Bruno Kreisky Foundation

for Human Rights

Raymonda Tawil (Palestine)

Raymonda Hawa-Tawil is a Palestinian writer and journalist who died in 1940
Raymonda Hawa Tawil is a Palestinian author and journalist. She was born in 1940 in Akko, in what was then Palestine.

Raymonda Tawil is considered a moderate nationalist and has repeatedly come under pressure from the Israeli authorities for her work. Their daughter Suha was the wife of Yasser Arafat.
Due to her personal efforts at independence, and political activity she has the nickname "the lioness of Nablus." In 1978, Raymonda Hawa Tawil opened a Palestinian news agency in Jerusalem that published the newspaper „Al Awda“ („the return“). In her political engagement and professional activity as a Palestinian journalist, she fights for the freedom of Palestinians and promotes the emancipation of Arab women. Due to her activities as a journalist, the Israeli police imprisoned her for several months. She was under house arrest, but was also taken into custody several times. The intervention of Jean Paul Sartre and Nahm Goldmann, the president of the Zionist World Congress, led to her release. She used this experience to write her book „My Prison Has Many Walls“ that was published in the late seventies. Tawil is considered a moderate nationalist and has been pressured by the Israel authorities for her work. Her daughter Suda was also Yassir Arafat’s wife. Raymonda Tawil won the Bruno Kreisky award for her advocacy of dialogue and reconciliation between the two peoples.

More:
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/arafats-frau-suha_aid_88269.html