Reply #50: Abu Mazen [View All]

did his best for the short time he was PM, but he wasn't there long enough and hasn't done enough to deserve a peace prize. I think Israel resents, and maybe envy a little(?), the Palestinians having such an able, female, spokesperson like Hanan Ashrawi.

It is quite unusual for a poor, male-dominated, overwhelmingly Muslim people to have a female, Christian, feminist for a spokesperson.
I read that in 1988 the ABC's Nightline "aired a three-hour discussion which pitted four Palestinians against four Israelis. Ashrawi stole the show, and stripped away some of the terrorist image of the Palestinian struggle for a homeland...." And at the peace conference in Madrid, she "went head to head with Benjamin Netanyahu."

The decision by the Sydney Peace Foundation to award her their Peace Prize was backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a former recipient of the award. He said " No one could be more deserving of this prestigious award. Against daunting odds she has remained committed to finding a peaceful solution to what seems an intractable problem."