The Director General of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies Azmi Bishara emphasized during the opening lecture of the Annual Palestine Forum in Doha on Saturday the necessity of ensuring the sustainability of the ceasefire in Gaza. This, he stated, reflects the will of the entire Palestinian people.
He stressed the importance of moving toward reconstruction as the only path to strengthening resilience and preventing a large-scale displacement from Gaza if such an opportunity arises—a scenario the new U.S. administration appears to favour.
He pointed out that the second task is to prevent Israel from shedding the stigma of genocide, saying: “We hope that neither Arabs nor Palestinians assist Israel in escaping its predicament without achieving a just resolution to the Palestinian issue.”
Bishara noted that Israel failed to liberate hostages through force or to eliminate Hamas—a fact underscored by the surprising appearance of resistance fighters during prisoner exchanges amidst the rubble, as well as their resilience in the longest war Israel has waged. He added: “Gaza celebrated the ceasefire after negotiations that required legendary endurance, given that Israel’s main negotiation tool was lethal weaponry.”
Bishara described the Israeli desire to kill as lacking any rational explanation. He also highlighted that the West Bank is now paying the price for the extreme right-wing’s reluctant acceptance of the Gaza deal.
Bishara emphasized that the situation in Gaza is no longer as it was before, pointing out that the occupation was compelled to accept proposals tabled since early 2024—namely, to end the war, conduct a prisoner exchange, and implement a gradual withdrawal. However, Israel chose to prolong the war for political, partisan, and punitive reasons targeting Palestinians.
He stated: “Decision-makers in the occupying state felt shielded by unconditional U.S. support for Israel and the apparent Arab powerlessness. Consequently, they decided to starve Gaza, adopt a scorched-earth policy, and intensify settlement activities in the West Bank.”
Bishara stressed the urgent need for a unified Palestinian stance that presents the world with clear options: either pursue a just solution or perpetuate the current impasse. He lamented that such unity is currently absent, allowing Israel to manoeuvre internationally, regionally, and domestically among Palestinians, transforming its own embarrassment into a Palestinian crisis. He warned that Palestinians are being forced into a false choice between a locally managed administration—with Arab participation trusted by Israel under Israeli security oversight—or the continuation of catastrophe in Gaza, as if the choice were between the lesser of two evils.
He continued: “Those who hastily reject the Palestinian Support Committee, then express readiness to govern Gaza after a ceasefire outside of any Palestinian consensus, contribute to turning Israel’s crisis into a Palestinian one.”
He affirmed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) could return to administer Gaza with the consent of the resistance, which has expressed its willingness to accept an agreed-upon administration under the PA. He clarified that the resistance has no desire to join a Palestinian Cabinet, stating: “This alone can achieve some form of consensus rather than framing the return as defiance against the resistance, as though it were an investment in Israel’s war.”
The third session of the Annual Palestine Forum began this Saturday morning in Doha, running for three days, organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in collaboration with the Institute for Palestine Studies.
In his opening remarks, Tarek Mitri, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Palestine Studies, said: “We meet after the Gaza ceasefire agreement, for which the sister state of Qatar tirelessly worked. However, we are fully aware that fears remain in both Gaza and the West Bank, and Israeli aggression has not subsided.” He added: “We justifiably fear that what the U.S. President extracted from the Israeli government with one hand will be given back with the other, compounded by the overt American inclination to grant Israel a free hand in settlement activities and the subjugation of the West Bank through violence and oppression.”
Mitri argued that it is no longer possible, as in the past, to obscure the Palestinian people from the global view. Nor is it feasible to frame their cause as a local conflict that rulers can conveniently ignore.
