Palestine Children’s Relief Fund To Form New Chapter In Bay Ridge

By on December 3, 2012  Featured story, News
Dec 032012
 

A Sunset Park benefit on Sunday night raised funds for a new pediatric oncology clinic at the Al Hussein Hospital in Beit Jala. (Photo from pcrf.org)

A new, Bay Ridge-based chapter of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund is being formed in the wake of a local fundraiser for a children’s cancer treatment clinic in the West Bank.

The PCRF is a U.S.-based charity that seeks to improve the health care of Palestinian children through the funding of medical programs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and by arranging travel to hospitals in the U.S. for specialized care.

The PCRF held a benefit last night in Sunset Park to raise funds for a pediatric oncology clinic currently under construction in Beit Jala, located six miles south of Jerusalem. Expected to be complete by the spring of 2013, it would be the first public clinic of its kind in the West Bank.

The PCRF has several chapters across the United States. The new Brooklyn chapter will be hosted by the Arab American Association of New York, located at 7111 Fifth Avenue. Continue reading »

Miss the debate at Dyker Civic? See the candidates again tonight at P.S. 170!

By on October 11, 2012  Politics
Oct 112012
 

Andrew Gounardes (left) and Marty Golden (right) are expected to debate each other for the second time in three nights, this time at the Brooklyn Candidates Night hosted by the Arab American Association of New York. (Photos: Andrew Gounardes/Flickr and Erica Sherman)

With the postponement-turned-cancellation of The Great Bay Ridge Debate, there’s been a bit of a hole left in the debate scene for local candidates. The Dyker Heights Civic Association filled the void somewhat with their debate this past Tuesday night, which saw a fiery debate between State Senator Marty Golden and his Democratic challenger, Andrew Gounardes.

If you’re looking for something right in Bay Ridge, you can go to PS 170 (7109 6th Avenue) tonight at 6:30pm for the 2012 Brooklyn Candidates’ Night. Hosted by the Arab American Association of New York, the forum invited local candidates for Congress, State Senate, and State Assembly.

Like all very lazy citizen-journalists, I tweeted AAANY Executive Director Linda Sarsour to see who has confirmed. For starters, it looks like Golden and Gounardes will face each other once again – second time in three nights! Continue reading »

LINK: The Subway Ad That Calls Me ‘Savage’ by Linda Sarsour

By on September 28, 2012  News
Sep 282012
 

Local activist and CB 10 member Linda Sarsour. (Photo: National Network for Arab American Communities)

After local activist and Community Board 10 member Linda Sarsour debated Pamela Geller on BBC, she penned the following opinion piece for City Limits:

While waiting for the train on the platform in a New York City station I always read the advertisements plastered on the walls. I don’t watch much television and these ads always update me on the newest movie releases, season premieres of television’s hottest primetime shows and NYC’s latest fashion trends. Starting this week, New Yorkers are in for something a bit out of the ordinary – in-your-face racism and the response to it.

An ad went up on Monday, September 24 in 10 train stations in New York City that reads, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” Many New Yorkers will pass right by them and not even flinch, but I am not that New Yorker. I am a First Amendment absolutist and I believe wholeheartedly that Pamela Geller, founder of Stop the Islamization of America, a cited hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has every right to express herself through these ads. I also believe, however, that with freedom of speech comes responsibility. Is it legal in a court of law to place these hateful ads? Absolutely. Are they moral and necessary? Absolutely not. This is not just about legality, but also about morality. Slavery was once legal in the United States, but that didn’t make it moral.

Click here to read the full article at City Limits

News That Makes Odyssey Happy: Bay Ridge Arab-American Activist Appointed To Community Board

By on June 27, 2012  Featured story, Politics
Jun 272012
 

Community Board 10 member, Linda Sarsour. (Photo: National Network for Arab American Communities)

Linda Sarsour, the Director of the Bay Ridge-based Arab-American Association of New York, is one of three new members of Community Board 10, according to a report by Will Bredderman on BrooklynDaily.com today.

Woo! I’m very excited by this. Very, very excited. I really can’t begin to tell you how happy I am over this.

Sarsour is one of my favorite activists. Namely for standing up for the concept that being an Arab or Muslim American is not probable cause. And taking that stand in an age when far too many Americans are willing either to tolerate our police agencies treating them as such, or to actively take part in that discrimination themselves, either out of fear, hate, ignorance, or just plain apathy.

Sarsour has been highly visible most recently in the months following the Associated Press series of articles highlighting the systemic bias against the Muslim community by the NYPD, including the screening of a hate-film to trainees and the cataloging of every Muslim place of business, worship, and recreation in the five boroughs without cause to suspect terrorism.

Sarsour’s calls for Commissioner Ray Kelly to resign, or even reform his ways, gained little traction in an environment where a lot of New Yorkers want to see the NYPD tough on terrorism, and are willing to ostracize a significant group of New Yorkers for the appearance of doing the job right. (Like when their police-state surveillance still failed to prevent an actual Pakistani terrorist from placing an actual propane bomb in Times Square, possibly because he lived in lily-white Shelton, Connecticut. So yeah. Good job watching everything vaguely-Muslim except the actual bad guy. Thanks, Ray.)

Anyway – we send our best wishes to Linda on her new appointment. Bay Ridge is lucky to have her in general, and on the Community Board especially. Good luck, and we’ll be looking for regular stories in the Courier about how controversial she is – that’s how we’ll know she’s doing her job right.