HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attending the opening of the Second Annual Conference of Strategic and Policy Studies Research Centers in the Arab world: The Cause of Palestine and the Future of the Palestinian National Movement. HH the Emir also attended a symposium addressed by President of the Tunisian Constituent Assembly Mustapha bin Jafar, former Jordanian Prime Minister Taher al-Masri, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories Richard Falk and Indian thinker Aijaz Ahmed.
The Palestinian cause should be further supported and brought into world focus again as the current regional events have overshadowed the Arab-Israeli dispute, speakers at a conference in Doha have said.
The 2nd conference organised by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) on “The Palestinian Cause and the Future of the Palestinian National Movement” opened at the Ritz-Carlton Doha yesterday.
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attended the opening ceremony yesterday evening.
Speakers at the inaugural session included President of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly Mustafa bin Jaafar, Jordanian former Prime Minister Taher al-Masri, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories Richard Falk and India based political theorist and intellectual Aijaz Ahmed.
The ceremony was also attended by HE Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi, Speaker of the Advisory Council, and a number of ministers, senior officials and guests.
Speakers affirmed that the future of the national Palestinian movement depended directly on the unity among the Palestinian people and national reconciliation among its different factions. They focused on the challenges involved and spoke about the attempts to marginalise the Palestinian people and their cause.
They also stressed that the conference mainly aimed at reviving the cause and putting it into the forefront of the world affairs.
Bin Jaafar said: “This issue lives in the conscience and hearts of all Tunisians in spite of the difficult times in our country.”
He also appreciated Qatar’s role in supporting “such a just cause, considering it a key issue for the Arab people”.
Al-Masri pointed out the religious importance of the Palestinian cause and said it was the land sacred for different religions. He also warned against the attempts of Israel to confer a Jewish identity on the land and its people, seeking to eradicate the foundations of all other religions there.
He indicated that America and the West favoured the Jewish state though it did not follow or submit to international laws, stressing that such a cause has come to be a platform of confrontation and clashes between the region and the West.
Falk stressed the pressing need to get the Palestinians out of their distress created by Israeli occupation.
More than 50 Palestinian, Arab and international politicians and around 60 representatives of the Arab and international media are taking part in the conference, which concludes tomorrow.