Profile : Lights, Camera and Legitimacy: The Sudden Rise of a Palestinian : * Last year at this time, Hanan Ashrawi was virtually unknown to the outside world. Now, after her success at the Mideast peace talks, she’s probably the world’s second-most widely known Palestinian.

The American television crew took over Hanan Ashrawi’s living room and set up their lights, camera and microphones in what amounted to the ultimate recognition of the Palestinian spokeswoman’s rise to the status of media superstar: They videotaped her being interviewed by other reporters.

“News about making news,” commented Ashrawi with characteristic sharp wit. “Perhaps another crew will come in to take pictures of this crew taking pictures of you reporters. It could go on forever.”

Hanan Ashrawi, virtually unknown to the outside world no more than nine months ago, not too familiar even to the Palestinian community at large, is a meteoric phenomenon. Next to Yasser Arafat, she is perhaps the world’s best known Palestinian. But where Arafat earned his notoriety in the world of terrorism and wild rhetoric as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ashrawi has won hers with a subdued eloquence and moderation uncommon in the long and turbulent night of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For the moment, at least, the image of the mild speaking academic has replaced the stubble-chinned Arafat.

As official spokesperson of the Palestinian negotiating team at the Middle East peace talks, set to resume today in Washington, she has received raves even from her competition, the Israelis, who have mounted their own elaborate media campaign. At home, even television viewers in remote villages appreciated her way with words, a much admired skill in Palestinian culture.

Shatra is the most common Arabic street description of her. “Smart.”

Ashrawi’s prominence speaks loads about the coronation powers of global television. And it has caused a stir in Palestinian political circles where many have long thought that only spectacular acts of violence attract the world’s attention. Also, Ashrawi, a dean at a West Bank university and comparative literature professor, lacks the usual qualifications that local Palestinians associate with leadership--deep connections with the PLO, intense activism (preferably coupled with a jail term or two), a long family history in the “struggle.” It also helps to be a man.

And in the envy-filled world of Palestinian politics, the question is whispered: Who is Hanan Ashrawi to take on such a central role?

“Hanan is entirely a creature of television, and this is entirely new for us,” said Palestinian political theorist Mahdi Abdul-Hadi.

Ashrawi flicks her ever handy cigarette at questions about her revolutionary credentials. “No one will put Hanan Ashrawi on the defensive,” she said in her customary measured tones. “I don’t think I have to put my credentials on the table. Those who know, know I have deep rooted ties to the Palestinian national struggle. If my participation is perceived or not, that’s another thing.”

She traces her political awakening to her ‘60s student days at the American University of Beirut, a traditional greenhouse of Arab nationalism, but she also spent three years preparing a Ph.D. in medieval literature at the University of Virginia, not a hotbed of Arab politics.

At the beginning of the Arab uprising four years ago, Ashrawi organized underground classes for students at Birzeit University, which the Israeli army closed down. Yet she never was a leading organizer of the revolt. Her appointment naming her to the Palestinian negotiating team thus created enough controversy that another woman--the head of a PLO-affiliated women’s group--was added to douse protest.

In any case, Ashrawi indicates that she has the blessing of the PLO, which is generally crucial to acceptance within the fragmented Palestinian political landscape. “I have legitimacy stemming from the leadership outside,” she said using a common euphemism for the outlawed PLO. “At certain phases, certain people with particular talents are needed.”

But she sidesteps any detailed discussion of her affiliations--if any--to the PLO. (Palestinians say she doesn’t belong to the organization.) “I don’t tell the press things I would not tell police investigators,” she said in one of her few canned statements.

Ashrawi rarely lapses into party-line cliches, and as the main author of the opening Palestinian speech at the first round of talks in Madrid in October, she offered a fresh framework to the Palestinian campaign for statehood by putting the Palestinian case in a passionate historical context.

“It is time for us to narrate our own story, to stand witness as advocates of a truth which has long lain buried in the consciousness and conscience of the world,” she wrote in the speech delivered by negotiator Haidar Abdel-Shafi (who saw the text only half an hour before delivery). “We have scaled the walls of fear and reticence, and we wish to speak out with the courage and integrity that our narrative and history deserve.”

Later on, the speech addressed the world community with an anxious appeal: “The people of Palestine look at you with a straightforward, direct gaze, seeking to touch your heart, for you have dared to stir up hopes that can not be abandoned.”

Ashrawi appeared at press conferences almost daily in Madrid, and the sight of her in the cavernous media hall always flushed flocks of cameramen from their hiding places. Her drawing power appeared undiminished as the Palestinian delegation arrived last week for what was scheduled to be Round 2 of the talks in Washington.

She made her TV debut on ABC’s “Nightline” program in April, 1988, when she debated Israeli officials about the Arab uprising then in full swing. Her deft performance earned her return engagements; journalists refer to her as “Night-line-friendly.”

Ashrawi is noted for her stamina at work and it was this reputation that attracted Faisal Husseini, the leader of the Palestinian delegation, in the months leading up to the talks when the Palestinians were negotiating their participation with Secretary of State James A. Baker III. Husseini relied on her to prepare position papers and express complex opinions to Baker in her flawless English. Husseini, who is associated with Arafat’s wing of the PLO, became her godfather. “Husseini trusts her and defends her from critics,” a Palestinian journalist said.

In Madrid, she played not only the role of spokeswoman but also engaged in talks with the Americans as well as with other Arab delegations. “I don’t think I slept for four nights,” she recalled. “Once I was writing something and my assistant had to keep nudging me along. ‘Stay awake. Just one more line.’ ”

Ashrawi, 45, was born in Ramallah, a university town 10 miles north of Jerusalem and lives there with her husband, Emile, a Jerusalemite, who makes a living taking photos for a United Nations refugee relief group. He also paints and sculpts and lately answers the phone a lot. They have two young daughters. “I don’t cook anymore. I hardly have time for anything,” Ashrawi lamented. “Some day I hope to return to academia.”

At the Middle East peace talks, Ashrawi said, the Palestinians are pressing for “transfer of authority” of institutions ranging from health to education. In addition, they want a freeze on construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

During the negotiating intermission after Madrid, she barnstormed the West Bank, explaining the Palestinian stand in Madrid and trying to dampen expectations of a quick breakthrough. Often she was greeted warmly. But at Birzeit, her home campus, the meeting was disrupted by Islamic nationalists who shouted Muslim slogans and tossed pamphlets warning against compromise with the Israelis.

The charge of “betraying” Islamic land is an especially grave one for Ashrawi, who is a Christian. “If we achieve compromise, then the fundamentalists will be weakened. If time goes on without a compromise, then the voices of reason will be submerged,” she predicted.

Submerged too, probably would be her voice, out of reach even of “Nightline.”

Biography Name: Hanan Ashrawi Position: Member of the Palestinian negotiating team at Madrid peace talks. Age: 45 Personal: Born in Ramallah. Educated at American University of Beirut and did graduate work at University of Virginia in medieval literature. Married to Emile Ashrawi, a photographer. They have two daughters. Quote: “It is time for us to narrate our own story, to stand witness as advocates of a truth which has long lain buried in the consciousness and conscience of the world.” (From a speech Ashrawi wrote for Haidar Abdel-Shafi, the Palestinian negotiator in Madrid.)