Mai Skaf (May Scaff), 49,died in her
home on July 23 in Dourdan, southwest
of Paris. While a colleague stated that
she died of a heart attack, others—in-
cluding her family and friends—are sus-
picious about the true cause of her
death, deeming it “mysterious” given her
showing no signs of illness before her
death.
A celebrated Syrian actress born into a
mixed Muslim and Christian Damascene
household, she gained renown as a rev-
olutionary icon for her role in protests
against Syrian President Bashar al-
Assad in 2011. She was arrested in 2012
for taking part in a protest that came to
be known as the “intellectuals’ demon-
stration,” and was again detained later
that year. After receiving numerous
death threats, she decided to flee to Jor-
dan, and eventually settled in France
where she had lived since 2015. Defiant
and hopeful until the end, Skaf’s last
Facebook post read, “I will not lose
hope, never lose hope. It’s the Great
Syria, not Assad’s Syria.”
A woman and artist of principle, Skaf
distinguished herself not only for her
achievements and popularity on the big
screen, but as a beacon of integrity and
unwavering courage. She decided early
on to become a symbol of the revolution
at a time when many other Syrian artists
feared saying or doing anything that
might invite regime crackdown. Her ac-
tivism did not end after settling in France.
In 2016, she demonstrated in Berlin
against anti-refugee sentiment and poli-
cies in Europe, symbolically offering her-
self as fodder to a group of Libyan lions.
Skaf is survived by her mother and
son, Joud.Yasser al-Masri, 47,died on Aug. 23
after being involved in a car accident in
Zarqa, Jordan. Born and raised in Kuwait
in 1970, al-Masri would go on to gradu-
ate from the Jordanian Music Academy
before acting in a number of Arabic-lan-
guage television series such as “Nimr bin
Adwan,” where he starred as the lead
actor, and, most recently, “Haroon Al-
Rasheed.”He is survived by his wife, journalist
Nisreen al-Kurd, and their three children.Arlene Briem Sayegh, 92,died tragi-
cally earlier this summer as a result of a
car accident in California. Arlene—a pas-
sionate advocate for the Palestinian
cause—relentlessly continued the work
and mission of her late husband, the cel-
ebrated Palestinian American academic
and civil servant, Dr. Fayez A. Sayegh
(See “In Memoriam” by Ambassador An-
drew I. Killgore published on pp. 22-23 in
the December 2005 Washington Report.)
A graduate of Brigham Young Univer-
sity, Arlene traveled to New York to take
a job at the United Nations where she
would eventually meet and marry Dr.
Fayez.
A devoted longtime reader and friend
of the Washington Report, she is remem-
bered for having carved a legacy of her
own in the realm of Palestinian activism,
independently noteworthy, yet beautifully
intertwined, with the legacy of her late
husband. A friend and pen pal of hers,
M.J. Ogden, credits her for helping him
educate hundreds of students otherwise
reflexively apathetic or antagonistic to-
ward the Palestinian cause over the
course of his tenure as a professor at
Weber State University (see p. 6). She
also took on the mantle of meticulously
preserving much of her husband’s intel-
lectual legacy, donating hundreds of his
written works and recorded speeches
and interviews—along with his massive
personal library—to the University of
Utah at Ogden.
We remember Sayegh here and she
will be greatly missed.Jamal A. Sa’d, 86,died at his home in
East Lansing, Michigan on July 10 of
complications from Parkinson’s disease.
After fleeing Palestine in 1948 during
the Nakba, he and his family settled in
Beirut, Lebanon where he would go on
to attend the American University with a
concentration in political science and
law. Eventually Sa’d immigrated to the
United States where he would pursue
graduate studies at the University of Vir-ginia and a Ph.D. in international studies
from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Sa’d enjoyed a vibrant career in
diplomacy and business, distinguished
by a decade of service at the Lebanese
Embassy in Washington, DC, the Arab
Information Center of the League of Arab
States, and later at the United Nations.
He also directed for a time the American
Arab Association for Commerce and In-
dustry.
In his spare time, Dr. Sa’d enjoyed
music and the arts with a passion for the
harmonica, drawing, and painting. He is
remembered for his elegant style, lively
intellect, and an effervescent presence
that captivated the room.
He is survived by three daughters,
Najwa, Rima, and Nadia; and six grand-
children. for Gush Shalom was published just 16
days prior to his death and, according to
The New York Times,Avnery was planning
to attend a large demonstration when he
suffered the stroke that killed him.
As I contemplate Uri Avnery’s legacy it
seems to me that his biggest contribution
was his effect on those outside of Israel and
Palestine—but perhaps that’s because I my-
self am an outsider, neither Israeli nor Pales-
tinian. As an Israeli, as a soldier, as a mem-
ber of the Knesset, his writings calling for
Palestinian rights—although he always
maintained that the return of Palestinians
was an impossibility—and faulting Israeli
wrongs awakened many who didn’t heed
the same calls by Palestinians, readers who
couldn’t see the same faults pointed out by
non-Israelis. Photographs of Avnery being
beaten by other Israelis as he demonstrated
with Palestinians opened many eyes. His
talk and his walk alerted many to dig deeper
into the realities of Israel’s occupation of
Palestine. Avnery played a significant role in
changing public perception, particularly over
the last 20 years. Although I didn’t always
agree with him, I know the peace movement
has suffered a great loss. 72 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2018O•B•I•T•U•A•R•I•E•S
Compiled by Amin Gharad
In Memoriam
Continued from page 54obituaries_72.qxp_Obituaries 8/30/18 2:21 PM Page 72