The San Jose debate between Hanan Ashrawi, the most widely recognized Palestinian woman in the world, and Yossi Amrani, the S.F.-based consul general of Israel, could have been acrimonious and hostile.
It wasn’t.
While there certainly was no meeting of the minds, Saturday evening’s event remained surprisingly cordial, with recurrent quips and even an occasional compliment exchanged.
But if the meeting was meant to further coexistence, those prospects don’t look good.
Speaking before 700 at the Republican Arab American Congress fund-raiser, Ashrawi found little opposition in an audience of largely Arab-Americans, both Muslim and Christian.
From the moment Ashrawi entered the Wyndham Hotel ballroom to loud applause to her reception at the end of the debate, when a long line of admirers waited to be photographed with her, it was clear she was preaching to the choir.
Arab-Americans, joined by the consuls general of Jordan and Yemen and the vice consul of Egypt, had come to hear the forceful speaker and English literature professor who earned an international reputation as a voice for Palestinian liberation during the first intifada.
Ashrawi’s comments began and ended with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “We will talk to those occupiers who share our principles,” she said, adding that most Israelis do not, as they fail to see Palestinians as human beings.
The consul general, meanwhile, often sounded much more conciliatory in his approach than the leader of the government he represents.
In an interview before the debate, Amrani told the Bulletin that Palestinians and Israelis “need to speak to each other — there is no other way. W don’t see the Palestinians as enemies. We see them as people we need to live with.”
In his opening remarks, he noted that the weaker Palestinians are often portrayed as David fighting Israel, the stronger Goliath. Referring to an audience that was most likely not going to be sympathetic, Amrani said, “This time Ashrawi is Goliath and I am David, trying to bring a different perspective.”
Despite their common culture, Amrani said neither side has made enough of an effort to truly understand one another.
“Our aspirations as a people, since 1948, are to live in peace and security,” he said. “We have no wish to occupy another people.”
Nevertheless, he said, “our neighbors in the Middle East regard us as strong, as a people with military might. They don’t understand our fears, that we don’t have another land to go to.”
The format of the debate allowed each speaker to talk uninterruptedly, followed by chances for rebuttal and questions.
Ashrawi, a former member of the Palestinian National Authority who resigned in protest over corruption, has the reputation for not always following the Palestinian party line.
However, the member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and commissioner for information and public policy of the Arab League never acknowledged that Jews had the right to a state in the Middle East.
Ideally, Ashrawi said, “Palestine has to be a pluralistic democratic state for all its citizens,” adding that “people believe they have the divine right to come from Russia or Brooklyn to settle in our land.”
Her remarks led Amrani to charge that Palestinians did not understand the Israeli — or Jewish — mentality at all, one that is based on a thousands-of-years yearning for a Jewish homeland. “This is the meaning of Zionism, that Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people,” he said. “We don’t want to take Palestinian land. We don’t want to take your home.”
But Ashrawi said that that’s precisely the intention of Jewish settlers. Speaking of the Jewish settlement of Ofra, which is near Ashrawi’s West Bank city of Ramallah, she said, “My family is there for centuries, and he says God gave it to him. God was never a real estate agent.”
When Amrani said that “Israelis are looking for acceptance in the region,” Ashrawi countered, “The whole world recognizes you. But only the Palestinians can give you legitimacy because we are the aggrieved party.”
On the topic of last year’s talks at Camp David, Amrani said that the Israelis negotiated in good faith. “Israel expected to meet a counterproposal from the Palestinians,” he said. “Both sides need to compromise, both sides need to sacrifice.”
He also spoke of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s generous offer to the Palestinians at Camp David, which went further than any other Israeli leader’s offer of land for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Ashrawi said that a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders was already a compromise, in that it makes up only 22 percent of historic Palestine. “It’s not a generous offer when you’re offering that which does not belong to you.”
Saying that “the Oslo peace process failed to materialize,” Amrani was careful to refrain from assigning blame.
Ashrawi was not. “The peace process was a cover for anti-peace activities. The settlements doubled while we were talking, and land confiscation continued.”
Amrani and Ashrawi actually seemed to agree that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was good for neither people.
“Most Israelis sympathize with the Palestinians,” Amrani said. “Most Israelis realize there is no other solution, that the Palestinians deserve rights as much as we do. We have no wish to occupy another people.”
However, as could be expected, Ashrawi described it in much harsher terms. Citing examples of Palestinians unable to receive food or medical care, she said, “The most cruel and imposing siege is in place, and you want to talk peace. This is the way our life is being shaped, by [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and his government.”
Later, she noted that while Amrani spoke of his people’s honest desire for peace, it was a far cry from the policies being carried out by the Sharon government.
Discussion over the right of return for Palestinian refugees also proved to be a sticking point.
When Amrani said allowing the right of return to Palestinians would ruin the Jewish character of the state, Ashrawi said protecting the Jewish character of Israel was not her job. “Israel has to accept culpability for the problem of the refugees,” she said.
The two parties also differed over terminology: What Amrani called “targeted killings,” Ashrawi called “assassinations.”
The recent incursions into Palestinian cities by the Israeli army were a point of contention, too, with Amrani maintaining it was a matter of self-defense.
They further disagreed on the nature of terrorism. It was clear that Amrani didn’t believe Ashrawi was strong enough in her condemnations, causing him to ask in exasperation, “When you blow up a pizza parlor, what do you call it? When you blow up a disco, what do you call it?”
According to those who heard Ashrawi speak at other appearances at Berkeley’s International House and at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, she did condemn the killing of innocent civilians.
That Ashrawi failed to condemn terrorism on Saturday or to acknowledge that Israelis have the right to live in a secure Jewish state deeply disappointed Rabbi Harry Manhoff. The rabbi of San Leandro’s Congregation Beth Sholom has spent years in dialogue with Palestinians as well as working for the creation of a Palestinian state. He was one of a handful of Jews who had come to hear the debate, and his royal blue kippah stood out in the crowd.
“If the Palestinians do not acknowledge the need for the one place in the world where Jews can be the majority, there can never be peace between the two peoples,” he said, emphasizing his disappointment with Ashrawi’s hard line. “That was heartbreaking to me.”
The rabbi couldn’t compliment Amrani enough for his presentation; however, other Jews who were there were less effusive.
“Amrani spoke honestly, no doubt, about his own and Israel’s desire for peace,” said Lincoln Shlensky, of A Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that supports a Palestinian state. “But the Israeli government has done very little to back that hopeful claim with substantive action.”
After her Bay Area appearances, Ashrawi was scheduled to go to Washington to meet with members of the Bush administration.
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