Raed or Rayed Arafat (born May 24, 1964) is a Syrian-born Romanian intensive care physician of Palestinian origin. An anesthesiologist, he is the founder of Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication (SMURD), as well as the coordinator of Mureş County. He is also the Under-Secretary of State for Health in the Romanian Government.

Early life[link]

Arafat was born in Damascus to a Palestinian couple from Nablus. He worked as a volunteer in emergency medicine from the age of 14.^[1][2] In 1981 he emigrated to Romania and initially settled in Piteşti, where he took Romanian language classes.

Education[link]

Arafat enrolled at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca.^[1][2] He later moved to the Târgu Mureş University of Medicine, where he underwent specialization in anesthesiology.^[2][3] He completed a number of specialist courses abroad, training with the Paris Fire Brigade, the United States National Guard, and the Norwegian Air Ambulance.^[3]

Career[link]

Following the 1989 Revolution, Arafat contemplated leaving for France, but his application was rejected,^[1] so he concentrated instead on creating an emergency service in Târgu Mureş (which he originally financed with personal funds).^[1]

In 1991, he created SMURD, a mobile emergency service which began collaborating with the Romanian firefighting service^[1] and the Fire service of Scotland,^[2] working for it as a volunteer until 1998, when he gained Romanian citizenship.^[1][2]

Politics[link]

In late 2005, his project to have SMURD function as an additional rescue service at a county level was passed into law, but raised opposition from the physician and Social Democratic politician Sorin Oprescu, who had drafted an alternative proposal.^[4] A reference to Arafat as "the Ayatollah of Romanian emergency medicine" and the stress he placed on the latter's country of origin brought Oprescu to the attention of the National Anti-Discrimination Office.^[4]

^[5] A first aid instructor, he coordinated international lectures on the matter in several countries (including Austria, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States).^[3] In 2003, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Merit of Romania (a Grand Officer since 2005).^[3]

Since August, 2009, he has held the position of Under-Secretary of State for Health.^[6] He resigned from this position on January 10, 2012, as he expressed criticism on the health system reform. ^[7]After a series of protests in several cities.^[8], the government announced changes to the reform plan, and Dr Arafat returned to his post as Under-Secretary of State.^[9]

References[link]

Raed Jarrar (Arabic: رائد جرار‎) is an Iraq-born architect, blogger, and political advocate resident in the U.S. Capital Washington, DC.

Jarrar was born in Iraq, and raised in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He is half Iraqi and half Palestinian. He holds a degree in architecture from the University of Baghdad, and a Master's Degree in Architectural Engineering, specialized in post-war reconstruction, from the University of Jordan.

While attending the University of Baghdad, he met the fellow architecture student later known as Salam Pax.^[1]

Jarrar first gained prominence as the person referenced in the title of the blog "Where is Raed?", written and maintained by Salam Pax, to which Jarrar himself made infrequent posts. This blog received widespread media coverage during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and afterwards.^[1]

Jarrar, along with his family, compiled their blogs into The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family's Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation, which was published in June 2008. The book explores, through their words, how their lives were affected as terrorist activities, as well as the American military and coalition allies response, devastated the city. They persevered through night attacks and daytime missile strikes that oftentimes wreaked destruction to their home by blowing doors off hinges and breaking windows. The Jarrar family, while chronicling their daily lives amid the destruction, also provides descriptive analysis of the political climate that resulted from the American occupation of the country.

After the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Jarrar worked as the country director of CIVIC Worldwide, the only door-to-door civilian casualties survey in Iraq since 2003. He also founded Emaar, an NGO that carried out humanitarian and reconstruction work in Baghdad and southern Iraq.^[2]

JetBlue incident[link]

Aspect of the slogan "we will not be silent" in Arabic and English

Jarrar later gained attention after an incident on August 12, 2006 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.^[3] Raed had attempted to board a JetBlue flight from New York City to Oakland, California while wearing a black T-shirt with the text "We will not be silent" in English and Arabic. The shirts were produced by The Critical Voice, an anti-war group; the text was inspired by the German phrase Wir schweigen nicht ("We will not be silent"), the slogan of the White Rose, the "subversive" German antifascist anti-nazi organization.^[4] As Jarrar himself related:

"So I went to the airport in the morning, and I was prevented to go to my airplane by four officers, because I was wearing this t-shirt that says 'We Will Not Be Silent' in both Arabic and English. And I was told by one of the officials that wearing a t-shirt with Arabic script in an airport now is like going to a bank with a t-shirt that reads, 'I am a robber'."^[5]

After a lengthy exchange with airport staff, Jarrar was persuaded to cover his t-shirt with another T-shirt bought for him by JetBlue staff from an airport gift shop.^[4][6]

On August 13, 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against JetBlue alleging illegal discrimination against Jarrar.^[6][7] In January 2009 JetBlue paid Jarrar $240,000 to settle the case.^[8]

Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, an expert in Constitutional law at the American Civil Liberties Union who followed the trial, noted:^[3] "neither the TSA officials involved nor JetBlue could identify a single passenger who had supposedly been 'concerned' by Mr. Jarrar's t-shirt. Nor had they inquired whether the nature of any purported 'concern' was based on a legitimate reason or an illegitimate racial bias, perhaps grounded in the stereotyping of Mr. Jarrar as a "terrorist" simply because he is Arab and wore a shirt with Arabic script."

Political work[link]

Raed Jarrar translated the new Iraqi Oil Law that was proposed by the Bush Administration. He also translated multiple copies of the U.S.-Iraqi Security Agreement signed between the two nations in 2008.

Jarrar testified before the U.S. Congress in two hearings, and helped invite three Iraqi Parliamentary delegations that testified before the U.S. congress in 2007 and 2008.

See also[link]

Wikinews has related news: Iraqi activist forced to change t-shirt with Arabic peace slogan

• Marla Ruzicka

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} McCarthy, Rory (May 30, 2003). "Salam's story". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,966819,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-09. 
2. ^ "Raed Jarrar profile". Inquest Iraq. http://inquestiraq.org/Jarrar.html. Retrieved 2007-03-17. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Nusrat Jahan Choudhury (2009-01-10). "Jarrar settlement promotes security in civil aviation while protecting civil liberties". The Jurist. Archived from the original on 2009-12-05. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjurist.law.pitt.edu%2Fhotline%2F2009%2F01%2Fjarrar-settlement-promotes-security-in.php&date=2009-12-05. "This settlement is a victory. Even absent a court judgment, it marks progress in the fight to promote safety and security in civil aviation while protecting the civil rights and liberties that are the hallmark of this country." 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row". BBC News. 30 August 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
5. ^ "We Will Not Be Silent: Movement Grows to Challenge Racial Profiling at Airports". Democracy Now!. September 1, 2006. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/01/1338241. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Lenkowitz, Eric (August 10, 2007). "JETSUE: Arab T-shirt 'bias' rap". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/seven/08102007/news/nationalnews/jetsue__arab_t_shirt_bias_rap_nationalnews_eric_lenkowitz_with_post_wire_services.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-13. 
7. ^ "ACLU Sues Jet Blue & TSA for Barring Man Wearing Arabic T-Shirt". Democracy Now!. August 13, 2007. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/13/1346237. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
8. ^ "240,000 dollars awarded to man forced to cover Arab T-shirt". January 5, 2009. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090106/ts_alt_afp/ustransportairsecuritymuslimsrights_090106002219. Retrieved 2009-01-06. ^{[dead link]}

External links[link]

• Raed in the Middle, Raed Jarrar's blog
• Where is Raed?, blog by Salam Pax
• The Critical Voice, organizers of the "We Will Not Be Silent" campaign and distributors of the T-shirts
• Video: Raed Jarrar - Nationalism and Sectarianism Under the US Iraq Occupation (September 27, 2007)
• Iraq Under Occupation: Raed Jarrar decodes the misinformation - let video play past introduction to see speech