Interview with Hanan Ashrawi: Oslo, the PA, and Reinventing the PLO

In her current capacity as the Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Information and Culture Department and a member of the PLO Executive Committee, as a former negotiator with the United States over the terms of Palestinian participation in the Madrid and Washington negotiations of 1991–93, and as the most prominent spokesperson for the Palestine cause vis-àvis Western audiences, Hanan Ashrawi is uniquely positioned to respond to questions about the diplomatic and political fallout of Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza. In this wide-ranging interview, she reflects on the direction the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA) might take in the wake of the war, reasons for the failure of the negotiating process that has been ongoing for more than two decades, the status of the PLO, and the central importance of Palestinian unity.