Dear friends

You may not know that Hanan Ashrawi has been awarded the Sydney Peace Prize for 2003 awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation. Hanan Ashrawi has been subject to an unprecedented campaign of vilification and disinformation by the Zionist Establishment. There is an international campaign to have Carr and the University of Sydney dissassociate itself from the award.

The University has already withdrawn the use of its Great Hall for the presentation, despite it having been available for previous awards. The Premier of NSW Bob Carr is presenting the prize 6 November. He has so far resisted the pressure to withdraw.

The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Lucy Turnbull has caved in to the pressure and has disassociated the City of Sydney, a sponsor of the prize, from the presentation this year.

A factor is that Turnbull's husband, Malcolm Turnbull, is a very wealthy merchant banker now trying to bulldoze his way into a nomination for a parliamentary seat.

This may seem a storm in a teacup for you as someone far from the parochial squabbles of Sydney. But with the intervention of Associate Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University with an international petition now said to number 10,000, this is an international attack on the standing and credibility of a key Palestinian leader. It is an attack on the Palestinian national movement.

What you can do:

Write to:

Australian Jewish News valhadeff@jewishnews.net.au
Sydney Morning Herald letters@smh.com.au
Premier Bob Carr bob.carr@www.nsw.gov.au

Shalom

Vivienne Porzsolt
Jews Against the Occupation Sydney