Palestinians from 28 countries participate in the National Dialogue Forum in Istanbul news

Istanbul- The activities of the Third Palestinian National Dialogue Forum, organized by the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, began this Friday morning under the slogan “Unity of the Palestinian position in the face of genocide and displacement“, with wide participation from various Palestinian figures, in addition to academics and media professionals from 28 countries, over the course of two days in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

The conference comes at a very important time for the Palestinian issue, in light of what Gaza is witnessing of the repercussions of the Israeli aggression that left unprecedented humanitarian tragedies, and the delicate political stage that the issue is experiencing after the ceasefire agreement, which forces the Palestinians to reformulate their priorities, put their internal house in order, and capitalize on the unprecedented wave of regional and international solidarity.

The opening session of the forum witnessed political discussions and analyzes that confirmed that the current moment in the life of the Palestinian issue requires a unified national leadership, and a comprehensive project that brings together the Palestinian interior and exterior, and confronts projects of displacement, liquidation, and annexation of Palestinian lands, in a way that ensures the continuity of resistance as a strategic option in the face of the occupation.

The importance of the Palestinian national dialogue

In his opening speech, the head of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, Munir Shafiq, stressed that confronting the challenges surrounding the Palestinian issue requires national unity, stressing that “the transition from the phase of war to quasi-war in Gaza carries grave risks, and that there are attempts to pass the occupation’s plans through the gate of the Trump plan” (the plan on the basis of which a ceasefire was reached between the resistance and the Israeli occupation, and was supported by US President Donald Trump).

Shafiq added in his speech that supporting the Palestinian resistance is a national duty to preserve the liberation project, and that thwarting plans to liquidate the issue will only be achieved “with the unity of the Palestinian decision and position.”

As for the Acting Secretary-General of the Popular Congress, Hisham Abu Mahfouz, he called for confronting attempts to displace the Palestinians and preventing the imposition of international guardianship over Gaza, warning that “the pressure we are witnessing to silence the resistance requires full support for it and insistence on its continuation.”

Abu Mahfouz stressed the need for meetings of Palestinian figures to come up with unified national decisions, ensuring the involvement of the Palestinian people in decision-making, especially in the challenges that the Palestinian House must overcome in order to reach national alignment, which is a primary goal of this forum.

In statements to Al Jazeera Net, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, considered that the Palestinians are fighting a “battle for survival and defense of rights,” stressing that the importance of this conference lies in answering the main challenges facing the Palestinian people. The most important of which is how to strengthen the steadfastness and survival of the Palestinian people on their land while they face an existential threat, an unprecedented threat of the ethnic cleansing plot, not only in the Gaza Strip but in the West Bank as well.

Challenges of the Palestinian issue

Al-Barghouti added that there are many challenges facing the Palestinian cause, including how do we strengthen the steadfastness of our people in Gaza after they have suffered so much? How do we strengthen the steadfastness and survival of our people in the West Bank? How do we develop a joint strategic national vision to stand up to the dangerous plans against our people? How do we protect, reinforce and strengthen the international solidarity movement that is now under attack, and transform it into a material force? Getting to the fundamental question: How do we change the balance of power in favor of the Palestinian people?

In one of the forum’s sessions, entitled “The Arab, Islamic and International Position and its Impact on the Future of the Palestinian Issue,” Al-Sharq Forum Chairman Wadah Khanfar said that Israel has entered a stage of “existential anxiety” with the international system that founded it being fractured, stressing that Palestinian resistance was a decisive factor in this transformation.

Khanfar added that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation dealt a blow to the path of Arab-Israeli normalization, as “its fruits became less valuable,” stressing that what happened in Gaza will generate a regional explosion that will harm the occupation, calling on the Palestinians to formulate a national project that unites the interior and exterior and makes the Palestinian issue a model for the advancement of peoples.

As for the director of the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, political analyst Oraib Rantawi, he believed that this edition of the forum is the most important in terms of the level of participation and the diversity of representation of the Palestinian diaspora, and the significance of its timing after the ceasefire in Gaza.

In statements to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Rantawi indicated that the forum may produce practical results in two tracks:

1. Capitalizing on the international momentum achieved by the Palestinian issue after the defeat of the Israeli narrative.
2. Rearranging the internal Palestinian home by organizing the work of the communities, and forming a broad national front to recover the PLO from stagnation and kidnapping.

Gaza war

Member of the Palestinian National Council and head of the Palestinian Association in El Salvador, Semaan Khoury, said that the forum is an opportunity to formulate a unified Palestinian leadership after the absence of national guidance during the years of genocide in Gaza and the escalation of attacks in the West Bank. He stressed that the current moment represents a historic opportunity to gather the Palestinian voice on the complete liberation project, benefiting from the global support that the resistance received after its steadfastness in the face of the Israeli destruction machine in Gaza.

Khoury pointed out – in statements to Al Jazeera Net – that Latin America witnessed heroic positions from its leaders towards the Palestinian issue, citing the position of its leaders, indicating that some of them cut ties with Israel, and prevented the import of coal and the purchase of weapons from it, in addition to the positions of a number of countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Brazil, and the efforts of the Palestinian community in Chile to drag the leaders of the occupation to international courts.

Results and aspirations

For his part, the Palestinian writer Muhammad Amr explained that the official Palestinian House showed cracks during the war on Gaza, and that the Palestinian National Dialogue Forum in its third session seeks to move the “stagnant waters” towards a national vision that includes the issues of Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the occupied interior.

In his statements to Al Jazeera Net, the Palestinian writer confirmed that this forum will also focus on the issue of prisoners and violations in the West Bank, and on the continuation of the pace of international solidarity with the Palestinians, and will seek to come up with practical steps to strengthen national unity, consolidate coordination between communities, invest in international transformations in favor of the Palestinian cause, and achieve a resistance project that leads to liberation.

It is noteworthy that the work of the Third Palestinian National Dialogue Forum, organized by the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, will last two days, under the slogan focusing on strengthening national unity and supporting the Palestinian cause in light of the current challenges, and will include 7 discussion sessions, in the presence of more than 220 participants, with the aim of launching implementable initiatives on the ground, and in a way that reflects the unified Palestinian popular position towards the current events.