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Winter 2009 Vol. VII, No. 2
Alumni Profile
Identity and a Cause
These five Palestinian AUB alumni have followed disparate yet interesting paths: author and architect; businessman and philanthropist; writer, editor, and politician; anthologist and poet; university president, educator, peace envoy, and government minister. Their Palestinian identity has not only informed them personally; it can also be seen in the immediate and lasting contribution they have had to the Palestinian cause.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi
(BA ’45): anthologist and poet
Salma Khadra Jayyusi (BA ’45) was once told by a student in Texas, “Arabic culture has nothing to offer the world.” Since then, Jayyusi has devoted her professional career to correcting this misconception with a determined effort “to reject and combat a disgraceful absence of Arabic culture and literature from the world library.” To this end, she founded the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA) in 1980 for the dissemination of Arabic literature, and later founded East-West Nexus, devoted to cultural studies. The fruits of these labors are manifest so far: ten substantial anthologies of classical and modern Arabic literature, over 27 single author works of poetry and prose in translation, and seven large books of discourse on Arabic and Islamic culture, civilization, and literature. Future publications include edited books on the city in the Islamic world and human rights in Arabic thought. Her work with PROTA also continues with new books on the classical Arabic story and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Nouri al-Jarrah. A poet and writer herself, Jayyusi would like to find the time to publish more of her own poetry in English and Arabic and to translate her writings on poetry into Arabic.
Always independent and strong-minded, Salma Khadra Jayyusi attended AUB in the 1940s where she found a freedom “of spirit and mind.” Studying Arabic and English literatures, she discovered her interest in critical theory as a student of Professor Byron Smith. She urges AUB students to “reject autocracy and fear. Find the true path; find your true Arab identity in an atmosphere that encourages choice and intelligent judgment.” After graduating with honors, Jayyusi married a diplomat, raised a family, and later joined the world of academia, teaching at several universities before leaving to found PROTA.
Now residing most of the year in the United States, Jayyusi grew up in Acre and Jerusalem in a “patriotic and cultivated home,” raised by parents who were fond of their Arab literary heritage and staunch advocates of rights and human justice. Jayyusi says of herself, “I am not just Palestinian by inheritance; I am an angry and deeply concerned Palestinian poet, writer, and editor who has tried as much as I could to serve the cause of my country.” Through her continuing work with PROTA and East-West Nexus, Jayyusi has helped change the map of Arab culture outside the Arab world and has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Arabic literature, history, and culture have very much to offer the world.
Anis Sayegh (BA ’53): writer, editor, and politicianAnis Sayegh has worked his entire life for the cause of Palestine and for Arab unity. An outspoken and controversial writer, he believes in Arab nationalism, the liberation of Palestine, and resistance to Israel as a Jewish state. He is against negotiating with the Israelis and against the “two-state solution,” but does believe that Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims, can live together in a unified, democratic state of Palestine. Although his work is seen as inflammatory by some, Sayegh says that he has no connection to armed groups and has never held a gun in his hand. Given the gift of a pistol by both Hafez al-Assad and Yassar Arafat, Sayegh refused to touch them and said that he wants to be “one person fighting Israel with a pen, not a pistol.”
Born in Tiberius, the son of a Presbyterian minister, Sayegh fled Palestine with his family in 1948. He has lived in Lebanon most of his life since then, first attending the Sidon School and later AUB. He and his Jordanian wife lived in England for five years where he studied and taught at Cambridge. Returning to Lebanon, Sayegh headed the Palestinian Research Center (PRC) for ten years, which at one time had the largest library of books about Palestine outside Palestine. The PRC financed researchers and writers, publishing hundreds of books in Arabic as well as other languages, including one book that was translated into Esperanto. Sayegh recounts that the Israelis targeted the PRC four times, including a letter bomb sent to him in 1972 that resulted in his losing most of his eyesight, hearing, and three fingers. Sayegh says that he could raise a case against Israel for the bomb that maimed him, but that he will never do this because that would entail recognizing the state of Israel.
In addition to writing, Sayegh is a prolific editor. He edited the 11 volume Palestinian Encyclopedia, which took around 20 years to complete and is the only encyclopedia in Arabic devoted to one topic. He also served as editor for three magazines during the 1970s and ’80s: Palestine Affairs, Arab Future, and Arab Affairs, the first and only magazine of the League of Arab States. Also active politically, Sayegh has twice been elected to the number two position in the Palestine National Council in 1998 and, most recently, in 2008. Although mostly retired, Sayegh continues to write, publishing his autobiography in 2006. He also participates biweekly with other members of the “Palestinian intelligentsia” in Beirut in public debates on Palestinian issues.
Suad Amiry (BArch ’77): author and architectSuad Amiry, architect and renowned author, was born in exile but has been a resident of the West Bank for the past 27 years. After growing up in Amman, Amiry followed in the footsteps of her father and enrolled at AUB in the early 1970s. She says that her time at AUB and in Beirut during its “golden years” was an important and formative experience, educationally as well as culturally. Amiry received the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture’s Distinguished Alumni award in 2006 and is the author of numerous books on architecture, including Palestinian Village Home, Throne Village Architecture, and Manteer: Farm Houses.
Amiry says of herself, “an architect by profession, I became a writer by sheer accident; an accident that changed my life.” In 2002, her mother-in-law moved in to her home at precisely the time when Sharon’s army was occupying the West Bank. Amiry was being “driven crazy by the occupation inside and outside my doors.” She coped by writing personal emails to friends, one of whom brought her musings to a publisher in Italy. The result was the international best-seller, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which won the prestigious Italian literary award, Viareggio, and has been translated into 18 languages. Dar al-Adab published the Arabic version of her book in Beirut in 2006. Amiry credits some of the book’s success to the fact that although people are tired of hearing about the troubles in Palestine, it uses humor in such a way that people get the point, but do so while laughing and smiling. With her second book, Murad Murad, Amiry seeks again to tell a sad tale in a humorous and engaging fashion. It is based on a nighttime journey taken with a group of Palestinian workers seeking to sneak across the separation wall into Israel for work.
Although best known as an author, Amiry devotes most of her time to running the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation (www.riwaq.org), an NGO in Ramallah whose aim is the protection and development of architectural heritage in Palestine. Riwaq will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011. Its Job Creation through Conservation project, which won the 2006 Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, creates jobs for local workers by preserving historical buildings that are then used as cultural centers for the benefit of women, children, and youth. Amiry credits the success of Riwaq to its flexibility and the commitment of those working for it, and to the fact that her strengths as its director are not her administrative skills but her ability “as a good discussant.”
A. M. Al-Qattan (BBA ’51): businessman and philanthropist
From humble beginnings as the son of a merchant in Jaffa, Abdel Mohsin Al-Qattan rose to the heights of business success and now uses his prosperity to help the people of Palestine and others to achieve their own potential. Al-Qattan’s parents instilled in him a belief in the power of education, sending him to study in Jerusalem under the renowned educator and scholar, Khalil Sakakini. At AUB, he studied political science and business, focusing exclusively on business after becoming financially responsible for his mother and siblings following his father’s death. Al-Qattan remembers AUB as “a place where we were encouraged to value our freedom of thought and right to self-expression.” After graduation, he was a teacher in Jordan and Kuwait, then moved into government as controller general of the Ministry of Water and Electricity in Kuwait. Al-Qattan later founded and managed several successful companies operating in the Middle East and Europe, starting with Al-Hani Construction and Trading, which became one of Kuwait’s largest construction firms.
Although living in exile most of his life, Al-Qattan was always deeply involved in Palestinian politics and issues: as a student activist while at AUB and later as a member of the Palestine National Council. Beginning in the 1980s, Al-Qattan put his considerable talents and financial resources to work helping the people of Palestine through various charitable organizations. He helped to found the Welfare Association, an organization supporting sustainable development in Palestine, and served as the Palestine representative to the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. In these capacities, Al-Qattan was able to secure hundreds of millions of dollars for Palestine education, culture, and development. In 1994, he founded the London-based A. M. Qattan Foundation, which provides over $3 million annually to fund various projects. The foundation’s main objectives are to identify and promote scholarly, artistic, and scientific excellence and research that contribute to the advancement of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. Two flagship projects are a children’s center in Gaza and the Educational Research Center in Ramallah.
Al-Qattan is a member of AUB’s Board of Trustees, as well as a member of the boards of several charitable organizations and Birzeit University in the West Bank. At an address to AUB alumni in 2006, Al-Qattan urged graduates to embrace the leadership roles that this university is known for preparing its graduates to assume and to couple this with a strong sense of social responsibility.
Nabeel Kassis (PhD ’72): university president, educator, peace envoy, and government ministerNabeel Kassis has worn many hats over the years: academic, peace negotiator, policy analyst, government minister, and university administrator. Having lived most of his life in Palestine under occupation, Kassis says, “The challenges in Palestine were great, and so were the opportunities to make a difference. Anything you attempt under occupation is a challenge.” Currently president of Birzeit University in the West Bank, he says that he has his hands full keeping the university “operating up to expectations.” Running a university is hard enough under the best of circumstances, but Kassis also has to contend with a tense political situation as well as financial difficulties. However, he notes that institutions like Birzeit University have made a crucial and positive difference in Palestinian society.
Before becoming president of Birzeit University, Kassis spent several years in various positions with the Palestinian National Authority: as minister of state (without portfolio) in charge of preparing the city of Bethlehem for millennium celebrations in 2000, as coordinator of the Ministerial Reform Committee, and as minister of tourism and minister of planning. In the 1990s, Kassis was a member of Palestine’s delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference and participated in negotiations in Washington, DC and other locations around the world. He also cofounded and was the first director of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, an important think tank in Ramallah.
Prior to this period of public service, Kassis was immersed in academia. After studying nuclear physics at Mainz University in Germany, he enrolled in AUB’s new PhD program in physics. In addition to meeting his wife in Beirut, Kassis says that “everything I experienced during my two years at AUB is memorable.” He then went on to work at universities and research centers in Jordan, Germany, Italy, France, and England before settling at Birzeit, where he taught physics and served as chair of the Physics Department and later as vice president for academic affairs.
An old friend and former AUB professor warned him when he decided to return to Palestine and join Birzeit that he would “probably be doing much less physics and more ‘institution building.’” This prediction has proved more prescient than either could have imagined at the time. Reflecting on his multifarious career and varied accomplishments, Kassis says: “Every job I took presented a challenge. Each challenge brings with it an opportunity. The measure of success in meeting a challenge is how much of what was built remains there to be built on further by others.”