Upcoming Events & Obituaries

—Compiled by Matt Horton

Upcoming Events

“Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National Museum, Kabul,” will be on view through Sept. 7 at the National Gallery of Art’s East Wing, located on the National Mall at 3rd St. and Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. For more information, call (202) 737-4215 or visit <www.nga.gov/exhibitions/afghanistaninfo.shtm>.

Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) will host its Third Israeli-Palestinian Workshop on Education for Peace Aug. 8 and 9 in Tantur, Jerusalem. For more information, or to register, call Gershon Baskin or Hanna Siniora at +972-2-676-9460 or visit <www.ipcri.org>.

The Jerusalem Fund and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University Voices of Palestine: Summer 2008 Film Series will continue with screenings of “Secret Hebron: The School Run” and “Jerusalem: The East Side Story” on Aug. 6 and “The Roof” on Aug. 13. Films begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. at the Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, in Washington, DC.

Al-Awda San Diego, Los Angeles/Orange County, and Riverside; The Palestinian American Women’s Association (PAWA); and The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) will host the Second Annual Palestine Picnic Day Aug. 17, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Mason Regional Park-Shelter #3, 18712 University Dr., Irvine, CA. For more information, call Zahi at (760) 685-3243 or Yousef at (619) 980-0677.

The U.S. Palestine Conference Network (USPCN) will host the Popular Conference for Palestinians in the U.S., entitled “Al-Nakba: 60 Years of Catastrophe, 60 Years of Resilience,” Aug. 8 to 10 at the Wyndham O’Hare Hotel, 6810 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont, IL 60018. For more information, or to register, call toll-free (888) 48-NAKBA, or visit <www.palestineconference.org>.

Obituaries

Louis J. Cantori Ph.D., 73, died May 12 of heart failure at his home in Baltimore, MD. He received a BA in international relations from the University of Massachusetts in 1961 and a political science doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1966, studied Islamic philosophy at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and was a Fulbright scholar in Egypt (1963-65) and in Morocco (1994-95). He began his academic career at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was an assistant professor in the political science department from 1966-72, then later joined the political science faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He was the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory at the U.S. Marine Corps University, the Olin Distinguished Professor of National Security Studies at the Air Force Academy, and a distinguished visiting lecturer on the Middle East at the U.S. State Department. He was a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo from 1974 to 1976, as well as at the U.S. Military Academy, the University of Pennsylvania, and the McCormick Theological Seminary, and served as provost of the School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, VA. Fluent in Arabic, French and German, he was co-author of International Politics of Regions (1970) and editor of Comparative Political Systems (1974) and Andrew Ziegler Jr.’s Comparative Politics in the Post-Behavioral Era (1988). The contributor of dozens of articles to journals and books as recently as 2007, he is cited as a source by many contemporary authors. At the time of his death, Cantori was working on his latest book, Statism and the Emergence of the Modern Arab State.

Mustafa Khalil, Ph.D., 88, died June 7 in a Cairo hospital. Born in the Al Qalyubiyah Governorate in the Nile River Delta of Lower Egypt, he graduated from Cairo University in 1941 with a degree in engineering and worked as an engineer with Egyptian State Railways from 1941-47. He then attended the University of Illinois and received a civil engineering doctorate in 1951. A professor in the engineering faculty at Ain Shams University in 1952, he began working with the new government of Gamal Abdul-Nasser, first as a technical adviser to the National Council of Production, then as minister of transport and communications for the United Arab Republic (1958-61). For the next five years, he held a variety of additional ministerial portfolios. After Nasser’s death in 1970, Khalil served as chairman of the board of the Egyptian Broadcasting and Television Corp (1970-71), President Anwar Sadat’s minister of information (1970-78), and eventually secretary-general of Nasser’s Arab Socialist Union Party. Khalil accompanied Sadat to Jerusalem in November 1977 and, as prime minister (1978-80) and foreign minister (1979-80), headed the Egyptian negotiations team at Camp David in 1979. He was a primary architect of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that the 13-day meeting produced. After Sadat’s assassination, Khalil remained active in Sadat’s National Democratic Party, stepping down from his position as deputy chairman in November. He also served as chairman of the board of the Arab International Bank and as an adviser to Arab Bank.

Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah, 78, died May 13 in Kuwait City’s Shaab Palace. The eldest son of Sheikh Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah, he belonged to the Al-Salim branch of the Al-Sabah family. His father ruled as Kuwait’s 11th emir from 1950 to 1965, overseeing the transition from British protectorate to an independent nationhood. After attending Hendon Police College in London, Sheikh Saad returned to Kuwait, becoming deputy chief of police and then, with independence, chief of police in 1961. He went on to serve as minister of interior (1962-78) and minister of defense (1964-78) before being named crown prince on Jan. 31, 1978. The title also made him prime minister, until the two positions were separated in 2003. When Iraq moved its forces into Kuwait in August 1990, Sheikh Saad coordinated the flight of then-Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah to Saudi Arabia, where the two remained in exile for the duration of the war. From his mountain resort base in Ta’if, Sheikh Saad, as military governor of Kuwait, was central to building international opposition to Iraq’s presence in Kuwait. Following his return to Kuwait in March 1991, Sheikh Saad battled deteriorating health and spent long periods of time outside the country for medical treatment. When the emir died on Jan. 15, 2006, Sheikh Saad took office as the 14th emir of Kuwait, but abdicated by letter on Jan. 23 and was voted out of office the next day.