The progress of the peace process in the Middle East has stalled, but Palestinians will be repatriated, Dr. Hanan M. Ashrawi, Palestinian minister of education, told a crowd of at least 400 in Sever Hall last night.

The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations invited Ashrawi to speak on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. In her talk, she explained the meaning of this anniversary for Palestinians in the context of an analysis of the Middle East peace process.

Referring to the anniversary of "Al-Nakbeh," which translates as "the Palestinian catastrophe," Ashrawi told the audience, "We are no longer the faceless, nameless Palestinians."

Representatives of Arab student associations from Harvard and nearby schools joined members of Jewish campus organizations, graduate school students and interested residents in attending Ashrawi's address.

Audience member Sam L. Sternin '01 attributed the turnout, which far exceeded the Harvard Foundation's estimate of 150 people, to Ashrawi's prominence within the Palestinian Authority.

"She's 'Education Minister,' but she's not really just that," Sternin said. "She's a lot more."

In her speech, Ashrawi focused on the legacy of Palestinian displacement and the prospects for peace in the region.

"Fifty years ago, the course of history was distorted...in order to evict an ancient nation," Ashrawi said. "It was the beginning of one of the most shameful chapters in history."

She stressed the tendency of world leaders to "exclude" Palestinians from their "consciousness."

"Somehow the world has never come to recognize our existence," Ashrawi said.

She offered a grim characterization of the situation in Israel today, blaming both the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and American diplomats for the stalled progress of peace negotiations since the 1993 Oslo Accords.

"Everybody watched the handshake on the White House lawn," said Ashrawi--referring to the 1993 meeting between Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin--"and they assumed there was peace."

She said the hostility of the Netanyahu administration has led to "a situation of incongruence" in which the Palestinian Authority finds itself dealing with an "anti-peace government."

Ashrawi said that while the Palestinian Authority favors reconciliation, the pro-peace contingent in Israel lies outside the current regime.

The relations between her government andNetanyahu's have deteriorated to the point wherethey "don't speak the same language," she said.

Ashrawi drew an ovation and loud applause fromPalestinians and Palestinian sympathizers in theaudience when she raised the possibility of thedeclaration of a "non-sectarian, secular,democratic Palestinian state" in the future.