“The Future of the Palestinian National Project”, a two-day academic symposium hosted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies on November 14-15, 2015 in Doha, will build on renewed interest in the Palestinian national program to examine closely the choices which face the Palestinian people in the midst of a complex and unfavorable set of regional circumstances. The proceedings are given added urgency by the groundswell of public rage among the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, born of their disillusionment with an unending and futile peace process which has failed to secure their aspirations for self-determination.

The meeting, which will be addressed by a group of scholars known for their interest in and contribution to the study of Palestine and the Palestinians, forms the second link in a chain of ACRPS events dedicated to the Palestinian cause. Despite developments which have come to take shape since the first such ACRPS meeting in December of 2013—including the formation of a Palestinian unity government—the Palestinians are no closer to the realization of their aims. While the Palestinian Diaspora remains disenfranchised, the Palestinian National Authority is left to struggle for its very survival within increasingly constrained parameters and Palestinian national resistance has become an inescapable imperative in order to secure their very existence. Ultimately, participants at the meeting will help articulate a vision for the future trajectory of the Palestinian national project.

Further details of the event, which will be open to the public at the Kempinski Marsa Malaz Hotel (The Pearl-Qatar)^*, can be found in the background paper and on the event page. The meeting timetable and list of participants' biographies is now also available (10 November 2015).

NB: Simultaneous translation of the Arabic lectures into English will be available throughout the meeting.  

Correction: an earlier version of this announcement gave the venue as the Ritz-Carlton.