PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST VISITS LEXINGTON, UK

A free public lecture featuring Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi has been scheduled for the evening of March 23, 2010 at the Singletary Center for the Arts. 

Ashrawi has served as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Jerusalem District. In 2009, she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), making history as the first woman to hold a seat in this executive body. Ashrawi’s academic career spanned several decades in which she served as a faculty member, chair in the Department of English and Dean of the Faculty at Birzeit University on the West Bank. From 1991 through 1993, she served as the official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process and a member of both the Leadership/Guidance and Executive Committees of the Delegation.

With the signing of the peace accords by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 and the establishment of Palestinian self-rule, Ashrawi headed the Preparatory Committee of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights in Jerusalem, and was the founder and commissioner general of that committee until 1995. From 1996 through 1998, she served as minister of higher education and research. In August of 1998, she founded the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), and has served as the Executive Committee chairperson of that organization since that time.

Tickets for Ashrawi’s public talk are available through the Singletary Center Ticket Office or by going to the Singletary Center for the Arts (SCFA) Web site at www.uky.edu/SCFA. No phone orders will be accepted. There is a limit of four tickets per person using the SCFA Web site. Schools and community groups may contact Richard Greissman at (859) 257-2471 or e-mail richard.greissman@uky.edu, for more information about group seating. Tickets are free.

A limited number of tickets will also be available at the Jewish Federation office on a first come first served basis. Contact Judy Wortman to have tickets set aside at the office for you. (859) 268-0672 or jfb@jewishlexington.org