Ramallah Mayor: Christian, Female and Backed by Hamas

Janet Michael is exceptionally nonchalant about being elected mayor as a Christian in an Islamic city and as a female in a male-dominated society. Nevertheless, without any political experience under her belt, Michael was elected mayor of Ramallah, the first female to ever hold the post. 

Barely noticed by the rest of the world, Michael, 61, slipped into office on Dec. 29 when she was chosen as the city leader, partly thanks to backing from an unlikely ally: the Islamic terror group turned political party, Hamas.

And Michael is similarly unconcerned about the future for Christians in the city with Hamas running the parliament. “I don’t think there will be any difficulties,” she told said. “I think the people here are a little bit open.”

The 15-person city council, including three Hamas members, chose Michael to lead the city. Although she ran on an independent ticket, she has been associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical PLO faction. But she maintains that city work does not take sides.

“Here in the municipality our work is not about politics; we give services to people,” Michael said. “We’ve lived all our lives with Muslims. They are our neighbors and friends.”

The backing of Christians by Hamas isn’t new—the organization backed a Christian legislator in Gaza for the January parliamentary elections. And a Palestinian woman obtaining a prominent role also isn’t new: Hanan Ashrawi is known as one of the most articulate Palestinian spokespersons and appears on international television regularly.

But unlike Ashrawi, Michael is not known outside of the Palestinian territories. She is a retired headmistress of a girls’ school in Ramallah and has now set her sights on the city in which she was born and raised.

“I found that following my retirement as headmistress, I can do this job and I’d like this city to be better than it is,” she said. And how did she get elected with no experience in the political arena? “The city is not that big and I’m known in the city.”

Born and raised in Ramallah in a Greek Orthodox family, Michael earned her teaching degree at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon and has been a principal and science teacher since 1975 in Ramallah.

She says her priorities in office are to give the municipality a new face; to provide good services to the people; to improve the local economy and to look for outside investors for the city.

Michael insists that Ramallah and the Palestinian people in general are liberal compared to other Arab nations, but they rebelled against international castigation of Hamas. “I think the world helped Hamas win, by talking about them,” Michael said. “They had a slogan: ‘Israel says no, America says no. What are you going to say?’”

Ten percent of the Ramallah population is Christian. Michael said that the status of Christians would remain relatively unchanged under a Hamas-led parliament.

“We Christians wear normal clothes. Hamas maybe won’t like this, or girls to go to parties, and dancing. Restaurants are scared [to sell alcohol], that’s why people are scared of Hamas,” she said. “Anyway, we wait and see—we can’t say now, maybe in a year. I don’t think they’re that bad.”

The Two Faces of Palestinians Christians: In the territories, Palestinian Christians are comprised of traditional Orthodox or Catholics and more recently, charismatic born again Christians, many of them Muslim converts to Christianity. Traditional Christians tend to live in general peace with Muslims while the born again Christians are experiencing major persecution.