Abstract
This article examines how the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) articulated the Palestine question as both an Arab-American and a Third World issue after the 1967 War. Using archival documents and recollections from several AAUG members, this article traces the ways in which activism on Palestine and other issues facilitated the creation of a transnational Arab-American “intellectual generation.” Although the AAUG often focused on Palestine, it educated its members and engaged in activism on issues affecting other communities who grappled with racism, imperialism, and colonialism. In doing so, it attracted diverse allies to the Palestinian cause, such as Black Americans, Africans, South Asians, and other members of the “global Third World.” This article further analyzes the AAUG's transnational engagement with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) during its first decade. Using both traditional and academic activism, the AAUG firmly associated Palestine with the Third World and fostered an Arab-American intellectual movement.
Highlights
This article examines how the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) articulated the Palestine question as both an Arab-American and a Third World issue after the 1967 War
In December 1967, Najjar and thirty-six Arab-Americans formed a nonsectarian organization with two goals: to promote an understanding of “the Arab case” to the American public, and to solidify “ties amongst ArabAmericans – of potential benefit to the Arab world.”[2]. This organization became known as the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG)
To adopt Jean-François Sirinelli’s term for intellectuals in France from the Dreyfus Affair to the Algerian Revolution, members of the AAUG represented an “intellectual generation.”[4]. They were a group of aged individuals who may not have ascribed to the same ideologies but emerged in a similar cultural and educational milieu; they received their primary, secondary, and often even undergraduate education from institutions in the Middle East but studied at prominent universities in the U.S for advanced degrees
Summary
Reflecting on the atmosphere after the 1967 War, Fauzi Najjar described the Arab defeat to Israel as more than the “naksa,” or “setback,” as it had become known. A political scientist at Michigan State University, considered the defeat to be the darkest moment of both the “Arab nation,” and U.S.—Arab relations He articulated the conflicted emotions that many Arab-Americans felt as they made the United States their home while the U.S strengthened its relationship with Israel. As intellectuals in the United States who remained closely engaged with the Arab World, AAUG members did not claim to reflect the entire Arab-American community’s views. They engaged in transnational debates and projects that shaped Arab and Arab-American discourses on Arab nationalism, identity, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Palestine was an issue that brought Arab-Americans into conversation with other groups that grappled with racism, settler-colonialism, and decolonization
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