​On September 10, 2011 the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies held a seminar entitled “The Palestinian September: Between the Oslo Track and Reverting to International Institutions”. In tandem with the eighteenth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Principles (the Oslo Accords) between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Israeli government, the event took place a mere ten days before  the Palestinian Authority's official bid for full membership of the United Nations  as the State of Palestine, which was to have as recognized borders those territories seized by the Israelis following the 1967 Six Day War. Notably, this would have included East Jerusalem as the putative capital of a Palestinian state.

The seminar included two sessions as follows:

Session One: The legal significance of resorting to the United Nations, and Arab and wider global reactions to this.

- Moderated by Mr. Ali Dufairi

Speakers:

  • Dr. Anis Fawzi al-Qasim: Palestinian Efforts to Join the United Nations (Arabic)
  • Dr. Daoud Khairallah: UN Membership for a Palestinian State: Legal and Political Ramifications (English)
  • Dr. Kamal al-Astal: Legal and Political Ramifications of the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority's bid to join the United Nations Recognition in September of 2011 (Arabic) 

Session Two: Political Ramifications: From bi-lateral negotiations to international rulings. What changes?

- Moderated by Dr. Basem Sarhan

Speakers:

  • Dr. Alain Gresh: The Strategic Crisis of the Palestinians’ National Movement and the UN Bid (English)
  • Dr. Sari Hanafi: The September bid for Palestinian Statehood: The Role of the PLO in the Palestinian Diaspora and the Right of Return (Arabic)
  • Dr. Mahmoud Muhareb: Israel and the Palestinian bid for United Nations Recognition (Arabic)
  • Dr. Ala Bayyumi: The Israeli Lobby and Palestinian Efforts to Secure International Recognition (Arabic)