Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel (California Series in Public Anthropology)
(In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examine...)
In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society. In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society.
("Jerusalem is the one place which can really be a site of...)
"Jerusalem is the one place which can really be a site of coexistence between [the Palestinians] and the Israelis."-Edward Said The question of Jerusalem remains the epicenter of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. Here is an objective discussion of this fraught issue by some of the world's most respected authorities, including Edward Said, Henry Cattan, Walid Khalid and Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel. Includes maps, photographs and key historical documents, including the United Nations' recent declaration against Israel's "separation" wall in the occupied territories. Also includes an introduction by Hanan Ashrawi, founder of MIFTAH, The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, and currently a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Jerusalem.
(From the world-recognized leader of the Palestinians come...)
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. "A revealing document of a partisan who has helped make Middle East history".--Publishers Weekly.
Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a Palestinian educator and spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation in the Arab-Israeli peace talks in the early 1990s. She won international recognition for her articulate defense of Palestinian national rights.
Background
Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi was born on October 8, 1946 in Nablus, one of the big cities of what was then central Palestine. The youngest of five children – all female – Hanan and the rest of the Mikhails moved around quite a bit during her childhood, mainly due to the 1948 war of Israeli independence and to demands placed on her father, Daoud Mikhail, a physician. From Nablus, her family moved to the warm city of Tiberias in the north where they remained until Israel became a state in 1948.
With most Palestinian Arabs of that part of Palestine – now Israel – fleeing the war and ending in refugee camps in southern Lebanon and Syria, Mikhail's family moved to Amman, Jordan. Her father remained behind in the war-torn country, but rejoined his family a bit later. While in Jordan, Hanan's father worked as a health inspector with that government. Finally, in 1950 the Mikhails returned to the West Bank, settling in Ramallah, a city located six miles north of Jerusalem. As a physician, Daoud Mikhail, along with his wife Wadi'a Mikhail provided his family with a comfortable standard of living. Contrary to acceptable norms for most girls and women at the time, Hanan grew up believing that there was nothing she could not or should not do only because she was a woman.
Education
Hanan Mikhail received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, in 1968, and Master of Arts degree in Renaissance literature and textual criticism from the American University of Beirut, two years later. While there she joined the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) and became its spokesperson. In 1970, unable to rejoin her family in the West Bank, Hanan left Beirut to go to the United States to complete her graduate studies at the University of Virginia, where she received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Medieval and Comparative Literature, in 1981.
Ashrawi attended a GUPS (General Union of Palestinian Students) convention in Amman in 1969, where she was a Lebanese delegate; she joined Fateh, the largest of the Palestine Liberation Organization components, but then she left. She was able to return to the West Bank in 1973 under the Family Reunification Act. There she became involved in the women's rights movement and began to speak about coexistence with Israel and about a two-state solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In 1973, she established the Department of English at Birzeit University. She served as Chair of that department from 1973 to 1978, and again from 1981 through 1984, and from 1986-1990 she served the university as Dean of the Faculty of Arts. She stayed a faculty member at Birzeit University until 1995, Ashrawi began teaching English at Bir Zeit University in 1981. About this time she resumed her activism and conducted protests against the limitations imposed on West Bank Palestinians by the occupying Israelis.
In 1987, after Palestinian uprisings on the West Bank, Ashrawi drew worldwide attention as an articulate, forceful advocate of Palestinian rights. She appeared on American television and soon found herself involved in negotiations with President George Bush’s administration.
Palestinians were disallowed from a 1991 peace conference on Arab-Israeli relations, but Ashrawi managed to participate anyway as part of an advisory delegation to the Arab representatives. At this time the Palestinians abandoned their demands for the immediate establishment of a free Palestinian state. This compromise from the PLO proved crucial in the development of the 1992 Declaration of Principles between the PLO and Israel, an agreement whereby West Bank issues might be resolved peaceably. In a New York Times Magazine interview, Ashrawi described this accord as “a first step—a difficult, painful and complicated first step.” After the signing of the September 13, 1993, agreement between Israel and the PLO, Ashrawi resigned her position on the Palestinian team. She then founded a human rights group that focused on women's issues in the West Bank and Gaza. Her convictions and determination to bring freedom and democracy to the war-torn country of Palestine are described in her critically acclaimed memoir, This Side of Peace. The book draws from the imagery of her native Arabic, but Ashrawi wrote the book in English in order that it might be more widely read.
Ashrawi held several positions within the Palestinian Authority during the 1990s and briefly served as the Arab League’s first commissioner for information and public policy, a position to which she was appointed in 2001.
In 1998, Ashrawi founded MIFTAH—the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, an initiative which works towards respect for Palestinian human rights, democracy and peace. Ashrawi participated in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections as one of the leaders of the newly formed Third Way, an independent alternative to both Fatah and Ḥamās that captured a very narrow proportion of the vote.
In July 2011, she represented the Palestinian people in a meeting with the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and persuaded him to visit the Palestinian territories.
Ashrawi serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.
Ashrawi wrote about her life and her involvement in the Arab-Israeli negotiations in This Side of Peace: A Personal Account, which was published in 1995.
Ashrawi has also written works of literary criticism such as the 1976 book Contemporary Palestinian Literature under Occupation and the 1986 volume Al-Qissah al-qasirah fi al-ard al-muhtallah (“The Short Story in the Occupied Territories”). In addition to her writings, Ashrawi is also the subject of a documentary by fellow Palestinian Mai Masri entitled Developing Stories: A Woman of Her Time.
Ashrawi, as a legislator and human rights activist, was inspired by the nationalist contributions of her father Daoud in her childhood. Her father always believed that women have the potential to play an active role in politics. Passionate about the cause of Palestinian independence, Daoud led the 'Intifada Political Committee' till 1993, when Ashrawi's homeland finally gained its freedom. From that time Ashrawi has been involved in the politics of Palestine, being a member of the 'Third Way Party'. She was a 'Palestinian Legislative Council' several times, and was also appointed the 'Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education and Research'. She was against the fraudulent activities of political leader Arafat by resigning from her post, and went on to form the 'MIFTAH—the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy', to promote world peace.
Membership
Ashrawi is a member of the international advisory board for the Council for Foreign Relations (Washington, DC), Deir Yassin Remembered (New York City), Dialogue Center (The Netherlands), Fund for the Future of Our Children (Washington, DC), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (also known as IDEA; Stockholm, Sweden), Initiative for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East—special project “The Search of Common Grounds,” Mercy Corps International (Washington, DC), PeaceWorks (United States), Project on Justice in Times of Transition (New York City), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (also known as UNRISD), World Bank Middle East and North Africa Region (also known as MENA). She is also a member of the board of trustees for Institute of Palestine Studies, Jerusalem Link (Jerusalem, Israel), Palestine Center for Human Rights (Gaza Strip), Palestinian Youth Association (Gaza Strip). Council member of the International Human Rights Council (The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia).
Connections
In 1975 Hanan Mikhail married Emile Ashrawi, an artist, filmmaker, and later a photographer in Jerusalem for the United Nations refugee relief group. They had two daughters, Amal and Zeina.