios.elcorreodigital.com/vizcaya/pg060910/prensa/noticias/Internacional/200609/10/VIZ-MUN-160.html

Friday, August 25: ADCNJ Board member Samer Khalaf was officially appointed to the advisory committee on police standards by Governor Corzine.

Governor Jon S. Corzine today signed an Executive Order establishing an Advisory Committee on Police Standards to recommend whether
New Jersey should terminate the 1999 consent decree concerning the practice of racial profiling by the New Jersey State Police. The 21-member panel is charged with making recommendations to ensure racial profiling does not occur and is not tolerated if the consent decree is terminated. The committee will also consider whether it would be appropriate to retain outside auditors or consultants to continue to independently examine data and video recordings of motor vehicle stops. It will also make recommendations on how the programs developed by the New Jersey State Police can assist other law enforcement agencies throughout the state in preventing racial profiling.
Governor Corzine selected James E. Johnson, a former senior law enforcement official in the Clinton Administration, to chair the committee, which will hold public hearings. A final report is due to the Governor by December 31.

As Senator, Corzine took the lead in drafting the first-ever federal
proposal to ban racial profiling. "I believe that our system of justice relies not only on arrests and convictions, but also on people's faith and trust in law enforcement," said the Governor. "After six years of hard work, we're on the road to restoring faith and trust not just in policy, but also in practice. We need to take a hard look at what's been done, and we need to ask important questions. The Executive Order I'm signing today creates the Advisory Committee on Police Standards to do just."

"It is vitally important that law enforcement be viewed as part of the
community they serve rather than apart from them," said Johnson. "I
welcome the opportunity to serve in this important effort."

The other members of the panel are: First Assistant Attorney General Anne Milgram who will serve as the Attorney General's designee; Larry Bembry, Assistant Corporation Counsel of Jersey City; Ellen Brown, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice; Michelle Carroll, President, Survivors of the Triangle; Ed Dauber, former First Assistant Attorney General; Kevin Donovan, former FBI Special Agent in Charge; Reverend Reginald Style Floyd, Allen AME Church; Jonathan Goldstein, former United States Attorney; James Harris, President, NJ State Conference of NAACP; Jerome Harris, Jr., Chairman, New
Jersey Black Issues Convention; Carmelo V. Huertas, Jr., Retired Major, New Jersey State Police; Reverend J. Stanley Justice, Mt. Zion AME Church; Samer E. Khalaf, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee & Arab American Institute; Liza Lopez, President, Hispanic Bar Association of NJ; Carlos Ortiz, former Assistant United States Attorney; Michael A. Rambert, President, Garden State Bar Association; Mitchell Sklar, Executive Director,
New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police; Edwin H. Stier, former Federal and New Jersey State Prosecutor; Scott Weber, Patton Boggs LLP; and Theresa Yang, Immediate Past President, Asian-Pacific American Lawyers Association.

Thursday, August 24: ADC-NY is quoted in Newsday.

JFK illegally targeting Muslims, groups say BY BRYAN VIRASAMI Newsday Staff Writer August 24, 2006   Muslim, Arab and South Asian passengers are being profiled by Homeland Security officers at Kennedy Airport, civil liberties groups said Wednesday, citing a New Jersey family that was detained and interrogated after a flight from Dubai last week. The family, a mother and her 20-year-old twin daughters from Montclair, N.J., said they were plucked from the baggage area, held six hours without food or water by Customs and Border Protection agents and questioned about their views of Iraq.   Nahgam Alyaqoubi and her daughters, Arwa and Sumia Ibrahim, naturalized American citizens, said 200 other passengers of Arab, Muslim or South Asian backgrounds were detained on Aug. 15 in a roped-off area, days after the London bomb suspects were arrested. The family joined officials from the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups at a news conference in the Manhattan office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to condemn what they say has been an increase in racial profiling since the London plot was uncovered. They also criticized Rep. Peter King for what they said was profiling. Arwa Ibrahim, who along with her sister is enrolled at Rutgers University, said they were born in Iraq and moved to the United States at age 5. She said the experience was disturbing because they were forced to sit on the floor without food or water and were treated rudely when they asked questions of the officers. "It was a really humiliating experience -- humiliating because we were treated like animals," she said. "We were treated really horribly by the officers that were there, we were yelled at, we were told to get back, threatened with arrest and threatened to have to stay longer if we complained." The ACLU and other rights groups said they planned to investigate this and several other complaints of profiling. Lucille Cirillo, a supervisory Customs Border Protection officer in New York City, said the heightened alert after the London arrests means more passengers are scrutinized. She said the Orange Alert dictates that some flights get more attention. Neither customs nor homeland security officers engage in racial profiling, she said. "But what I will say on the matter is our officers will scrutinize more closely individuals arriving from high-risk countries," Cirillo said. On the complaints about lack of water, she said airlines are required to provide food and water to passengers even if they're off the plane and in the luggage area of the airport. Katherine Metres Abbadi, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said recent comments from King were inflammatory. "Why is Congressman King calling for a policy which has been tried and proven not to work and which has been disavowed by security experts?" she said. King said he was speaking on the basis that the "next terrorist" will come from places like the Middle East or South Asia. "First of all, it's not ethnic or racial profiling," King said Wednesday. "What I'm saying, though, is that screeners should have the right to ask additional questions of a person who belongs to a particular ethnic or religious group if members of that group have threatened the United States."

Wednesday, August 23: Katherine Metres Abbadi debated Congressman Peter King on WNBC regarding Congressman King's call for racial profiling in airports. To watch the interview, click here: http://www.wnbc.com/video/9722817/detail.html

Tuesday, August 8th: ADCNY Chapter President Aslı Bâli and ADCNY Chapter Board Member Issa Mikel were interviewed about the Israeli war on Lebanon and campaigns within the U.S. for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel. To hear their appearance on WBAI's "Global Movements, Urban Struggles," click here: http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/060808_100001gmus.MP3

Friday, August 4th: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi submitted this op-ed.

Wednesday, August 2nd: The following story was printed in the Journal News of Westchester and quotes ADC-NY executive director Katherine Metres Abbadi as follows:

"We want to express our outrage that U.S. weapons have been used to kill civilians, and we want to call for an immediate cease-fire," said
Katherine Metres Abbadi, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of New York, who joined the march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The article is available here.

Friday, July 21st: The following story quotes Christine Moore Vassallo, who is a board member of ADC-NY as well as the Arab American Family Support Center.

"City Arabs chided Mike as one-sided"

BY LESLIE CASIMIR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Some local Arab-American leaders gave Mayor Bloomberg an earful
yesterday at a Gracie Mansion breakfast held to honor their culture's contribution to the city. Although the affair was closed to the press, several of the 70 invited guests later told the Daily News that they expressed concern over the mayor's recent statements unequivocally supporting Israel in the Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.

Bloomberg's recent expression of support for Israel included no
mention of the Lebanese civilians killed in the ongoing bombing, nor of the thousands of stranded Americans --many of Lebanese descent-- clamoring to get out.

"He really needs to show that he is the mayor of all New Yorkers,
not just of one segment of the population," said Christine Vassallo,
a board member of the Arab American Family Support Center. "His one-sided statement was just shocking to us because the Lebanese have been a part of this city and this country for centuries."

Like many of the guests attending the breakfast for Arab-American
Heritage Week, Vassallo raised the issue with the mayor when she was greeted by him at her table. Gracie Mansion guests were served a
traditional Arab breakfast of thyme-infused pita bread, yogurt, beans mixed with sesame and sweet pastries, she said.

Bloomberg, who is Jewish, had released a statement on Monday that
said the fates of Israel and the city are intertwined and that a "strong Israel means a strong America and a strong New York."

A Bloomberg spokesman yesterday released some of the mayor's comments to the gathering, which touched on unity.

"Somehow or other, we've got to find a way to bring peace to a part
of the world where sadly for a couple of thousand years, people have
been killing each other over religion, which is supposed to be pulling us together and teaching us tolerance," Bloomberg told the guests.

Ghassan Elcheikhali, principal of the Razi School, a private Muslim
academy in Woodside, Queens, said he hopes the mayor will come to
understand the concerns of his Arab constituents.

Originally published on July 21, 2006

Friday, June 16: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was quoted in a front-page article that appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle concerning the visit by Peace Boaters to the Arab-American community: "Brooklyn Arab-Americans Share Their Post 9-11 Experience with Peace Boaters."
 

To see the article, please click here.
 

Wednesday, May 3: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by AP Television News on the Moussaoui trial and verdict.

Wednesday, March 8: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by WPIX TV Channel 11 on the Dubai Ports World controversy.

Monday, February 27: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by New York Resident (free weekly paper on the Upper East Side) on the Dubai Ports World controversy.

Wednesday, February 22: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by AP Television News on the Dubai Ports World controversy.

Wednesday, February 22: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by New York One News on the Dubai Ports World controversy.

Tuesday, February 21: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by the Times Ledger (Queens weekly) on the Dubai Ports World controversy.

Wednesday, February 8: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by WMAR 1630 AM Poughkeepsie on the Muslim community's response
to Islamophobic cartoons.

Thursday, January 19: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by RAI 24 (Italian TV) on the recently surfaced audio tape by Osama Bin Laden, the war on terror, and how the Arab-American community is affected by developments related to terrorism.

Thursday, January 5: ADCNY Office Director Katherine Metres Abbadi was interviewed by New York One concerning Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illness and legacy.
 

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