It wasn't even close.
DOHA • A crushing majority of the participants at Qatar Foundation's Doha Debates yesterday expressed the view that the destructive feud between Palestine’s Hamas and Fatah factions has cast a doubt on the Palestinians’ ability to create a unified sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza.Why can Qataris see obvious truths that Western liberals are blind to?
The motion “This House believes that Palestinians risk becoming their own worst enemy” was carried with a resounding 70.9 per cent votes against 29.1 per cent votes.
Among the panelists, Dr Munther Dajani, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Al Quds University in Jerusalem and Akram Baker, political analyst and co-founder of the Arab Western Summit of Skills (AWS), supported the motion.
"Israeli occupation in Palestine is a fact. The Palestinian movement lost its focus. The enemy is really occupying the land. If we cannot help ourselves no one else can help us. What Palestinians need is a genuine government. The Palestinian Authority should be dissolved today, not tomorrow", Baker said.
Supporting the motion, Dr Dajani said Palestinians must show the guts to grab real freedom from 'the mouth of the lion'. "The leadership is steeped in corruption and nepotism. We failed to build roads, hospitals and other basic infrastructure. We ourselves are our worst enemies" Dr Dajani said.
"Those who were holding the war responsible for Palestine's poor development must remember that there was no war in the mid '90s. We failed because the leadership was not able to put up institutions and infrastructure. There was no transparency and accountability. Now we are at the end of the tunnel", he said.