"I believe that facts created on the ground can be reversed." - Hanan Ashrawi

Blaming the Victim

Hanan Ashrawi speaks out against the “blaming of the victim;” that is, when the Israeli and U.S. government and media portray the Palestinians as the instigators of the current conflict. She also adamantly opposes the lack of respect given to Palestinians and the derogatory terms used to refer to Palestinians. Dr. Ashrawi expresses that Palestinians have been reduced to the level of animals but are in fact people and have the right to their own homeland.

She also speaks about the fear that Israeli troops bring to Palestinian homes during occupation and that the Israeli government cannot continue refusing to negotiate if Palestinians fight. This condition places the Palestinian leaders and people in a “catch-22" where they must be submissive and dehumanized in order to negotiate for peace.

Many of her commentaries are based on trying to eliminate the notion that Palestinians are the aggressors in the present conflict. She tries to show clearly that the Isreali government has many more powerful and plentiful weapons and an organized army while Palestinians have none of these things. She insists that terrorist attacks against Israel, though unjustified because of loss of human life, were not unprovoked. One of the ideas she most opposes is that Israel is only protecting itself from terrorism by occupying Palestinian territory, building the security wall, and creating settlements. Ashrawi feels that such measures of defense promote the stereotype that all Palestinians are terrorists. She believes that Hamas and other militant organizations are not justified in their claim that they act on behalf of all Palestinian people.