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The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies has announced the timetable for its Second Annual Conference of Arab Research Centers, the leading annual event bringing together centers of research, policy studies, and strategic analysis in the Arab region. More than 60 research centers are participating in this year’s conference “The Palestinian Cause and the Future of the Palestinian National Movement”. This year’s conference comes during a time when the world is witnessing a decline in interest in the Palestinian cause as a topic for research and media coverage. The conference program brings to the fore a wealth of research papers, with more than 50 presentations by leading researchers. The presentations cover a range of topics, such as the impact of Israeli colonialism and its policies upon Palestinian society and identity, transformations in Palestinian society and its political institutions, changes in the modes of resistance, and the future of the Palestinian national movement and its representative structures. The conference will also provide an opportunity to assess the policies of global power-brokers regarding the Palestinian issue.

The Center welcomes prominent political figures and parliamentarians from diverse Arab states, as well as prominent political icons of Palestinian leadership, in addition to a number of public visionaries, all of whom are sure to make important contributions to the conference’s academic panels, sessions, and discussion groups. A number of media networks and journalists, Arab and internationally-recognized, have been invited to cover and participate in the conference, which includes research-based presentations and two public seminars that are set to take place on Friday, December 6 immediately prior to the conference proceedings, including the PLO’s Central Committee member and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat’s “The Negotiations: The Options and the Future” and Hamas’s head of International Relations Osama Hamdan’s “The Resistance: The Options and the Future”. Also participating in the conference’s academic sessions, in addition to specialists on the Palestinian issue, are researchers from among youth, activist, and solidarity movements worldwide.

Prior to the official 6:30pm opening of the conference on December 7, there will be a political symposium to discuss the Palestinian issue in light of recent Arab and regional developments, with addresses from Mustapha Ben Jafar, president of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly; Yasin Said Numan, former Yemeni prime minister; Ibrahim Yousri, an Egyptian diplomat; Hassan Tarek, a Moroccan Parliamentarian; and Maha al-Khatib, a Jordanian public servant.

Following the official opening of the conference, there will be a political symposium to look at the many dimensions of the Palestinian cause from a variety of perspectives. Former Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali addresses “The Arab Spring and the Palestinian Cause”; Richard Falk, the UN Special Representative on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, will speak on “The Palestinian Future: The Impact of Law and Diplomacy”; Indian political observer Aijaz Ahmed will examine the Palestinian nationhood project in the current world context from an Indian perspective; and former Jordanian Prime Minister Taher al-Masri will speak on “Arab Dimensions of the Palestinian Issue”.

The conference events continue over three days until Monday, December 9, convening in two adjacent ballrooms. The conference is meant to provide a space for researchers to discuss both the conference topic specifically and, more generally, issues confronting scientific and academic research in the Arab region. This conference is also the sole conference in the Arab region that brings together leading Arab research centers, public political personalities, and media representatives.

To about the Conference, the time table and participants, click on the image below.