Protest Sydney Peace Prize to Hanan Ashrawi

The Sydney Peace Foundation and Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (under the auspices of the University of Sydney) have decided to award its annual peace prize to Hanan Ashrawi. As detailed below, Hanan Ashrawi is a prominent official of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, and this prize makes a mockery of the peace studies, while providing direct evidence of the claim that many such programs have become synonymous with support for violence and terrorism. We therefore call on the University of Sydney and Mr Bob Carr, the Premier of New South Wales, Australia, to disassociate themselves from this decision immediately, and to join in preventing the political exploitation of peace studies to promote terrorism.

Who is Hanan Ashrawi?

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 a frequent advocate of violence.
* In a 1996 radio interview, she spoke threateningly of Palestinian plans for confrontation and the use of "field capabilities" (a euphemism for terror).
* In October 2000, she justified the brutal lynching of two young Israelis who had accidentally strayed into Ramallah, citing the absurd claim that they were "undercover Israeli agents" and "members of notorious Death Squads... (Anatomy of Racism," by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi posted on Miftah, October 18, 2000).

The NGO known as Miftah, in which she is centrally involved, leads the effort to rewrite history in ways that justify hatred and terror, as documented in detail by NGO Monitor (http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v1n02/v1n02-1.htm). For example, in the section condemning Israeli responses to Palestinian terrorism, Ashrawis Miftah site highlights "Palestinian activists and political figures assassinated by Israeli 'death squads'". An examination of the details reveals that the overwhelming majority of the 123 "activists and political figures" on this list were directly involved in terrorism, and most described themselves as involved in "military units", engaged in attacks against Israelis. This and many other similar attempts to obfuscate and justify terrorism is hardly compatible with peace.

In September 2001, Ashrawi addressed the UN Conference on Racism in Durban, which was exploited as a platform for the demonisation of Israel. Far from emphasizing the need for mutual compromise, understanding, and non-violence, she repeated the litany of hatred and incitement, referring to Israel with terms such as "racism", "colonialism", and "apartheid". (The full text can be found at http://www.caabu.org/press/articles/ashrawi-durban-speech.html).

Whatever positions are taken on responsibility for the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict, the promotion of peace and reconciliation is entirely incompatible with the advocacy of and justification for terrorism and hatred. By awarding Dr. Hanan Ashrawi its peace prize, the Sydney Peace Foundation and Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, with the participation of Premier Bob Carr, are actually honouring war, murder and hatred, while debasing the concept of peace and reconciliation.