The National Conference for Palestine in Doha, Qatar, in mid-February angered the Palestinian Authority and its supporters, who accused the organizers and hosts of attempting to undermine the PLO.
The event portrayed itself as an “initiative launched by a group of prominent and influential Palestinian figures and activists” from across the globe, centering around “rebuilding the PLO with inclusive democratic foundations, and pressing for the formation of a unified Palestinian leadership.”
Despite this, the conference became a lightning rod for political criticism from the PA, with detractors challenging its very foundations, questioning Qatar’s role as host, and claiming the event was a political platform for “specific Palestinian factions.”
Some critics said the conference had “abandoned armed resistance” and compromised the vision of historical Palestine. Others suggested the entire proceedings were subtly orchestrated by former MK Azmi Bishara, an Arab Israeli politician who found asylum in Qatar after being accused of espionage for Hezbollah. Opposing parties within Palestinian society accused him of being a collaborator with the Mossad.
Despite being held in Qatar, where Hamas’s leadership has been hosted for the past decade or so, the conference clearly attempted to stray away from a direct Hamas affiliation. It highlighted non-Hamas figures, such as Mustafa Barghouti, a nonpartisan Palestinian politician who leads the National Palestinian Initiative.
The conference also promoted vocoders belonging to the more militant sect of Fatah, such as Moein Al-Taher, a writer and researcher; Ahmed Al-Azem, who was an adviser to former PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh; and even Fakhri Al-Barghouthi, a Fatah terrorist who sent a pre-recorded video to the conference.
However, subtle undertones of the Hamas-affiliated Islamist tendency were notable. For instance, Adnan Hmeidan, a member of the Hamas-affiliated Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) was mentioned as a member of the steering committee of the conference.
Likewise, in the first row of the opening ceremony, PCPA spokesperson Ziad Elaloul sat next to Osama Abuirshaid of the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation in the US.
Furthermore, Tarek Hammoud, head of the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Return Center, was also a speaker. Finally, two of the main outlets that streamed the conference were Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Filasteen Al-Youm, alongside Qatari outlets – further indicating the general ambience.
The conference also indicated support for terrorism, as PFLP founder Salah Salah sent a prerecorded message, and a speaker in the opening ceremony commended Palestinian terrorists to the sound of roaring ovations.
The list included imprisoned Al-Qassam commanders from the West Bank, Ibrahim Hamed and Abbas Sayyed, as well as PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat and terrorist Marwan Barghouti, wishing for their “fast release” and that they would be present at the conference once they “achieve freedom.”
An anti-Oslo venture
The PLO has been “marginalized since the Oslo Accords,” the organizers of the conference said on their website, adding that the PA, which took over the PLO, is not “free to choose under the Israeli occupation,” and denouncing “the emergence of a network of interests linking the Israeli occupation with circles in the Palestinian Authority.”
They also openly rejected what they deemed was an attempt to “impose a distorted version of the Oslo Accords to manage the Gaza Strip, based on one and only premise, which is Israeli security.”
The conference’s website implicitly referred to the notion that Hamas should be credited with a larger role within the PLO, claiming that the organization must represent “the main political forces active in the Palestinian arena, including the resistance [i.e., Hamas].”
Participants also said the conference had “affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to struggle and resist in all forms, in accordance with the provisions of international law, to ensure the success of the Palestinians in overthrowing the project of settler colonialism, ending the occupation, and the apartheid system.”
The organizers stressed that the goal of the conference was not to propose specific solutions to the Palestinian cause, or to discuss the one-state or two-state solution, but rather to create a “unified leadership.”
“There is no meaning to any negotiations before defeating the occupation and getting rid of the apartheid system that resulted from Israeli settler colonialism,” they added.
Despite the attempt to paint it as a mere call for a democratic reform within the PLO, supporters of the PA expressed their anger at its convening, deeming it a “conference of betrayal,” and publishing caricatures and opinion pieces denouncing it. Some reports claimed that the PA had barred more than 30 participants from traveling to Doha to take part in the event.
One blogger wrote: “The conference at the American military base in Zionist Qatar... All those who participated in this conference are agents, spies and mercenaries who only represent themselves... Every agent and mercenary who left the West Bank for Qatar must be punished.”