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Letter to Syndey Morning Herald about Hanan Ashrawi receiving Sydney Peace PrizeLet Hanan Ashrawi speak Dear Editor The visit this week of two world leaders challenges us all to look closely at the global scene. Just as President Bush's policy in Iraq has failed - note the "long hard slog" comment of his Defence Secretary Rumsfeld - his policy on Israel is also a disaster. At the very moment the Sydney Lord Mayor made her decision to boycott the Sydney Peace Foundation Award to Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi, the United Nations General Assembly carried a resolution 144 to 4. The resolution demanded that the Sharon government "stop and reverse" construction of its controversial security wall in the West Bank. The USA voted with Israel, as did Micronesia (pop 136,000) and the Marshall Islands (pop 74,000). The rest of the world, through their governments representing five billion people, said Sharon should stop. The Howard government, with eleven others representing 100 million people, abstained. These others were Burundi, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Malawi, Nauru, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda and Tuvalu. In this context, the people of Sydney and Australia have a great interest in hearing the views of Ms Ashrawi. She is a democratic, patriotic Palestinian, asserting the national rights of her people through non-violent means. This is the kind of person that Israelis seeking a peaceful solution must be able to talk to. But this is why she is being blackballed - a person like her is far more dangerous to the hard-line Israeli position - which wants no Palestinian state - than any number of Hamas suicide bombers. Yours sincerely, Bruce Childs, Rev Ray Richmond, Hannah Middleton Co-convenors, Sydney Peace & Justice Coalition
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© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
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