Hamas Appoints First Spokeswoman

It’s an exciting week for 23 year-old Isra al-Mudallal, former correspondent for Iran’s English-language Press TV Channel. She just started her new job as the first English-language and woman (they’re going all out) spokesperson for the Hamas, the face of a new wave in the organization as it gears up to more fruitfully engage with Western media and discourse. She doesn’t claim any political affiliation, not even with Hamas, insisting on a more humanitarian approach to Palestinian relations:

“I will make the issues more human, and even if [Palestinian] officials do not understand this language, I know Western people will…The West does not understand religious discourse the same way they do human discourse.”

Mudallal spent part of her life and was educated in the UK. She is divorced and has a four year old daughter. And she is learning Hebrew in order to understand and potentially talk with Israeli media (with official permission, of course). Her appointment seems to be a progressive step for the group largely viewed as a terrorist organization.