Arab Americans surface as key players in Chicago political scandal
April 24th, 2008It’s always distressing when any public official or leader is accused of misconduct and bribery and abusing their responsibilities to the public, but in Chicago a huge corruption scandal is taking place that really pains me because of the large number of Arab Americans involved who, instead of fighting to help the community, spent all their time trying to help themselves.
Now, many of them, Syrian and Palestinian, are going to pay.
The story starts with Antoine “Tony” Rezko, a once very respectable building rehabber and small fast food franchiser who back in the early 1990s, helped people in the Arab community get a voice in local government by raising money and supporting their community efforts. But sometime in the mid-1990s, Rezko, according to federal indictments and the ongoing corruption trial, decided to line his own pockets with millions, and then using his quick rise in Illinois politics to position himself to make even more money in exchange for helping Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to raise funds. Rezko allegedly got people to donate money, and give him money, too, allegedly, in exchange for helping them get jobs in the government where they didn’t have to do any work.
One of the people he helped was Ali Ata, a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ali is a decent person. I actually know all of the main characters being a Chicago based Arab American activist going back to the 1970s when I left the Military service during the Vietnam War to try to help my community empower itself.
Ata pleaded guilty this week to charges he gave Gov. Blagojevich money at a meeting with Rezko in exchange to get a job in state government that paid him a salary of $127,000 a year. A job he was not qualified to hold, as executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority. But the IFA had great influence and helped Ata and other investors with land deals where they made millions of dollars, using their state jobs and clout with the governor and friendship with Rezko (according to the plea agreement) to get state buildings and then have the state lease the buildings — so they could then sell the buildings at huge profits. Ata even tried to use the clout he and Rezko created to reach out to the administration of President George W. Bush to get him to reassign the U.S. Attorney here Patrick Fitzgerald to prevent him from prosecuting Rezko. These are the same guys who raised money for Bush and both Republicans and Democrats. It didn’t matter which party or issues. It was all about greed.
What is most depressing about this story and why it is of interest to Arabs throughout is that this is the kind of corruption that we see all the time. People who claim to be “leaders” who use their influence and power and clout and friendship with government officials to help themselves, rather than help the community.
Arab Americans have been in Chicago for more than 120 years. Many came just before the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (a history I detailed in my book “Arabs of Chicagoland” 2005, Arcadia Publishing). Yet, we, as a community, do not have one major street, one building, one major program that acknowledges the many contributions of the hard working Arab Americans (there are 250,000 living in the Chicago area, about 60 percent Palestinian from Ramallah and Beitunia). Nothing. We have a “holiday” in which November is designated “Arab American Heritage Month” by the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois but all we have there is an invitation only food buffet celebration with Mayor Daley in which he gets up with all of the so-called “leaders” in our community (including Ata, Rezko and a dozen more tied to this scandal whose names have been published and have yet to be published — about 24 that I have been able to count) where the mayor praises them (and gives them jobs, clout and his blessings) and yet the community gets nothing.
Chicago should have a museum for Arab Americans. We should have a street named for the many Palestinians who worked all their lives for this city and region and got nothing. No recognition — and never asked for recognition.
One of the things Ata did was to organize fundraisers, using ADC and other organizations — where the politicians where celebrated, praised and showcased. The people who bought the tickets figured hey, this is a great way to get the governors (three are involved) and the mayor to acknowledge us and help us. Instead, Ata took the money from the dinners, and then wrote a check that he handed to Gov. Blagojevich at a meeting with Rezko (who got huge contracts and concessions from Chicago and Illinois) and then got a promise of a high paying do-nothing job.
Meanwhile, the rest of us Arabs living in Chicago are harassed, fired from jobs, discriminated against and Chicago ADC has done absolutely nothing to protect us or defend us … That’s not to say they are like the National ADC which does a great job … but the point is they used our leadership organizations and our power to help themselves. No one has helped our community.
Worse, when you questioned these same leaders and tried to make them accountable — asking what have they done, or expressed any criticism whatsoever, they and the community responded with anger defending them. Chicago’s Arab American community has been one of the worst organized in the country. It’s unlike any other. The Palestinian community is divided into four groups: Fatah, Jabha sha’abiyya, Hamas and independents. They don’t work together. And even the Muslims and the Christians don’t work together — although the “leaders” who do absolutely nothing, will insist they do a lot.
The Rezko and Ata scandals are the tip of the iceberg of indictments and charges and are evidence that the people entrusted to fight to empower our community have done nothing but support themselves, their families, their friends, their businesses and their associates. I don’t thinK Rezko is as guilty as he is being made out to be. I think he was used by some people in the community and as a political pawn int he political battle to unseat Blagojevich and damage Barack Obama.
It’s a sad day for Chicago’s Arab American community and will set us back decades.
Ray Hanania
You can reads my column on the topic at www.ArabWritersGroup.com … and get more info on the Chicago Arab American community from my Arab History pages at www.hanania.com.
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Ray, what you describe here is a sad state of affairs, which could end up hurting Obama if he ends up being the nominee, since I think that he was involved with Rezko in a very minor transaction involving the purchase of a home.
Of course, every ethnic community has its share of corruption. And it is sad because it unfairly reflects on the entire community, even though only a few individuals are involved.
The Jewish community is no exception, with its share of scandals. What has helped the Jewish community is its ability to organize itself politically and charitably, so as to promote policies which most Jews believe in. So, for example, the Jewish support for the State of Israel is reflected in such organizations as: the Associated Jewish Charities, Israel Bonds, Hadassah, the Zionist Organization of America, the Jewish National Fund, etc. And on the political front, organizations like AIPAC do lobby vigorously on behalf of causes which are important to Israel.
By having this organizational stucture, it makes it possible to have credibility on Israel, even when an occasional scandal breaks out here and there. This kind of structure differentiates between the organization, on the one hand, which has some constancy to it, and acts of individuals, which may be a bit eratic at times.
It is important for Arabs and Muslims to become similarly organized because it will allow them to have more say with regard to what’s happening in the Middle East, and to have more influence in moving things forward there, hopefully in a positive direction.