Mapping Arab New York

Arab New York ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 26-60
Author(s):  
Emily Regan Wills
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Association ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Arab American ◽  
Arab Origin ◽  
Activist Groups

This chapter provides an overview of the Arab communities and population of New York in the period between 2009 and 2012. Quantitatively, it analyses demographic statistics for all five boroughs to document the diversity and spread of people of Arab origin. Qualitatively, it documents the lived geography of the three most prominent Arab neighborhoods, Bay Ridge and Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, and Astoria, Queens. In addition, it explores the variety of community organizations and activist groups that work in Arab communities, and introduces the three key fieldsites for the book as a whole: the Arab American Association of New York, Adalah-NY: The New York Coalition for the Boycott of Israel, and Al-Awda NY: The Paletine Right to Return Coalition.

Arab New York

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Regan Wills
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Arab Americans ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Activist Groups

Arab New York is an ethnographic exploration of how everyday life and politics intersect in the diverse and complex Arab communities of New York City. The book argues that politics and contention move into everyday social spaces in order to circumvent many of the most challenging barriers to Arab American political participation. To show this, it studies Arab communities in practice, places where Arab Americans identify together as Arab and engage in collective work: in particular, community organizations providing services to newly immigrated Arabs and social movement organizations advocating on behalf of freedom and justice in their countries of origin. The book covers issues of forming community in diaspora, young women’s political engagement, differences between different approaches to pro-Palestine activism, and the challenges and possibilities of organizing on behalf of the Arab spring revolutions. Through detailed portraits of community organizations and activist groups, Arab New York helps explain why politics is everywhere for Arab Americans, and how their experiences of contestation, exclusion and acceptance shape their lives.

From the East River to the Sea

Arab New York ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 113-144
Author(s):  
Emily Regan Wills
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Arab Americans ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
East River ◽  
Activist Groups

This chapter documents the diversity within Arab-led activism for Palestinians, through detailed case studies of two different activist groups, Adalah-NY and Al-Awda NY. While Al-Awda draws its membership and discourses from the recently-immigrated communities of New York and New Jersey, Adalah-NY is oriented towards international discourses of solidarity and social justice. The different ways that identities (such as Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, American, and Jewish) are used by these organizations represent different responses to the problems of political engagement that Arab Americans and their political allies face.

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