BY NIKOLAI HADDAD
SYDNEY — Palestinian Legislative Council member Dr Hanan Ashrawi, who is also the secretary-general of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Peace (MIFTAH), arrived in Sydney on November 4 to be awarded the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize.
A few well-connected pro-Israel lobbyists in Sydney attempted to disrupt the award through a campaign of misinformation and personal attacks on Ashrawi and her supporters.
However, the onslaught from the big end of town was met by a huge response, as thousands of people came to events to welcome Ashrawi to Sydney. In a reception usually reserved for the icons of popular culture, she was met with cheers, standing ovations and sheer admiration. Her reception was a clear expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for justice.
On November 5, Ashrawi delivered the Sydney Peace Prize lecture to two sold-out auditoriums at the Seymour Centre, receiving a standing ovation when she arrived and for her speech. She called for an end to violence on both sides, but reminded the audience that this was an "occupation" and not "a war".
Ashrawi told the crowd that she still believed peace was possible, but that it could never be imposed on people, nor achieved through military might. Armies and helicopter gunships might be able to win battles, she said, but they would never defeat a people struggling for their freedom.
Ashrawi also had criticisms of the "Road Map to Peace". The agreement has been rendered meaningless as a result of Israeli amendments to its implementation and by the Israeli government's refusal to halt settlements, assassinations and the construction of the apartheid wall.
Some media attempted to use the campaign against Ashrawi to obscure the issues in Palestine, demanding that she condemn militant Palestinian resistance groups. She refused to be intimidated, telling Kerry O'Brien on the November 5 Lateline:
"I condemn all acts of violence, particularly those targeting innocent civilians on both sides [but] if the discourse is always being hijacked by placing the Palestinians on the defensive and saying the only legitimacy you have is by adopting my language, my approach, condemning the side I condemn, then I would lose the integrity and the honesty of my own speech. So I would much rather dictate my own language than have it dictated by others".
On November 6, at a dinner at NSW Parliament House, Ashrawi was officially presented with the Sydney Peace Prize by NSW Premier Bob Carr. The dinner was attended by a rare mixture of politicians, media personalities, community members, corporate elites and academics.
Ashrawi concluded her visit to Sydney by attending a forum held by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign at Petersham Town Hall. Although the hall was packed to its capacity of 500 people, the atmosphere was intimate. Ashrawi clearly felt more at home in an informal setting amongst community members and activists.
She urged the audience to maintain a commitment to human rights, and to be active on these issues. She stressed the urgency of building strong solidarity movements to counter the military machine that has kept the Palestinian people languishing under the dual tragedy of dispossession and exile on one hand, and occupation and imprisonment on the other.
[Nikolai Haddad is a member of the Sydney-based Sawiyan, Palestine Solidarity Committee.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 12, 2003.
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