Palestinian debate Ramalla, West Bank

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Hafez Omar on Palestinian Prisoners, Protest and Art

The first exclusive interview with the Tulkarm-based Palestinian artist behind the Palestinian prisoner art that became a Facebook sensation.

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Diana Buttu



Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). She is best known for her work as a legal adviser and negotiator on peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian organizations. President George W. Bush referred her role in 2005 by stating that she is "a lovely lady who is a very well-educated person, went back to Palestine to try to serve what she hopes will be a country. I was impressed".
Buttu was born in Canada to Palestinian parents. She received a B.A. in Middle East and Islamic Studies and an LL.M. from the University of Toronto, a J.D. from Queen's University Faculty of Law, a J.S.M. from Stanford Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.



She began her work as negotiator in 2000, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada, as a spokesperson for the Negotiations Support Unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Economist in 2005 termed her part of the closest thing to a Palestinian makeover. Al-Ahram Weekly carried an op-ed piece in 2005 in which she was lauded for projecting an image that was opposite of the Palestinians stock villain's role image.
Given her public role in promoting the Palestinian cause, she has appeared numerous times in the American news media from TV networks such as Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC to newspapers such as USA Today and other outlets.

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Linah Alsaafin



electronicintifada.net/people/linah-alsaafin

Linah Alsaafin:
"Neither Hamas nor Fatah represent me. Both sides have hijacked the political situation for their narrow interests."





electronicintifada.net/blogs/linah-alsaafin/my-grandfather-passed-away-and-i-was-denied-right-see-him

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Nabil Shaath



Nabil Ali Muhammad (Abu Rashid) Shaath (Arabic: نبيل شعث‎, Nabīl Shaʿath, also spelled Sha'ath; born August 1938 in Safad) is a senior Palestinian official. He has held the following titles:

- Palestinian chief negotiator
- Palestinian cabinet minister
- Palestinian International Co-operation Minister
- Planning Minister for the Palestinian National Authority
- Acting Prime Minister of the PNA

Career overview

Shaath served as the Palestinian Authority's first ever foreign minister from April 2003 to February 2005. Shaath made news on 2005-10-07 by commenting for a BBC documentary that in a 2003 meeting with United States President George W. Bush, Bush told him and other Palestinian officials that Bush was "driven with a mission from God."
According to Shaath, the quotation was this:
"God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did."
"And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it."
Shaath later qualified his comments, saying that he and other world leaders at a Jordan summit two years ago "understood that he was illustrating [in his comments] his strong faith and his belief that this is what God wanted." Both the White House and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was also present at the meeting, denies that Bush ever made such a statement.
On December 15, 2005 Shaath became Acting Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority after Ahmad Qurei resigned. He lost that position nine days later when Qurei returned to office.


Hamas leader Ismail Hanniyeh, right, shakes hands
with senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath during their meeting in Gaza in May 2011

Business career

In 1976, Shaath started Team International as one of the first large Multi Arab Consulting Companies. By the early 1980s, Team Int. was already established as a field leader.

Film appearances

Shaath will appear in the 2009 documentary "Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace" which deals with the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The film is being released by Channel Productions in New York City.

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