Hanan Ashraui

Andrei Sharry: The Man of the Day of Radio Liberty on March 26 is the Palestinian politician Hanan Ashraui. She filed an open letter to the leadership of the Palestinian and Islamic organizations, calling not to respond to revenge for the liquidation of the Israeli special services of the leader of the Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin group. The circle of violence must be torn, according to Hanan Arshaui.

She was born in 1948 in the Palestinian city of Ramalla. According to religion - a Christian. Graduated from the American University in Beirut (Lebanon) with a degree in English literature; Doctorship in English literature at the University of Virginia. Activist of the female movement of the United States. In 1988, she first performed on TV (ABC) in an open polemic with Israelis. Since 1991, spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation in negotiations with Israel. Then the Minister of Education in the leadership of the Palestinian autonomy. Subsequently, a press secretary of the League of the Arab states. Today, Ashraui leads the initiative group "for comprehensive dialogue and democracy" created in 1996.

About the man of the Day of Radio Liberty-the correspondent of our radio in Tel Aviv Victoria Munblit.

Victoria Munblit: a group of Palestinian intellectuals addressed a letter to the ruling in the Palestinian autonomy to the Fath movement and the rest of the Palestinian organizations. The authors of the letter called on all Palestinian structures to abandon the idea of retaliation for the liquidation of Sheikh Ahmed Yasin. From the point of view of Palestinian intellectuals, Israel can cause a response blow to an unprecedented force, and this will mean a new stage of bloodshed. The initiator of the letter was the famous Palestinian public figure Hanan Arshaui. In the past, the secretary of the Palestinian organization at negotiations with Israel, then the minister in the Palestinian leadership of Arshaui always remained a consistent and tough enemy of Israel. However, for her, a man of Western style, terror as a method of struggle has always been unacceptable. Most of all, terrorist activities are harmful to the Palestinians themselves, and insisted Arshaui. And now she said: "We can and must expose the policy of Ariel Sharon in front of the whole world, we can and must wage a political struggle with it, but we cannot and should not resort to violence." Like no one in the Palestinian autonomy and as few in the Arab world who know a lot about propaganda campaigns and the creation of an international image, Arshaui understands: if there is a terrorist attack that will entail a large number of dead, Palestinians in the eyes of the world community will turn from victims into executioners. But there is no language in which Arshaui, who perfectly speaks Arabic, could explain this to its compatriots. Does this tough, accustomed not to retreat the difficulties of a woman, her powerlessness? The West listened to her arguments, it was possible to convince the Israelis, and the Palestinians did not hear her. The face of an elegant secular lady is always calm, it does not give despair it is now.

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  Andrey Shary

  I.O. Regional Director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for Russian -Sound Content

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