The 24th session of the conference was attended by tens of Christian and Muslim clerics, educators as well as academicians and community leaders and others from different sectors of society, women and men. Participants were from many cities and villages in Galilee, from Jenin, Nablus, Qaliqilia, and Ramallah and from Bethlehem area. In this conference most of the lecturers were new faces. Few of them from Gaza were not able to get permission from the Israeli authorities to attend the Conference. Never the less their papers were read and discussed by the audience.
The proceedings of the conference focused on the future of Arab uprisings; Arab uprisings and transformation toward democracy in Tunisia; The Role of women in Arab Uprisings; The Impacts of Arab Uprisings on the Palestinian Problem; The Impacts of Arab Uprisings on Muslim Christian Relations; Arab Uprisings and Regional and International Conflicts. The conference was highlighted in panel members who focused on “Arab uprisings and where they are heading to?”.
The conference and conferees assured the dire need for Palestinians to strengthen their relations, their shared living and pay more attention on the role of education at home, at schools and in the Churches and Mosques, and the media.
The conferees issued the following recommendations:
1. The dire need to deepen national unity because it is the only factor that would realize national aspirations of establishing a Palestine state on the land of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
2. Conferees welcomed changes that are taking place in the Arab countries with the aim of establishing a just and a democratic society. They added that external interferences, regional and international, are totally rejected.
3. Conferees expressed their pride of women’s role in society and their struggle in all aspects of life including their active role in the Arab uprisings.
4. The need to be very careful about judging the march of the Arab uprising. For its too early to judge. We need to see the results pertaining to human rights, human dignity, pluralism, freedom of worship and the protection of democracy.
5. Conferees appreciate the role of young people in the changes that are taking place in the Arab countries, and they asked people in charge of Al-Liqa’ Center to involve greatest number of young people during the year in al-Liqa activities such as in the study days and future conferences in order to listen to their points of view and their enriching discussions.
6. The conferees call for the documentation of the personal experiences of young people who took place in the Arab revolutions and to document the logs that they took active part in promoting it. This witnessing of the actual events of the revolutions and how they developed is necessary.
7. The need to activate the mass media including the Facebook and Twitter in order to further the welfare of the nation and its citizens.
Bethlehem 20 October 2012