Hanan Ashrawi

Born on October 8, 1946 (Nablus, Palestine)

Political activist
Author
Educator

Hanan Ashrawi is one of the most important and respected female figures in the Middle East today. The Palestinian professor of English shot to international fame in the late 1980s after she eloquently defended the rights of the Palestinian people. She has spread her message around the world and put the Palestinian cause on the map, and has been a prominent spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation during peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. She has chaired a group focusing on the violation of human rights in the Occupied Territories. This is the name Palestinians have given to territories under the political and military control of Israel though they contain Palestinian majority populations. Those include especially the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ashrawi is the author of several books on the Middle East.

"Palestinians are called upon to be docile, to stop the 'violence,' to end the 'siege' of Israel—as though the strongest army in the region is being 'threatened' by the unarmed people's rejection of its occupation and brutality."

A liberal upbringing

Hanan Mikhail was born in Nablus, Palestine, on October 8, 1946. The city of Nablus, built over 4,500 years ago, is one of the oldest cities in the world and was the economic capital of the region then known as Palestine. Hanan was the youngest of five children, all of them female, born to a Christian family. Her mother worked as a nurse and her father practiced as a surgeon. In 1948 David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973; see entry), the first prime minister of Israel, declared the creation of Israel on Palestinian land. War erupted between the Arab Palestinian and Israeli Jewish armies and lasted for months. This war is known as the War of Independence in Israel, because it ensured the independence of the new state of Israel from Palestine. Almost one million Palestinians fled or were forcibly removed from their homes and became refugees during the war. Ashrawi's family was lucky, for they had the resources to move to Amman, the capital of neighboring Jordan. Her father was the last member of the family to move to Jordan, and he took a well-paid job as a health inspector for the Jordanian government.

Ashrawi grew up in a happy and relaxed household. Her father, Daoud Mikhail, was an intelligent, kind, enlightened, and publicly liberal man who trusted his daughters and believed they should take responsibility for their own lives. He had lost his own father when he was just a young boy. Mikhail had been raised by women and had grown to respect their position in society, and thought they should play a more important role in the Arab world. His beliefs were contrary to the views widely held by Arab society at the time. Growing up in such a liberal environment afforded Ashrawi the luxury of believing she could do anything she wanted. Her father had a profound impact on her belief system, and helped her believe that being a woman would never be an obstacle to her.

Daoud Mikhail was very active politically, and his membership in the Arab Socialist Party landed him in a Jordanian prison for a short time. Jordan was ruled by a monarchy that felt threatened by socialist groups calling for democratic rule. (Socialism is a system in which the government owns the means of production and controls the distribution of goods and services.) But Daoud Mikhail came out of prison unscathed and went on to become an important figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a political organization whose goals were to reclaim lost territory from Israel and establish an independent Palestinian state.

Not long after their move to Amman, the Mikhails began to miss their home in Palestine, as well as other members of their large family who had stayed behind when the Israelis declared independence. The family decided to move to Ramallah, a city just ten miles from Jerusalem, in 1950. Ramallah was in a region known as the West Bank, which during the 1950s and early 1960s was part of Jordan. In 1967 the armies of several Arab nations gathered on Israel's borders, determined to carry out a full-scale war in the hope of reclaiming land they felt belonged to Palestinian Arabs. Despite being outnumbered, the Israeli troops triumphed, capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including Ramallah), and the Golan Heights in just six days. These territories represented the remaining 22 percent of Palestine not claimed by Israel during the War of Independence. The outcome of this war—known as the Six-Day War—was a devastating and humiliating blow to the Arab armies.

A brilliant student becomes a brilliant activist

Ashrawi attended a Quaker school for girls in Ramallah. (Quakers are a Christian group opposed to war, oath taking, and rituals.) She was blessed with a quick mind and earned a place at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. It was during her time at the university that Ramallah was taken over by Israel, thus making her an exile from her own country. An activist like her father, she joined the General Union of Palestinian students and rose quickly in the ranks to become head of the organization. She also ventured into the Palestinian refugee camps (camps where Palestinians fleeing Israel were being held) in Southern Lebanon, and taught classes to uneducated refugees about basic political concepts, in order to make them aware of their rights. By 1970 she had received her bachelor's and master's degrees. When her studies were completed in Beirut she traveled to the United States, where she continued as a graduate student at the University of Virginia. She completed a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature in the early 1970s.

While Ashrawi was studying, Palestinian activists were simultaneously forming the PLO. One such activist was Yasser Arafat (1929–2004; see entry). He was a founding member of the political group Fatah, which was dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the unification of Arab states in the Middle East. Fatah was one of the key groups in the PLO. Ashrawi met Arafat in 1969, the year he became chairman of the PLO. She quickly became an active member of Fatah.

In 1973 Ashrawi returned to the West Bank for the first time since 1967, after the Israeli Knesset (legislature) passed a family reunification act allowing Palestinians to be reunited with their families inside the Occupied Territories. She was shocked at the poor and unsanitary conditions her fellow Palestinians were living in, and she set about forming women's rights groups. She knew that trying to fight the Israeli occupation would end in failure, so in a brave move she spoke out about the possibility of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where Arabs and Jews could live side by side. She also believed in the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. (The right of return is a key issue in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. It refers to the right of dispossessed refugees to claim both their former homes and their citizenship.)

Ashrawi's life was not all about politics. In 1973 she accepted a job as a professor in the English department at Birzeit University in the West Bank, and in 1975 she married Emile Ashrawi, an artist, filmmaker, and photographer based in Jerusalem who worked for the United Nations refugee relief group. Over the next decade, Ashrawi raised two children. She worked at the university, allying herself with student groups who protested conditions faced by Palestinians, and spoke out for the rights of Arab women. Over time she also accepted a number of positions of responsibility at the university, acting as chair of the English department from 1973 to 1978 and 1981 to 1984, and as dean of the university from 1986 to 1990.

Became international figure

Ashrawi's shift from being a prominent regional figure to being an international personality came in April of 1988, when she agreed to appear on American network television, on ABC's program Nightline, airing from Jerusalem. The show featured a debate over the Palestinian situtation between Ashrawi and an Israeli. Ashrawi won the argument, and stunned and intrigued the world with her rational and reasonable arguments. Following her appearance on the show she began to receive invitations to speak all over the world. Her eloquent position on Palestine had commanded attention from people, including many at the U.S. State Department and within the Israeli government. The Palestinian question was on every international policy maker's agenda at the time. Only five months earlier, in December 1987, a large majority of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza had started a mass uprising against the Israeli occupation, which became known as the First Intifada.

Intifada

The First intifada, or uprising, started in December 1987, when the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza rose up en masse against the Israeli occupation of their land. The demonstrators did not consist solely of politically minded men, but of women and young children too. During the early years of the uprising the Palestinians staged regular strikes, boycotted Israeli goods, staged huge demonstrations, and refused to pay their taxes. Young boys regularly threw stones at Israeli soldiers.

The First Intifada was orchestrated by an umbrella organization that brought together all the different factions of the PLO. The scale of the resistance drew international attention to the problem. Israel responded with brute force, and officers were instructed to break the legs of any demonstrators. Between 1987 and 1992 over 1,000 Palestinians were killed and many of the leaders of the attacks were arrested and thrown into Israeli jails. A lack of leadership led to the decline of the First Intifada and to infighting between the various factions. But the First Intifada brought world attention to Palestinian problems in the Occupied Territories.

Ashrawi was suddenly thrown into the messy and treacherous world of global politics. She was invited to attend talks on the Palestinian question chaired by U.S. secretary of state James Baker, which culminated in the 1992 Madrid peace talks. But because she lived in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem, part of Israel known as East Jerusalem, she was barred by Israel from taking part in any of the negotiations. This did not stop her battle for her cause. Instead, she rose to become the chief spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation.

The years between 1991 and 2000 were marked by a series of peace conferences between the Arabs and Israelis. In 1991 Yasser Arafat attended the Madrid peace conference to discuss the rights of the Palestinian people. It was the first time that the two sides had sat down together across a table. But the Israelis considered him a terrorist who had orchestrated attacks on their people. They refused to negotiate with him and the talks collapsed. The stalemate came to an end when the Israeli people elected a labor government in 1992 with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995; see entry) at the helm, a man interested in peace between the two peoples.

Described by many journalists as one of the most eloquent women ever to speak for the cause, Ashrawi captured world attention with her articulate defense of the Palestinian position during the various peace talks. As an educated and highly intelligent woman, she was one of the most important members of the Palestinian negotiating team. The problem for Ashrawi was that she was still a resident of East Jerusalem, and because of that did not enjoy freedom to move about. When she did travel she was subject to humiliating strip searches by Israeli soldiers. In 1992 she refused to fill out the security form allowing her to travel into Jordan. The Israelis would not let her pass, and she filed a complaint with the U.S. State Department and threatened to boycott peace talks being held in Washington, D.C. The next day she was allowed entry in Jordan, an act that proved Israel had finally recognized her diplomatic status. She continued to fight with the Israeli authorities and was arrested twice, but was released shortly afterwards.

Dissatisfied with the Palestinian Authority

Being in the spotlight meant that Ashrawi attracted criticism from all sides of the conflict. She was criticized by her fellow Palestinians for being, among other things, too "liberal," too "moderate," and too "friendly with the Americans." In 1993 she resigned her position on the Palestinian negotiation team before the end of the peace talks in Oslo, Norway. When Yasser Arafat formed the Palestinian Authority, she was asked to be chairwoman. (The Palestinian Authority was a governing institution for Palestinians, created by the Oslo Accords in 1993, with control in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.) She declined, possibly based on her dislike of the terms of the peace struck during the Oslo Accords, and decided instead to turn her attention to one of the groups she had founded, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights, which investigated both Israeli and Palestinian human rights violations.

However, Ashrawi could not ignore the will of the people when she was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council during the first elections of the Palestinian Authority in 1996. Even though Arafat and Ashrawi had been longtime adversaries, he named her to his cabinet as minister of higher education. However, Ashrawi was dissatisfied with the internal workings of the Palestinian Authority and spoke out against it as a corrupt organization that did little for the Palestinian people. Her outspoken character worried Arafat, and he changed her position in the government from minister of higher education to that of tourism minister in 1998, without informing her. She resigned immediately.

Though Ashrawi had become disenchanted with the leadership of the PLO as well as the Palestinian Authority, especially that of Yasser Arafat, she remained deeply involved in Palestinian politics, and in the politics of the larger world. In 1995 she published a book, This Side of Peace, which presented her perspective on the Israeli-Arab peace process. In August of 1998 she founded the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), and since that time has served as secretary general of the organization.

In September of 2000, peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians collapsed. Israel closed the border with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hoping to stop attacks by Palestinian militants. Border closures meant that less food was allowed into the area, and those Palestinians who held jobs in Israel could not go to work. The Palestinians claimed that the border closures amounted to collective punishment. Palestinian frustration culminated in the eruption of the Second Intifada, also known as the al-Aqsa Intifada. This time it was a massive uprising, not only against Israeli occupation but also against Arafat and his officials. People had begun to realize that Israel would remain in the Occupied Territories for the foreseeable future, and they felt powerless to do anything about it. Young men marched in the streets. Other groups joined in, including the Islamic fundamentalist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. (An Islamic fundamentalist is a person or group that believes that the Islamic religion should be strictly observed in all areas of everyday life and that those who do not follow this religion should be punished by the law or through physical violence.) Violence erupted and Israel responded with military attacks. During this period of civil unrest Ashrawi was injured by a stun grenade thrown by an Israeli soldier, giving her firsthand experience of the violence that occurred often in the region.

In July 2001 Ashrawi took over as head of media relations for the Arab League, a regional political alliance of twenty Arab nations and the PLO. As a legislator in the Palestinian Authority since 1996, she frequently challenged Arafat's decisions. After his death in 2004 and the election of Mahmoud Abbas (1935–; see entry) in January 2005, she was expected to continue to play a role in the Palestinian government. No matter what role she plays, Ashrawi is likely to continue to use her skill and intelligence to educate the world about the issues facing Palestinians.

For More Information

Books

Ashrawi, Hanan. This Side of Peace: A Personal Account. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Victor, Barbara. A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the MiddleEast. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1994.

Periodicals

Byker, Gaylen. "The Darkest Hour of the Soul." Books and Culture (March 2002): p. 17.

Victor, Barbara. "A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East." Foreign Affairs (July–August 1995).

Web Sites

Amrani, Israel. "Mother Jones MA93: Hanan Ashrawi." Mother Jones.http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1993/03/amrani.html (accessed on January 26, 2005).

MIFTAH.http://www.miftah.org/ (accessed on January 26, 2005).

"A Palestinian Voice: Conversation with Hanan Ashrawi." Conversations with History.http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Ashrawi/ashrawi-con0.html (accessed on January 26, 2005).