Press Release: Ashrawi laments flaws in peace process, Israeli bad faith
Dr. Ashrawi: “The built-in flaws in the Declaration of Principles and Israeli negotiations in bad faith have brought conditions to a critical phase”
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (DOP), PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi today held a briefing with a select group of international media correspondents and journalists at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah.
Dr. Ashrawi stressed, “Israel’s violations, expansionism and total disregard for Palestinian rights and the requirements of peace have led to the entrenchment of the military occupation and the placing of the two-state solution in serious jeopardy.
The briefing addressed the structural and procedural flaws and shortcomings in substance and content of the DOP that have enhanced the power asymmetry between the belligerent occupier and a people under occupation and given Israel more time to act unilaterally.
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
The discussion also focused on the US administration’s latest illegal and unilateral measures which have disqualified it as an even-handed peace broker and clearly exposed its role as a partner in the Israeli occupation.
Dr. Ashrawi stated, “The United States administration’s reckless and spiteful political moves, including recognizing occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, defunding Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem and UNRWA, redefining the status of Palestinian refugees, refusing to refer to the 1967 borders and the two-state solution, refraining from addressing the illegality of settlements, and most recently its closure of the General Delegation of the PLO in Washington D.C., all form a comprehensive and deliberate assault, not just on Palestinian rights and the components of peace, but also on the global legal and institutional system of laws and resolutions.
The Palestinian people are constantly placed on probation and subject to threats and extortion by the US while Israel is rewarded and given free license to persist in its aggression on Palestine as a whole with full impunity.”
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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