RAMALLAH, October 27, 2016 (WAFA) - Witness Center for Citizen’s Rights and Social Development Wednesday organized a seminar titled “the impact of regional conflicts in the Middle East on the Palestinian cause” as part of the center’s initiative “100 Thinkers in Palestine”.

The initiative was launched in order to attract the most prominent thinkers in the world to discuss the Palestinian cause and share new ideas and vision of a solution. It also comes at a time when the world is increasingly distracted with major issues such as economic crisis, US elections, Syrian crisis and the immigration crisis in Europe.

Thomas Friedman, an American journalist and a columnist for The New York Times who has extensively written about the Palestinian-Israeli question, chose to focus on what Palestinians should be doing amid what he called their increasing isolation.

He suggested that Palestinians are suffering an unprecedented state of isolation due to the world’s occupation with their own calamity.

“Palestinians are home alone. They have never been more home alone. The EU is busy with its immigration crisis and the US is busy with the economic crisis. This reality should inform the strategy adopted by Palestinians”.

Friedman said Palestinians’ strategy should focus on three ideas declaring an independent state on the 1967 borders and focusing on capacity building and improving the state’s institutions, an approach that would help Palestinians achieve their goal.

Meanwhile, Nabil Amr, former information minister in the Palestinian National Authority and ambassador to Egypt, spoke about the two-state solution and how difficult it is to achieve it because of the profound differences in interpreting its definition by the involved parties.

“No one in the world, especially the countries with influence such as the US and the EU lets say the Quartet. Non has a clear and detailed description of the meaning of the two state solution.”

He explained that the world continues to say that a two-state solution is the answer. They say its shape could be determined at the negotiations’ table, but its not enough.

“They want a state for Palestinians that has no substance, subordinate to Israel from political, economic and cultural aspects. This cannot happen.”

The two speakers agreed on most points, especially the need to focus on investing more in education, institution building, providing more opportunities to the Palestinian youth and developing an atmosphere or trust.

Amr explained that Palestinians were wrong when they associated negotiations with development, saying that Palestinians should continue to develop their country even with the stalled negotiations. “We were wrong in connecting our country’s development to negotiations.”

Both Friedman and Amr said that what Palestinians now need is to achieve democracy and a long awaited reconciliation.

The audience was later given the chance to ask Friedman and Amr questions which included topics concerning the French initiative, US elections, the Oslo Accords and the futility of capacity building under the ongoing Israeli occupation.

Friedman spoke about an increasing trust gap in both Palestine and the US and how important it is to fill the gap in order to achieve development.

He also discussed the need to include the youth in the political process, which would eventually overcome the lack of trust in the government and overcome the Israeli occupation’s effect, which is one of the reasons of the broken trust.  

Over 40 Palestinian and foreign journalists, ambassadors, officials and youth interested in the political process attended the event and expressed their satisfaction with the debate.

One participant said the initiative would help stir the standing water and increase Palestinian youth’s awareness of a larger debate and a bigger perspective.

“The event would eventually help bring the Palestinian cause back into the spotlight after being neglected for some time now due to world’s attention being shifted to other major crisis.”

M.H