Dr. Salah Al Bardawil: Hamas Voice to Europe
ONE OF THE first things 47-year-old Dr. Salah Al Bardawil, professor of Arabic language and literature and newly elected Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is eager to show a new acquaintance are documents from the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He spreads the papers wide, his glasses reflecting the text. The documents prove his fathers ownership of 124 dunums of fertile farmland, including olive and orange groves, palm trees and the familys two-story house, close to the shores of Ashdod beach in what is now Israel.
After the massive ethnic cleansing of 1948, Dr. Al Bardawils parents never saw their land or home again. Al Bardawil was born 11 years later, in southern Gazas Khan Younis refugee camp. Like most refugee children, he went to UNRWA schools. He was able to travel to Cairo for university, however, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Arabic literature, with a specialty in Palestinian literature. He has been a teacher for 21 years, 16 of them as a professor at Islamic University in Gaza City. He and his wife have seven children, and still live in Khan Younis refugee camp.
Now Dr. Al Bardawil, who joined the PLO in 1999, has been named Hamas spokesman of the newly elected Palestinian parliament. If we are to believe Western and Israeli media, this soft-spoken scholar is a terrorist, quick to send young fanatics on bombing missions. EU governments were quick to adopt the terrorist labelsome knowing that to do otherwise would bring heavy pressure from the U.S. and Israel, others simply preferring to accept the U.S./Israeli labels slapped on Hamas. However, a number of less narrow-minded European NGOsfrom such countries as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Germany and Francehave invited Dr. Al Bardawil to visit them, explain Hamas vision and policies, and allow listeners to make their own judgments.
Dr. Salah Al Bardawil: Hamas’ Voice to Europe
