Hanan Ashrawi's hardline views are not worthy of this peace prize

Awarding a peace prize to someone with Ashrawi's track record is a de facto endorsement of her hardline views. It has everything to do with politics, and nothing to do with peace. That is why the Jewish community - not some lobby group - is opposed to any attempt to gloss over her uncompromising pronouncements and legitimise her views.

Hysterical references to "the power of the Jewish lobby" are merely crude attempts to deflect attention away from the cold hard facts of Ashrawi's public record.

No one objects to Carr publicly meeting Ashrawi and exchanging points of view. But presenting her with a peace prize makes an altogether different statement - an untenable one on the facts. Other prizes for Middle East peace-making have carefully avoided being politicised by granting the award jointly to an Israeli and an Arab.

Sydney's Lord Mayor, Lucy Turnbull, has shown rare moral fibre in withdrawing the city's support for this year's prize. Her letter to the Peace Foundation contains a measured and clear exposition of why Ashrawi is an unsuitable choice for a peace prize. Turnbull's stand is being quietly applauded not only by the Jewish community but by everyone who yearns for a permanent settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict based on there being a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, living together in dignity and peace.