Washington Report On Middle East Affairs – October 2018

that is conducive to cooperation and har-

mony among the teachers, students, staff,

and the larger society.”

The five concerts of instrumentals and

vocals in DC and Baltimore, organized by

the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land

in America, were most inspiring. The per-

formers—Fr. Alberto, Jamil Freij, Eleonora

Lué, Giuliana Mettini, Tareq Wahba (voice);

Tania Beltser, Rani Ibrahim, Majd Nasrawi,

Habib Sabbara and Rita Taweel (violin);

Lucia D’Anna and Yasmeen Sabbara

(cello); Fadi Sabat and Rafi Sabat (piano);

and William Obeid (guitar)—brought to life

J.S. Bach (French Suite n. 3 in Si Minor);

N. Paganini (Cantabile); C. Loewe (Schaffe

in mir Gott, Psalm 51; Psalm 42);G.F. Han-

del (Comfort Ye, My People, from the Mes-

siah); F. Liszt (Liebestraum-Love Dream n.

3); S. Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet n .13,

Dance of the Knights); and F. Mendelssohn

(Venetian Gondola song), among others.

As St. John Paul II stated in his April 4,

1999 Letter to Artists, “Those who perceive

in themselves this kind of divine spark

which is the artistic vocation—as poet,

writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor,

and so on—feel at the same time the oblig-

ation not to waste this talent but to develop

it, in order to put it at the service of their

neighbor and of humanity as a whole.”

The passion for music and the arts un-

questionably breaks ethnic, national and

religious barriers. The Magnificat Institute

is playing the correct note, and deserves

our support as it actualizes the dream of

peaceful coexistence through creativity

and music. Bravo! —Saliba Sarsar

HUMAN RIGHTS

Rally for Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi

Outside San Francisco Federal

Court

Human rights activists, including members

of the General Union of Palestine Students

at San Francisco State University (SFSU),

rallied outside San Francisco’s Phillip Bur-

ton Federal Building on Aug. 8 in support of

Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, senior scholar of the

Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas

Initiative at SFSU.

Following the rally, many of Abdulhadi's

supporters accompanied her into the court-

room for a hearing in the case Mandel vs.

San Francisco State University, in which

the Palestinian-American professor is a de-

fendant. The Israel-aligned Lawfare Project

filed the lawsuit June 19, 2017, but the

court dismissed it on March 9, 2018 due to

insufficient evidence against the defen-

dants. Plaintiffs then re-filed an amended

complaint, which attorneys for Abdulhadi

are again asking the court to dismiss.

Abdulhadi and the other defendants

argue that the lawsuit is an attempt to use

the legal system to silence Palestinian ac-

tivism and thwart academic freedom.

“Students at San Francisco State have a

right to an education that teaches them

about what America is funding in the Middle

East,” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the

Council on American-Islamic Relations San

Francisco Bay Area, told the crowd. “All of

us should be free to call Zionism what it is—

racism, settler colonialism, the theft of land

that deprives people of their internationally

recognized rights.”

Prior to the hearing, Abdulhadi expressed

confidence that “justice is always going to

OCTOBER 2018 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS 65

The Magnificat Institute performers at the Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington, DC.

Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi speaks at a rally on her behalf prior to a court appearance in San

Francisco.

PHOTO COURTSEY TONY SABAT

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

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