I read with dismay in The Arab American News’ issue number 1476 a question your reporter Ali Harb posed in an interview with ADC Michigan Director Fatina Abdrabboh, to which she answered with even more disturbing and misleading content.  

“How did you deal with ADC-Michigan staff who are close to your predecessor?” Harb asked Abdrabboh. To which she answered, “Since I took over, there has not been a single employee who was employed by ADC Michigan in the past that is employed by us today. The selection of the new office geographically and symbolically was part of this plan. Parts of the past needed to be broken away from.”

Abdrabboh was distancing herself from the people who stood by ADC-MI when it was going through the toughest of time.

Wow! Divorce from the past and its elements?

Does the one who served to protect ADC Michigan from collapse deserve this horrible thank you note in the pages of TAAN? 

Upon urgings at a June 5, 2013 public community meeting held to address the future of the organization and attended by 28 community activists, including Abdrabboh, I personally volunteered to step in without fanfare and serve as the interim navigator of ADC Michigan through December of 2013. 

I thought I had sincerely and responsibly performed the role of a de facto office manager, with assistance and counsel from Dr. Saleh Muslah and Mr. Jamal Dakroub, where the three of us served as the community ADC Liaison Committee, as was prompted by the ADC National Board of Directors.  

This became necessary in order to fill the vacuum left after the former director, Imad Hamad, was placed on an indefinite “administrative leave.” Also, the former ADC Michigan office secretary had already submitted her resignation even before the sexual harassment news became public.

The Liaison Committee (LC) of the three community members, Yemeni, Lebanese and Palestinian, helped stabilize the work of ADC Michigan for six months, as was expressed by that June 5 community meeting. We were not motivated by defending Hamad, but by the need to protect the ADC Michigan.

We all did the task voluntarily, without asking for anything in return. While my respected LC associates continued their full-time jobs, I defaulted into becoming the de facto day-to-day manager of the ADC local office, despite an official announcement of Abed Ayoub as the interim director. Ayoub stayed in Washington to attend to an increased load of legal work.

A temporary part-time office secretary and a caseworker were recruited to serve during that critical period. Those dedicated, qualified staffers, along with the LC members, were all hell bent on serving to preserve the mission of ADC, despite others pejoratively labeling them as defenders of Hamad.

I went to the office five to six days a week, acting as a full-time manager, minus the title, and without expecting any compensation, even for my gas expenses.  

In the process, I had to abandon my full-time commitment as director of the Palestine Cultural Office.

Standing up for the values of ADC is not identical to defending Hamad. I made that distinction during the June 5 meeting, before 27 witnesses, including Abdrabboh.

My relationship with Hamad had to, of necessity, be kept as one to a former owner of ADC information trust, which I need to successfully access and work to recover in order to continue the function of ADC Michigan. 

As an interim de facto manager, I would have been unwise to sever such critically needed relationship with the previous director, when given a choice of his cooperation. I operated accordingly without passing judgment on charges leveled against him. It was not my place to pass judgment, nor was it relevant or helpful, in my view, as I was focused on the organization’s recovery.  

I lost so-called friends for this stand, as I refused to declare his innocence or guilt. I did not follow the lynch mob, simply because it is the majority.  I have been a minority Palestinian all my life.  I have no interest in winning a popularity contest over my living consistent with my values.

I have refrained during that critical period of six months from joining the media frenzy. Instead, I concentrated on the mission of protecting ADC Michigan from collapse. I had the least interest in defending my role against attackers having inaccurate analysis, or against those who were out to take down the ADC. During the 50 years I have spent in community activism, not once have I taken the time to defend myself or my record as I am doing here.   

In this case it is necessary, because this writing is not about me. It is about all of us who helped to protect ADC Michigan for six months. We all deserved gratitude— not divorce— from the new director of ADC whose ascent to the job I personally facilitated and brokered with the ADC National Board.

Let me end with this appropriate notion as I borrow from Dr. Ghassan Salameh, former minister of Culture of Lebanon as I emphasize the right agenda for our community and especially for our youth: “I am more about what I do, than I am about who I am.”  

— Hasan Newash is director of the Palestine Cultural Office.