Ashrawi wins Sydney Peace Prize: "Margo Kingston writes: Dr Ashrawi will deliver the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize lecture tonight at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. NSW Premier Bob Carr will award the peace prize to Dr Ashrawi at a dinner at Parliament House tomorrow evening. I've just seen her sensational performance in Kerry' O'Brien interview - well worth reading the transcript tomorrow."

Kerry O'Brien sounds increasingly like Tony Jones, conducting the the interview as if he had riding instructions from the Howard government, repeatedly banging on about Hamas. Not a word about key issues of conflict, such as the Geneva Plan (would Kerry even be aware of it?). Ashrawi, however, was remarkably effective and articulate in the interview, insisting she would not allow others to dictate her narrative, putting to shame her opponents such as Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull, from whom not a word has been heard despite playing a key role in organising a boycott of the Prize. Turnbull gives the impression of being an unqualified and uninformed person, who is only in the job because of wealth and family connections, because it is 'the thing to do', and who has no concept of what it means to have real issues and real commitment such as shown by Ashrawi. The attempt to silence Ashrawi has backfired and and she has only been more prominent and more effective than she otherwise might have been.

Ashrawi wins Sydney Peace Prize: "Margo Kingston writes: Dr Ashrawi will deliver the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize lecture tonight at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. NSW Premier Bob Carr will award the peace prize to Dr Ashrawi at a dinner at Parliament House tomorrow evening. I've just seen her sensational performance in Kerry' O'Brien interview - well worth reading the transcript tomorrow."

Kerry O'Brien sounds increasingly like Tony Jones, conducting the the interview as if he had riding instructions from the Howard government, repeatedly banging on about Hamas. Not a word about key issues of conflict, such as the Geneva Plan (would Kerry even be aware of it?). Ashrawi, however, was remarkably effective and articulate in the interview, insisting she would not allow others to dictate her narrative, putting to shame her opponents such as Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull, from whom not a word has been heard despite playing a key role in organising a boycott of the Prize. Turnbull gives the impression of being an unqualified and uninformed person, who is only in the job because of wealth and family connections, because it is 'the thing to do', and who has no concept of what it means to have real issues and real commitment such as shown by Ashrawi. The attempt to silence Ashrawi has backfired and and she has only been more prominent and more effective than she otherwise might have been.