Brookings is having a conference for the 11th annual US-Islamic World Forum in Doha next week. I see some excellent speakers. Issandr El Amrani is on one panel; and there are a number of Palestinians on a Palestine panel on June 10, including speakers who are left of center.
My question: Has Brookings ever assembled five Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans on a panel in Washington? Without needing to balance them with Israelis or their mouthpieces? I think the answer is, No. (I emailed Brookings with this surmise; have received no response today.)
Defining the Future: Palestinian Voices
SPEAKERS:
• Khaled Elgindy (Moderator), Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution
• Mustafa Barghouthi, General Secretary, Palestinian National Initiative
• Mohammed S. Dajani Al Daoudi, Head of American Studies Program, Al-Quds University
• Omar Shaban, Founder, PalThink for Strategic Studies
• Husam Zomlot, Deputy Commissioner for Political Affairs and Official Spokesman, Fatah Commission for International Affairs
More on the panel here:
While news stories about the Palestinian territories focus almost exclusively on the negotiations with Israel, there is a generational earthquake underway inside the territories that will reshape their society, economics and politics. This panel will offer a variety of Palestinian perspectives on immediate priorities for Palestinian society, prospects for political unity and stability and the role Palestinians envision for their friends and allies in bringing about positive political change and independent statehood.
hooray!
Qatar has also pledged to help the Palestinians financially.
“GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday called Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in order the possibility of an upcoming visit to Qatar after the Qatari emir told him the country was committed to financially helping Palestine earlier in the day.
Haniyeh spoke with Qatari Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani earlier on Thursday, and the leader said that the small Persian Gulf state is committed to supporting the Palestinian unity government and to helping pay the salaries of its employees. ”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=702626
Seems that Qatar is continuing to break away from the others..
and
“BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs in cooperation with the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the General Union of Palestinian Communities in Europe on Friday launched an international conference in Budapest in support of prisoners in Israeli jails.
Lawyer Fadwa Barghothi, Deputy minister Issa Qaraqe, undersecretary of the ministry of prisoner affairs Ziad Abu Ein, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society Qaddura Fares, the Palestinian ambassador in Hungary, and various specialists in international law will participate in the conference, organizers said.
Mazen al-Rumhi, head of the General Union of Palestinian Communities in Europe, told Ma’an that the conference will last 3 days”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=702693
Breaking the silence about Israeli occupation.
The only thing broken so far is the apologists’ record of
DanielDenial…Well… fortunately the Ozzies are leading the way… Australia refuses to call East Jerusalem ‘occupied’.
The great Palestinian, Omar Shaban (Fu** Canada Day, I’m ashamed to be Canadian” with a couple of articles on MW that gives a different perspective of Palestinians is resurfacing again, this time at the Brookings. He’s working his way up in the world, maybe by next February, he’d be invited to Herzliya.
A couple of years back, Brooking’s Doha office director, Salman Shaikh, was a speaker at the annual Zionist gathering at Herzliya explaining to the vultures all about the “Arab Spring” uprisings everywhere and what to make of them, as if they needed some help from the inside to understand it. But Shaikh wasn’t there alone to teach the Zionists on how to handle themselves, Prince Hassan of Jordan delivered the opening speech of the conference (via video); Saeb Erekat was also there so were a dozen other Palestinians. Herzliya is the annual jamboree where innovative ways of oppressing Palestinians are discussed.
Brookings offering a platform to Palestinians will earn it some points against all the normalization it does with Israel.