Who is Hanan Ashrawi?
And why was she awarded the Sydney Peace Prize? SK: Dr Hanan Ashrawi is the most well-recognised and most-highly respected Palestinian woman in the world. She is the first official representative who has been able to make Palestinian issues comprehensible to the Western world. She has worked tirelessly for over 30 years to bring justice to her people, negotiating with Israelis, finding ways to bring a consensus between Palestinian groups and leaders within the Palestinian Authority, encouraging global dialogue on issues of human rights, democracy and peace. All her work has focused on making sure that the Palestinian identity is not extinguished through a Zionist manufactured deception – staggering in its depth and intensity – to demonise her people and deny Palestine. If all her efforts have not brought peace, it is not through any lack of trying on her part. She has shown enormous courage under conditions that would defeat most people. She certainly deserves to be recognised and it i
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi is a prominent senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization and has served as the official spokesperson of PLO leader Yasser Arafat. It is important to note that the PLO, under its various wings (Fatah, al Aqsa brigades, Force 17, etc.) continues to be involved directly in terror attacks against Israeli civilians, and Ashrawi plays a central role in attempting to justify this strategy. (See, for example, her official statement published by the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department in July 2000, http://www.nad-plo.org/eye/hanan.html). She has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 1995, and also has served as a minister under Arafat. In all of these official positions, she has supported the official PLO position, while failing to speak out against the immorality of suicide bombings, terrorism and the murder of Israeli civilians. Instead, as one of the most prominent defenders of the PLO and Palestinian Authority policy, Ashrawi has also been
Does the eloquent and unruffled debating style and the doctorate in English Literature disguise a vicious supporter of terrorism? Or is Hanan Ashrawi a moderate, and an activist for peace who works behind the scenes in dialogue with Israeli women? Earlier this week I spoke to Yael Dayan, a member of the leftwing Meretz party in the Israeli Knesset – and daughter of Israel’s legendary General-with-a-eyepatch, Moshe Dayan. Yael Dayan: Look, as a Palestinian, she is an activist compared to some of the others. But from my point of view, she could have done more, she could have denounced terror more – but she did carry out a dialogue with us Israeli women, which is commendable, and certainly peace-making. Stephen Crittenden: Here in Australia, the Zionists have made a lot of the fact that she’s condemned suicide bombing – she signed a document suggesting that suicide bombing is a bad thing – on pragmatic grounds, but that she hasn’t opposed the suicide bombing on moral grounds. Is that a fa
