Dr. Hanan Ashrawi is a is a Palestinian politician, activist, and scholar. Between the 1990s and 2020, Ashrawi was sporadically active in the PLO. She was elected as member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 2009 and 2018, becoming the body's first female member. Ashrawl attended Quaker elementary school, and was a graduate student at the American University in Beirut when the Six-Day War broke out in 1967. Ashrawi was denied re-entry to the West Bank, and completed her education gaining a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia. She is the author of books, articles, poems and short stories on Palestinian politics, culture and literature. Her book This Side of Peace (1995) earned worldwide recognition.