U.S. Commission Told of Harassment, Discrimination : Arab-Americans Call for Rights Inquiry

Several Arab-American leaders Tuesday urged the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to investigate what they called discrimination, harassment and violence against the nation’s 2.5 million Americans of Arab descent, charging that they are being excluded from the political process.

Citing a number of incidents, including several bombings, James G. Abourezk, national chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said that Arab-Americans “have become scapegoats for tensions and violence half a world away with which they have absolutely no connection.”

Abourezk, a former Democratic senator from South Dakota, said that Arab-Americans are the last group to suffer stereotypes “without anybody raising an outcry,” adding that he hopes the commission “could do something about that.”

‘Serious Infringement’

James J. Zogby, executive director of the Arab American Institute, called on the commission to begin “a full examination” into the extent to which “harassment and violence against Arab-Americans, a national ethnic minority, constitute a serious infringement of the civil rights of the Arab-American community.”

Zogby said that, so far, such concerns have been met with “ambivalence and silence.”

‘Blatant Disregard’

Norma Odeh, widow of Alex M. Odeh, West Coast director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who was killed last October in a bombing at his organization’s office in Santa Ana, expressed similar feelings. Speaking in a quiet, halting voice, she told the commission that, after her husband’s death, she and her three daughters were subjected to “blatant disregard” by President Reagan, other politicians and the media.

The eight-member commission did not say if it would open an investigation into whether Arab-Americans’ civil rights are being violated.

Role of Jewish Groups

Commission Chairman Clarence M. Pendleton Jr. took issue with Zogby’s assertion that Jewish groups, including the Jewish Defense League, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, had waged “a campaign of vilification” against Arab-Americans.

Pendleton, a Reagan appointee, said he fears that such assertions may “defame and degrade” the Jewish groups.

Morris B. Abram, vice chairman of the commission, condemned violence against the Arab-Americans but noted that Abourezk’s group had communicated with Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, who are widely viewed as enemies of Jews.