A “National Conference for Palestine” hosted by Doha sparked anger from the side of the Palestinian Authority and its supporters, who accused the organizers and hosts of attempting to undermine the PLO.
The event, convened in mid-February, 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 Palestinian Authority, with detractors challenging its very foundations, questioning Qatar's role as host, and claiming the event was a political platform for “specific Palestinian factions.” Critics also tried to blame the conference of having ‘abandoned armed resistance’ and compromised the vision of historical Palestine, while others suggested the entire proceedings were subtly orchestrated by Azmi Bishara, an Israeli Arab politician who found asylum in Qatar after being accused of espionage for Hezbollah, while 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, highlighting 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, former advisor to Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh, Ahmed Al-Azem, and even a Fatah terrorist, Fakhri Al-Barghouthi, 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 and designated 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, Ziad Elaloul, the spokesperson of Hamas-affiliated PCPA, and Osama Abuirshaid, who was related to the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation in the US, sat next to each other. Additionally, Tarek Hammoud, head of the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Return Centre, 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 saw support for terror, as PFLP founder Salah Salah sent a prerecorded message, and as 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 wishing they would be present at the conference once they ‘achieve freedom.’
An anti-Oslo venture
Organizers of the conference claimed on their website that the PLO has been “marginalized since the Oslo Accords,” arguing that the Palestinian Authority, 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 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.”
In the context of Hamas, the conference’s website implicitly refers to the notion that the terrorist group 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 highlighted that the conference “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.”
Organizers further stressed that the goal of the conference is not to propose specific solutions to the Palestinian cause, or to discuss the one-state or two-state solution; but to create a “unified leadership,” adding: “there is no meaning to any negotiations before defeating the occupation and getting rid of the apartheid system that resulted from Israeli settler colonialism.”
Despite the attempt to paint it as a mere call for a democratic reform within the PLO, Palestinian Authority supporters expressed their anger at its convening, deeming it a ‘conference of betrayal’, and publishing caricatures and opinion pieces denouncing it, with reports claiming that the PA had barred over thirty 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.”