Hanan Ashrawi Quotations

We're being shelled and bombed and assassinated and killed. Our homes are being destroyed, our children traumatized. Our livelihoods, our institutions, our infrastructure totally demolished.

We accepted the (U.S.) initiative, trying to be helpful in getting the peace process back on track. We are not willing in any way to renegotiate the initiative ... I think the clock is ticking very fast.

This really exposes Barak's real intentions when it comes to peacemaking, that either (Israelis) beat (the Palestinians) into submission in accepting what (Israelis) want, or (Israel) will suspend the peace process and ... pursue a policy which is entirely anti-peace,

Sharon may be brutal, but so is Barak,

Nobody wants him to resign and I don't think he will. He understands this is a question of the national interest.

I feel that Sharon is certainly a negative addition. He will sour the atmosphere. He will shift the whole terrain of the discourse to the extreme right.

If Abu Mazen wins, I'm afraid there will be payback time. Lots of people will expect to see him deliver different things on different fronts to different addresses.

He was a genuine man of the people, and he was characterized by his high sense of values, his honesty, his integrity, his unwavering commitment to his people and human dimension.

I think they will be able to see him because he is head of state.

We are not interested in a symbolic state, and statehood generally is not a concession from an occupying power.

We are not interested in a show of negotiations without substance.

We can't allow a group or a handful of armed groups or militias to threaten the holding of elections in a fair and free environment. We can't allow them to hijack the electoral process.

We cannot superimpose on any conflict very simple, borrowed and ready-made solutions ... The Americans constructed a simplistic paradigm for our peace process. And they expected everybody to think like Americans, to behave like Americans.

We are still in the middle of the competition.

These weren't pre-emptive moves. If we wanted to do that, we would have taken steps on other measures dealing with security or dissolving the parliament.

Rabin had a greater sense of the historical dimension. He was quite willing to take risks which Barak is not willing to take. Barak seems reluctant, begrudging, hesitant in terms of the peace process.

a very cynical and willful manipulation of an extremely volatile situation.

Barak is going to the other extreme, he is giving the settlers too much influence, too much power.

This is the bottom line as far as all Palestinians are concerned.

They don't take orders from Arafat. They think for themselves and act for themselves.

It seems to me as usual they are looking at the wrong address. They should look closer at home. I don't think the Sharon policy of attempting to besiege a whole people ... is a policy of utmost responsibility.

It's very clear that Mr. Barak's intentions all along have been to undermine the peace process, to evade it, to avoid it,

It looks like we will have a bipolar reality.

The occupation is a source of violence that has to stop.

But instead of taking action, he cooked up a deal: freeze everything, don't throw out the corrupt officials, sit and do nothing, grasp onto the excuse of the elections.

I don't see Sharon's new party as a centrist party. It's a party that represents a unilateral approach,

It's not just a question of numbers. There will be more women (in parliament) who are conscious of women's rights ... There will also be women who are not committed to equality.

Beyond the emotionalism and the obvious sense of relief on all sides, I think that there is a recognition that reality may intrude, that perhaps the steps ahead and the days ahead are going to be much more difficult than one expects.

Sharon was a strong and charismatic leader who steered the politics toward the right and extremism. Now it is clear that Israel needs a leadership that proceeds strongly toward peace, or else the extremist right will hijack the situation.

Sharon has subverted the whole process by turning it into something sequential and conditional and, of course, by making himself the interpreter of the road map,

You can't simply redefine Jerusalem. The Palestinian claim is based on legality, on the international recognition that the situation created by the war in '67 is not valid.

We know what they say, they want all of Palestine (including Israel) and say that negotiations did not work. They talk about wanting reform. That doesn't mean they will do it.

It's clear Israel has suspended the peace process, despite the so-called moderation of the Arab world, because it has no interest in peace.

We're here because we want to go to the Orient House. We're here because this is our city. It's an occupied city, I know. They have arms, they have weapons, they have police, they have mortar guns, but it is Palestinian and it is under occupation.

There are people starving in the siege, there are children traumatized and terrified. There are men women and children dying. This is a situation that has reached the proportions of a tremendous humanitarian crisis. It is a tragedy and every minute that passes we lose lives and more people are brutalized and traumatized.

Women in politics are more honest and forthright. We are not in it for the ego gratification.

It looks like we will have a bi-polar reality

We need to stop Sharon. His lethal policies are drawing blood on both sides. That's why we need a serious intervention -- international troops. And we need to end the occupation if there is to be security for both people.

Control does not come from strong police forces, does not come from oppression and repression, does not come from violating people's rights or giving the security systems undue powers

We cannot rely upon the silenced to tell us they are suffering.

We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier...while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims.