Longtime PLO official Hanan Ashrawi resigns

Senior Palestinian Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi announces that she has submitted her resignation from the organization to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Reports have circulated for several days in Arabic-language media that Ashrawi had submitted her letter of resignation, although Ashrawi’s office had declined to comment on the matter. The reports said Ashrawi’s frustration came from the PA’s recent decision to renew security coordination with Israel.

In her public letter of resignation, however, Ashrawi instead focuses on the diminished role of the Palestinian Liberation Organization since the Oslo Accords that established the Palestinian Authority. The pan-Palestinian PLO still exists, but the PA controls affairs on the ground in the West Bank.

Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

“I believe it is time to carry out the required reform and to activate the PLO in a manner which restores its standing and role, including respecting the mandate of the Executive Committee rather than its marginalization and exclusion from decision-making,” Ashrawi says.

“I will continue to serve the Palestinian people and our just cause in every capacity outside public office,” Ashrawi says.

— Aaron Boxerman