Introduction

At the invitation of Florida Atlantic University, Hebrew University Professor Mordechai Nisan delivered the Ziad Abdelnour Middle East Lecture Series Fund entitled "Israel and Middle-East Minorities, Friends or Foes," on April 15. Nisan, an international authority on Middle East and Israeli affairs, is the author of "Middle East Minorities: A History of Self Expression."

The event, organized by the Department of Political Science of FAU, was sponsored by the Ziad Abdelnour Middle East Lecture Series Fund, an initiative by a New York-based Lebanese-American financier and international investment banker. Abdelnour, who also heads the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon , a Pro-Lebanon activist organization with extensive political contacts within the Washington political establishment has pledged in his letter sent to the event, to "participate in all efforts leading to the emancipation of the Middle East Christians."

After an introduction by Dean James Malek, dean of the Schmidt College of Arts and Humanities, Dr Walid Phares, Professor of Political Science, presented the event and the speaker to an audience estimated at around 500 (local press estimate). Phares, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, said "this event is academically unique and intellectually exclusive. For the dominant debate in Middle Eastern Studies has for longtime excluded the study of the region's minorities for political reasons. It is the duty of scholars to shed light on the least studied subjects, particularly if they affect the lives of not only individuals but entire communities." Phares said "we don't hear much, we don't read much, we don't learn much about this missing part of Middle Eastern reality. In the wake of the Cold War, and in a region which fate is yet undecided between the Arab-Israeli Peace Process and the surge of Islamic Fundamentalism, millions of individuals belonging to ethnic minorities are struggling for their future. Mordechai Nisan is among the very few scholars who dedicated their research to the subject of Middle East minority peoples."

Topic

Addressing the topic, Professor Nisan painted first a different picture of the Middle East. "The region has three main majorities, and a multitude of small minorities. The Arab Moslems, the Iranian Moslems, and the Turkish Moslems. The Jews, a minority in the past are now a majority in their own national homeland. The small minorities are those who do not enjoy a national homeland such as the Kurds, Berbers, Copts, or whose country was dominated by a neighboring power such as the Maronites of Lebanon." Nisan first addressed the Christian minorities. "The largest minority are the Copts of Egypt," which he estimated at around 10 million. "They are persecuted on religious, political, and economic levels. They are dispersed all over Egypt and particularly targeted by Moslem Fundamentalists." The next most active one are the Maronites of Lebanon, today under Syrian occupation and Islamic domination. Their country was abandoned by the West to the Arab Islamic powers and as result, they were military invaded in 1990. In southern Sudan, millions of Black Africans and Christians are under oppression by the Islamic Arab north. In Northern Iraq the Christian Assyrians are persecuted and are emigrating towards the West." Answering the question about the relationship of these Christian minorities with Israel, Nisan said there are specific reasons why Christians feel they are the allies of Israel. One is that both Christians and Jews are considered as second class citizens by Islam. Two, is that state of Israel is the dream for many non Moslem minorities looking towards independence. Three is that Christian people are today oppressed by Arab Moslem regimes, the same regimes which are seeking the destruction of Israel. All of the above mentioned realities makes the alliance between Israel and the Christian minorities a must.

Moving to the Moslem non-Arab minorities Nisan addressed first the case of the Kurds. "They are the largest nationality in the world without a state. Eighteen million Kurds live in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Diaspora. Although Moslems, the Kurds were denied the right to statehood by Arabs, Iranians and Turks." Then comes the Berbers of North Africa who numbers about eight millions. After having been defeated by the Arabs and Islamized, the Berbers are submitted to cultural suppression." Two other minorities were also discussed by Nisan: The Druses who live in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. And the Alawites who, despite not exceeding 8% of the population, rule Syria since 1970. Professor Nisan then discussed the Israeli involvement with these minorities. "The Palestinians, who are portrayed as a national minority inside Israel have obstructed and opposed the rights to other oppressed minorities. In Lebanon they massacred a great number of Christians, created a "state within a state" and tried to undermine Christian leadership on more than one occasion. In Iraq, they supported the Saddam Hussein regime against Kurdish rights. In Sudan, they endorsed the Islamist regime against the Black revolt of the South. Israel in contrast has deployed a number of efforts in the past decades to assist these minorities. Support was extended to the Kurds in northern Iraq until 1975. In the sixties and seventies, Israeli assistance was provided to the southern Sudanese. Finally, since 1977 Israel has supplied the Christians of Lebanon, particularly in Southern Lebanon with multiple type of support. Not all of these initiatives were successful, but the channels between Israel and Middle-East minorities were established."

Nisan concluded that in light of the ongoing attempts by the Arab world to annihilate Israel, or to weaken it, it is all the more natural that the Jewish state should seek the establishment of solid bridges, starting with the closest geographically and the most evident politically, i.e. the Christians of Lebanon.

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