IstanbulThe International Conference in Support of Gaza, which carried the slogan “Freedom for Palestine,” concluded its activities, Monday, in Istanbul, by condemning the Israeli occupation and its crimes against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, more than 100 days after the Al-Aqsa flood battle.
In its closing session, the conference affirmed the right of the resistance to confront all projects aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause by all available means.
The conference was organized by the Al-Quds International Foundation in cooperation with the Global Forum for Moderation, the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the Arab International Center for Communication and Solidarity, and the Kuala Lumpur Forum for Thought and Civilization. At the end of his work, he announced the launch of the “Zionism is Racism” and “Resistance is a Right and a Duty” initiatives.
The participants, including a number of intellectual and political elites and representatives of popular movements from various parts of the world, stressed that the Israeli occupation failed to criminalize resistance. They also called for the formation of the “Freedom and Justice for Palestine” alliance to support Gaza and its steadfastness.
The first day of the conference included two workshops that focused on the topics of “the racism of the Zionist idea” and “Zionism as a global threat.”
Zionism as a global threat
Palestinian academic Azzam Al-Tamimi noted that the Zionist project that occupies Palestine and is based on adopting the concept of preference over other peoples, acquired these ideas during the era of religious reform, which started from preferring the Jews over other people, in a new attempt to grant the white man the right to colonization.
For his part, Zwelifele Mandela – the grandson of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela – pointed out the similarity of the apartheid system of South Africa with the apartheid of the Zionist entity, in terms of dealing with the indigenous population and its pursuit of complete domination over the Palestinian territories. He also stressed that the Palestinian resistance is struggling to For the freedom of Palestine, similar to the struggle in South Africa for liberation.
As for the director of the Vision Center for Political Development, Ahmed Al-Atawneh, he stressed that Zionism targets the Palestinian identity, persecutes the political identity of the Palestinians, and prevents them from establishing their state. He pointed out that the Zionist movement is a replacement colonial entity that was built on the foundation of establishing a state for an existing people who do not have a land, and granting sanctity to the place in terms of the Jewish religion and the idea of building the “Temple.”
Austrian journalist Wilhelm Langthaler addressed the issue of Zionism as a colonial idea, and emphasized that American support is what extends the life of the occupation, and that “Israel” will not survive a single day without this support, so Western powers are true partners of colonialism.
On its second day, the conference discussed the criminalization of resistance and the deliberate conflation of it with terrorism, in addition to addressing the most appropriate ways to support the Palestinian people and international responsibility towards them, in sessions in which international intellectual and political elites participated.
Loud scream
Regarding the conference’s objectives, the head of the conference’s preparatory committee, Ayman Zidane, confirmed that this meeting is primarily a loud cry made by people around the world to shed light on the challenges of the Palestinian reality, especially in the Gaza Strip, and in all the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole.
He also pointed out that the conference comes as a serious step within the international movement supporting the rights and freedom of the Palestinian people, in the face of the challenges that threaten their existence.
Zidane added that this meeting falls within ongoing global efforts to confront the Israeli escalation and attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue, as he considered the conference a platform to affirm the rights of the Palestinian people to confront aggression and confront all forms of displacement and siege imposed by the occupation on the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and other areas.
Conference messages
For his part, the Director General of the Zaytouna Center for Studies and Consultations, Mohsen Saleh, indicated in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the attendance of hundreds from more than 50 different countries to the conference carries a great message of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance.
Saleh noted that the conference presented the challenge of continuing actual and tangible steps on a path that serves the Palestinian cause, and that this interaction should not be a temporary interaction, but rather it must be transformed into thoughtful, systematic action that rises to the level of the sacrifice of the Palestinian people.
He also confirmed that the conference presented many practical ideas to activate support for the Palestinian people, their resistance, and their quest to liberate their land and sanctities, in addition to being a fertile environment for establishing close political and intellectual relations that would support the Palestinian cause.
In the same context, the media official for the “Freedom for Palestine” conference, Ali Ibrahim, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the most prominent goals of the conference are; That the attendees take it upon themselves to continue delivering the two basic initiatives of the conference, “Zionism is Racism” and “Resistance is a Right and a Duty,” to all possible frameworks, especially in light of the geographic and intellectual diversity of the guests.
Marching north
He pointed out that the essential part of the conference team’s work is to continue stimulating the transformation of initiatives and ideas into concrete practical steps that are in the interest of the Palestinian cause, and to re-present ideas and proposals on a global level, in light of the international decline in criminalizing Zionism and the Israeli occupation.
Ibrahim explained that the documents issued by the conference initiatives came from the hands of specialists and thinkers from all over the world, which will contribute to making these initiatives an important part of future “movements.”
He stressed the importance of intensifying the launch of conferences aimed at educating the peoples of the world about the rights of the Palestinian people to recover their land and establish their independent state, especially in light of the media and intellectual dominance of the Northern Alliance, stressing that we are facing “a state of the south’s creep toward the north.”
