DOHA – A thousand miles from the
Gaza Strip, the lobby of a
luxury hotel in Doha, the capital of Qatar, was a comfortable place to be a
Palestinian official Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
People gathered around Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian
ambassador to Britain, to shake hands, take pictures and thank him for speaking
out for the Palestinians throughout the war in Gaza.
Zomlot was attending the Doha Forum, an international
conference that Qatar hosts each year to gather officials, academics and
journalists from around the Middle East and beyond to discuss hot topics in the
region.
While this year’s edition, under the banner “
Diplomacy, Dialogue and Diversity,” included sessions on green energy and artificial
intelligence, much of the conversation in the official meetings and around the
coffee bars gravitated to the war in Gaza, with a strongly pro-Palestinian
perspective.
In the opening session, attended by Qatar’s monarch, Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned of the
“risk of collapse of the humanitarian system” in Gaza and renewed his call for
a cease-fire. The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad
Shtayyeh, said that the United States should be held responsible for deadly
Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have killed more than 17,000 people.
“There are no grown-ups and there is no room, so the region feels almost left alone.”
At a session about the future of Palestinian political
leadership, panelists spoke of Palestinian resistance against Israel as an
“anticolonial project,” accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and
referred to Israeli “apartheid” in the occupied West Bank — views that were
shared by many of the events’ attendees, but would likely not get much airtime
at similar events in the United States or Europe, where support for Israel
remains strong.
In an interview, Zomlot said that the intensity of the war
in Gaza had made the Palestinian issue more central to this year’s event. That
was, he said, “because of the intensity and because of the feeling that there
is a global failure to enforce some sort of stability, to bring everybody to
some sanity, to bring grown-ups into the room.”
Now, he said, “There are no grown-ups and there is no room,
so the region feels almost left alone.”
The event’s guest list, which included officials from around
the Middle East and elsewhere, reflects both tiny Qatar’s ambitions to be a
global player and its efforts to maintain good relations with a wide range of
countries and political movements, including those that are at war with each
other.
Qatar mediated talks between Israel and Hamas that resulted
in a week’s worth of cease-fires and the exchange of 105 detainees held by
Hamas for 240 Palestinian hostages from Israeli jails before the truce
collapsed on December 1.
because of the intensity and because of the feeling that there is a global failure to enforce some sort of stability, to bring everybody to some sanity, to bring grown-ups into the room.”
Although Hamas maintains an office in Qatar, officials from
the movement were not evident at the conference. The only Israeli citizen on
the official speakers’ list was Sami Abu Shehadeh, a Palestinian and former
member of the Israeli parliament.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, addressed the
event virtually, defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accusing the United
States and its allies of hypocrisy about human rights.
“Is there a single place where the United States intervened
with military force where life has become better?” he asked. “I think you know
the answer.”
Many of the speakers at the conference blasted the United
States for its military support for Israel and for using its veto on the U.N.
Security Council to block a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in
Gaza on Friday.
“Is there a single place where the United States intervened with military force where life has become better?” he asked. “I think you know the answer.”
A number of Biden administration officials attended the
event, but generally kept a low profile. Only one was scheduled to speak, at a
session about Yemen that was by invitation only.
But on Sunday afternoon, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took
the stage and spoke out in support of Israel.
He criticized the speakers in the event’s opening session
for not talking more about the violence committed by Palestinian resitance
fighters during the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel.
He said that a bright future for the Palestinians would
require a new Palestinian Authority, accusing its current leaders of
corruption. “I wouldn’t give 15 cents to this crowd,” he said. The authority
administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and U.S. officials have
said it should have a role in Gaza if Hamas is defeated.
Graham voiced unwavering support for Israel from U.S.
lawmakers.
“Congress will stand with Israel until they do what they
need to do,” he said.
This article
originally appeared in The New York Times.
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