Ashrawi Hopes to Give Palestinians
JERUSALEM (AP) - As violence rages in the Mideast, Hanan Ashrawi speaks of peace.
Known for her straight talk and her style, the 54-year-old Christian hopes to give the Palestinians greater exposure with her new role as spokeswoman for the 21-member Arab League.
One of the world's best-known Palestinian representatives, she's already getting attention.
On Wednesday, Ashrawi hosted a rare meeting of Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers to call for an end to 10 months of violence and a return to peace talks.
The world's media - and local Israeli press - jostled for shoulder space in her offices in east Jerusalem.
``We have to deal with the causes,'' said Ashrawi, flanked by Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin.
``The occupation is the cause of the violence, and instability and dangerous escalations are making people on both sides lose faith in a long-term, just peace.''
A professor of English, Ashrawi was picked in the 1980s to explain Palestinian positions to the world because of her fluent, polished and forthright facility with the language.
Elegantly dressed and immaculately coifed, she carries herself with confidence and a cosmopolitan bearing. But critics say she limits her effectiveness by sometimes going too far with her rhetoric. ``The (Israeli) occupation is the root of all evil,'' she said Wednesday.
The Arab League is suffering from a staid and disorganized image.
Ashrawi said she hoped her appointment as director of media affairs would help ``reinvigorate, reinvent, reshape, reform the Arab League in a way which would be more contemporary, more active, in line with the requirements of the 21st century.''
She said her appointment was a signal that the plight of the Palestinians is an important issue for the Arab world. And the fact that the league picked a woman - and a member of the Christian minority - was meant to debunk stereotypical views of Arabs, she said.
Being at the forefront of a hot issue has its price.
In her office next to an Israeli army checkpoint, Ashrawi took a phone call from her daughter Zeina, in town on vacation from college in the United States, reporting a threat.
``It's back to the threatening phone calls again. Israelis, they ring, they scream, they yell, some use dirty language, some even send faxes,'' she said, sighing.
Israelis recognize her effectiveness and often respond by saying that she twists some facts and makes up others.
Though Ashrawi is most visible as an articulate critic of the Israelis, she has also spoken out against the Palestinian leadership.
She resigned her Cabinet post as minister of higher education in 1998 after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat failed to dismiss ministers who had been named in a report on corruption.
``I felt that any government that thinks it's above accountability and above the law, and doesn't respond to people, and is not in itself carrying out or being receptive to the public will and persists in making the same mistakes - I don't want to be a part of it,'' she told The Associated Press.
She has also condemned the Palestinian Authority's execution by firing squad of alleged collaborators with Israel.
During the current Palestinian uprising she has led emphatically peaceful protests with other intellectuals, artists and students, to allay a message that Palestinians need not resort to stone throwing or shooting attacks to demonstrate against Israel.
Originally published July 28, 2001.
