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This Side of Peace by Hanan Ashrawi 
Hanan Ashrawi wrote This Side of Peace “to narrate that side of peace which the standard textbooks of history and political science tend to ignore - a personal account of one player and the human dimension of an impersonal process.” Ashrawi engages the reader with what seems like the beginning of an autobiography and turns into account of the Israeli occupation. She provides a detailed historical account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, although not a wholly unbiased depiction. She expresses her opinions clearly. She creates a space for her voice, one of many voices, in this conflict. Her voice is different for the simple fact that in the struggle toward peace she makes the political personal and vice versa. By doing so she creates an autobiographical historiography that is full of emotion, passion, and opinion. In her young life she considered war to be something abstract, something that never entered her personal sphere. However, war would later infiltrate every aspect of her life, “it would become her burden, her responsibility” (25). As a college student in Beirut she was virtually exiled when the West bank and Gaza came under Israeli occupation in 1967. The motivation for her activism and political career developed out of her personal quest to return home, a decision she alludes was not made by choice, but by necessity. Ashrawi continued her graduate schooling in University of Virginia - Charlottesville. Here, the seeds of the social discourse of the Anti-Vietnam movement and Women’s Movement built her solidified her political identity that would emerge several years later. Ashrawi learned the importance of consciousness-raising, creating a voice for her cause, organization, resistance, and self-criticism. She executes a mix of this in this book, as well as presents an alternative to media driven society’s views of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She critiques the media for only showing the non-human side of a war that has displaced her people. Ashrawi does not hide much, revealing not only personal commentary and opinion, but also the details of many events and meetings that were held behind closed doors. The inside details of meeting with the U.S. government, which Ashrawi contends “began to take on a sterile tone of diplomacy so far removed from the human condition I knew and saw” are only the beginning of her vivid accounts of peace talks (90). She is clear in her critique of what she feels to be a negatively instilled view of the Palestinians as incapable and lacking intelligence. Ashrawi was privy the attendance and participation in many secret meetings, negotiations, and talks that led to the Oslo Accord. She recaps many of these almost unbelievable adventures in a very gripping manner. The drive to Isma’iliyya was unforgettable. Our motorcade, with blaring
sirens and flashing lights, hurtled into and out of the insane Cairo traffic as if bent on a suicide mission. We felt as if our daredevil drivers had decided to take on every vehicle ... we sat in the back seat, eyes closed tight, holding on for dear life, and crying out only
occasionally ... we had courted and tempted death to the limit” (138-9).
Hanan Ashrawi gained international recognition when appearing in the first public debate between the Palestinians and Israelis on Nightline in 1988. For the past 14 years she has been a very visible spokesperson for the Palestinian people. Her political career has taken a more humanist turn. She turned down a top position in the Palestinian National Authority and has since become the secretary general of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, an organization she founded. Ashrawi views her role as spokesperson, organizer, writer, activist, politician, mother, and humanist with great reverence. She has accepted a role to “be the speech bearer of our human reality, to unlock the chest of our silent words and with them unlock the hearts and minds of men and women” (135). Her often poetic descriptions shed light on the emotional and personal quality of politics, which she feels has always its sense of being impersonal. Her narrative remains unfinished and we can look forward to reading more of her story in the future. This Side of Peace tells only one dimension of a conflict that has many sides. It provides a great deal of history for those not familiar with the Arab-Israeli conflict, with a feminist - humanist voice that is seen through many facets of this Ashrawi’s life. She has the distinctive and unique role of being a woman in a male dominated social and political cultural world; a woman with power in a patriarchy. Please Note: |
