This Side of Peace: A Personal Account

by Hanan Ashrawi

Overview

From the world-recognized leader of the Palestinians comes an inside view of Arafat and of the secret negotiations and last-minute decisions that led to the Oslo Peace Talks.

An insider's view of Mideast diplomacy, the PLO hierarchy, and the author's own life reveals Hanan Ashrawi's struggles as a Christian Arab woman in a Muslim, male-dominated society and chronicles her efforts for peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684823423
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	06/05/1996
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	952,604
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician, legislator, activist, and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, beginning with the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.

Editorial Reviews

Ashrawi, who came to international media attention as a spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the long, frustrating peace negotiations with Israel, gives a notable behind-the-scenes account of the events leading up to the signing of the accord by Prime Minister Rabin and PLO chairman Arafat on the White House lawn. A major player in these events, she speaks proudly of her participation in organizing the intifada, with passion of her people's anger and humiliation under Israeli occupation and with dissatisfaction of the final agreement, which brought on her resignation. Here we see the human side of the Arab-Israeli dilemma, through the eyes of an independent, intellectual Arab woman brought up in a freethinking Christian-Muslim household where daughters were considered a gift, not a curse. Ashrawi offers a close-up portrait of Arafat as well as of the major American and Israeli negotiators, Palestinian women emerging from passivity to join the intifada, the outrage at the U.S. pro-Israel policy and the dissident Israelis who became her friends. Though committed to peace, Ashrawi is intransigent on still unresolved problems, among them the Arab claim to Jerusalem. A revealing document of a partisan who has helped make Middle East history. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ashrawi, a Christian Palestinian woman from a prominent family and a political activist who has been a spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation in the on-going peace talks with Israel, provides a rare insight not only into the diplomacy involved but also into her ethnic community. This autobiographical approach is extremely well characterized. Ashrawi delves into the attitudes of many of the Palestinian political elites, examining their cultural heritage and how it has affected their behavior. Of course, she also provides an intimate detailing of the intricate diplomatic process by which the Palestinian delegation treated its demands dealing with the PLO, several Arab states, and the United States. The reader gets a firm feel for the delicacy of multilateral diplomatic talks and the pressure that can be brought to bear by major and more powerful political bodies on groups with no recognized government. This work is essential to the understanding of the current phase of the Arab-Israeli conflict and is required reading. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/95.]-Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C

Library Journal