Year in Review: 8 Highlights of 2021

Dozens of community members urge the Anaheim City Council to officially designate Little Arabia. Over the past year, we mobilized plenty of Anaheim residents, Arab community members, business owners in Little Arabia to provide oral and written public comments to urge Anaheim Council members to designate Little Arabia. More than 80 public comments have been submitted. While the council majority has refused to put it on the agenda, the campaign has gained traction, bringing local, national, and international media attention to Anaheim’s Brookhurst Street.

The Arab American Civic Council, a member of the People’s Redistricting Alliance, was the Arab community’s voice in ensuring that our community is fairly represented in the once-in-a-decade redrawing of legislative district lines – or redistricting. We successfully mobilized our community to provide oral and written testimonials at the California Redistricting Commission, Anaheim Redistricting community meetings, and Orange County Board of Supervisors meetings.

We worked with local and state government to recognize April as Arab American Heritage Month. Once again, the State of California issued a proclamation celebrating April 2021 as Arab American Heritage Month. In addition, more than a dozen California cities did the same, including for the first time the City of Los Angeles.

Surprise visit to Rep. Lou Correa due to his ongoing support for Israeli human rights violations.

In partnership with our coalition members, we delivered a letter to Rep. Lou Correa (CA-46) office to demand that he cosponsors H.R. 2590, which would prohibit Israeli authorities from using U.S. taxpayer funds to commit human rights abuses. This effort was triggered by Rep. Correa’s tweet following Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in East Jerusalem and assault in Gaza last summer. The Congressman, who’s district includes Little Arabia, continues to fully support Israeli apartheid through his public positions and voting track record.

Linda Sarsour provides keynote address at Arab American Civic Council’s Arab American Heritage Month virtual celebration.

Featured speakers also included Dave Serio of the Arab American National Museum, Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and comedian Amer Zahr.

Aliso Viejo Drops pro-Israel Resolution. Due to pressure from multiple community groups including hundreds of phone calls and emails sent by community members to the Aliso Viejo City Council prior to the June 2nd meeting, the author of the pro-apartheid resolution Councilman Mike Munzing decided to drop his proposed resolution from the agenda (item 6.2), which demonized Palestinians and conflated criticism of Israel’s apartheid and military occupation with antisemitism. More

No BAN Act passed the House in April. The NO BAN Act would limit dangerously broad authority in U.S. immigration law so that no future president can issue bans that bar the entry of people to the U.S. based on their religion or national origin. Although President Biden rescinded the Muslim and African Bans on his first day in office, Muslim, African and other immigrant communities want to ensure that no new discriminatory bans can be issued in the future. For years, the AACC was part of national and local coalitions fighting the bigoted Muslim Ban implement by the Trump Administration.

We released a poll finding residents are open to an official Little Arabia designation in Anaheim.

According to the poll, conducted by AACC and the University of San Diego’s US Immigration Policy Center, more than 58% of registered voters in the City of Anaheim support a Little Arabia designation. Support increases further to more than 75% of those who have been to Little Arabia district.