Keynote Address Dr. Hanan Ashrawi: “Palestine is part of the future” – “we will not be locked back in the past!”
Former PLO legislator and negotiator Dr. Hanan Ashrawi delivered a keynote speech at ‘Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home and Abroad’, the annual conference organised by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) and Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep).
Speaking virtually to a packed audience on March 4th 2022, Dr. Ashrawi examined the policies of successive US Administrations from Obama (2008-16), through to Trump (2016-20) and Biden (2020-present) to expose their cumulative impact on Palestinians today enduring Israel’s apartheid and occupation.
“Palestine is part of the future”
In the eyes of many US policymakers, Ashrawi argues, is the belief that as a strategic ally Israel’s security is considered “sacrosanct”, meaning US policy is “always based on what Israeli priorities are and what Israeli interests are.”
Ashrawi situated Trump’s 2020 ‘Deal of the Century’, as well as the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab regimes, as being part of the Trump Administration’s central ideology that Israel must be dominant in the region, in turn allowing it to marginalise the Palestinians from the wider Arab political context as well as turning the Palestinian cause into an Israeli “domestic issue under Israeli control.”
Rather than break from Trump’s harmful legacy towards the Palestinians, Ashrawi argued that Biden simply allowed for the continuation of Trump’s policies. But not only that, it also “allowed Israel to set the agenda and the priorities of American policy in the region.”
Ashrawi also chastised the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah for their “tendency to believe the promises [made] to the Palestinian side” revealed in its apparent disappointment at Biden for not ushering in a new era.
Calling this myopia “ridiculous”, Ashrawi pointed out that the Palestinian leadership clearly did not understand that going back to the status quo ante will not resolve anything “because it was the status quo ante that led to Trumpism and led to such dangerous developments in our region.”
“The Palestinians are not going anywhere”
The keynote speech also gave a sobering account of the challenges faced by Palestinians today. Ashrawi addressed the “racist” Israeli, US and European claims of “incitement” from Palestinian textbooks, the widespread rejection of international law by Israel, the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism and the hypocrisy of the US government’s attempts to ban the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, while also punishing US companies who chose to adhere to calls of BDS.
But with an uplifting finale, Ashrawi exclaimed “Palestine is part of the future” and that “we will not be locked back in the past!”
She went on to spotlight the progress made in the last year with the breakthrough of Palestinian voices enabling Palestinians to become “central to the global conversation on rights, freedom and human dignity”, in what she dubbed a “re-humanisation” of Palestinians.
“There is reason to be confident” she concluded as, “the Palestinians are not going anywhere” but instead “will be part of the shaping of the future.”
