- Also spelled:
- Ḥanān ʿAshrāwī
- Née:
- Mikhail
- Born:
- 1946, Ramallah, Palestine [now in the Israeli-occupied territory of the West Bank] (age 80)
Hanan Ashrawi
-
Who is Hanan Ashrawi?
Hanan Ashrawi, born in Ramallah, Palestine, in 1946, is an educator, legislator, and spokeswoman. She is known for her role as a spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the early 1990s. Ashrawi earned a doctorate in English literature from the University of Virginia. She then became a professor at Birzeit University.
During the first intifadah, Ashrawi gained international recognition through appearances on American television, advocating for Palestinian rights. Following the Oslo Accords, she held positions in the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, she co-founded the Third Way party. Ashrawi remained a spokesperson for the PLO until she resigned in December 2020.
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What is Hanan Ashrawi known for?
Hanan Ashrawi, born in Ramallah, Palestine, in 1946, is renowned as a Palestinian educator, legislator, and spokeswoman. She gained international prominence during the first intifadah in the late 1980s through her appearances on American television, advocating for the recognition of Palestinian rights. In the early 1990s, she served as the spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. After the Oslo Accords in 1993, Ashrawi held positions within the Palestinian Authority and later with the Arab League. She co-founded the Third Way party in 2005 and remained a prominent PLO spokesperson until 2020.
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What roles has Hanan Ashrawi held as an educator?
Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian educator who, after being unable to return to her hometown due to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, went to the United States and earned a doctorate in English literature from the University of Virginia. Upon her return to Ramallah in 1973, she became a faculty member at Birzeit University as a professor of medieval and comparative literature. She also served as dean of the School of Arts until the Israeli army shut down the university in 1988, following the first intifadah among West Bank Palestinians in December 1987.
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How has Hanan Ashrawi contributed to Palestinian diplomacy?
Hanan Ashrawi significantly contributed to Palestinian diplomacy through her articulate advocacy and representation in peace negotiations. As a spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the early 1990s, she presented appeals for the recognition of Palestinian rights on international television, which raised awareness and support.
During the Madrid talks in 1991, Ashrawi emerged as a key figure, embodying a new wave of Palestinian pragmatism through her speeches, news conferences, and behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts. After the Oslo Accords, she held positions in the Palestinian Authority and later served as the Arab League’s first commissioner for information and public policy.
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What are some achievements or awards Hanan Ashrawi has received?
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian educator, legislator, and spokeswoman, has received acclaim for her work. She gained international recognition during the first intifadah through appearances on American television, advocating for Palestinian rights.
After the Oslo Accords, Ashrawi held positions in the Palestinian Authority and later served as the Arab League’s first commissioner for information and public policy. Ashrawi's memoir, This Side of Peace (1995), recounts her role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Among her honors are the Sydney Peace Prize in 2003 and the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation in 2005.
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How has Hanan Ashrawi influenced Palestinian society and international relations?
Hanan Ashrawi, born in 1946, is a Palestinian educator, legislator, and spokeswoman who has significantly influenced Palestinian society and international relations.
During the first intifada in the late 1980s, Ashrawi gained international recognition through her appearances on American television, advocating for the recognition of Palestinian rights. In the early 1990s, she served as the spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, representing a new wave of Palestinian pragmatism. Post Oslo Accords in 1993, she assumed roles within the Palestinian Authority. Ashrawi also served as the Arab League’s first commissioner for information and public policy in 2001. She remained a prominent PLO spokesperson until 2020.
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Hanan Ashrawi (born 1946, Ramallah, Palestine [now in the Israeli-occupied territory of the West Bank]) is a Palestinian educator, legislator, and spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the early 1990s.
Ashrawi was the youngest daughter of a prominent physician who was a founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and she grew up in an Anglican family. In the late 1960s Ashrawi joined the General Union of Palestinian Students while attending the American University in Beirut, where she completed a master’s degree. Unable to return to her hometown after the occupation of the West Bank by Israel during the Six-Day War (1967), she went to the United States and earned a doctorate in English literature from the University of Virginia. Upon her return to Ramallah in 1973, she joined the faculty of Birzeit University as a professor of medieval and comparative literature and also served as dean of the School of Arts until the Israeli army closed the university in 1988 after the outbreak of the first intifāḍah (Arabic: “shaking off”; see Palestine: The first intifadah) among West Bank Palestinians in December 1987.
Though Ashrawi had long been a supporter of the PLO, it was during the intifadah that she became prominent internationally through frequent appearances as a guest commentator on American television news programs, on which she presented articulate appeals to the world to recognize Palestinian rights. When U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced a new international Middle East peace initiative in mid-1991, Ashrawi was appointed to the advisory committee to the Palestinian delegation and served as its official spokeswoman. From the time of the opening round of talks at Madrid in the fall of 1991, she emerged, through her speeches and news conferences as well as in behind-the-scenes diplomacy, as the representative of a new spirit of Palestinian pragmatism.
After the conclusion of the Oslo Accords peace agreement in 1993, the Palestinian Authority was established and she held several positions within that body during the 1990s. She later served briefly as the Arab League’s first commissioner for information and public policy, a position to which she was appointed in 2001. In 2005 Ashrawi joined former finance minister Salam Fayyad to form Third Way, an alternative to both Fatah and Hamas. Although the Third Way party earned only a narrow proportion of the vote in the parliamentary elections of 2006, she and Fayyad each won a seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council. She continued to be a prominent spokesperson for the PLO until December 2020, when she resigned from its executive committee, citing a lack of opportunity for women and young people in the aging organization.
Ashrawi wrote a memoir of her role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process entitled This Side of Peace (1995). She received a number of acclamations including the Sydney Peace Prize (2003) and the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation (2005).