A pro-BDS Qatari group and hundreds of citizens have taken on Qatar National Library for inviting a Zionist intellectual who denies the Palestinian right of return to its inauguration ceremony.
A civil society group known as The Qatar Youth Group Against Normalization urged the management of the newly inaugurated public library not to allow New York Times columnist Roger Cohen participate in a panel discussion on the difference between false news and media propaganda and misinformation for upholding Zionist views and rejecting Palestinian rights.
Mohamed al-Qahtani, a columnist and legal expert, tweeted:
Hala Alkuwari, a Qatari citizen with a BA in international politics, tweeted:
Noora Al Thani said:
Patronizingly, while Cohen recognizes the 1948 plight of the Palestinian people being driven out of their land, he mocked the right of return as Blight of Return in a 2013 article for New York Times and called the Palestinian claim to this legitimate right under the UN 194 resolution as an annihilation ambition.
Cohen appears to be consistently dismissive of the Palestinians’ right of return, which they view as a core issue in their political struggle at the grassroots and diplomatic level.
For a third consecutive Friday, tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been demonstrating as part of the Great Return March, a six-week program of non-violence at five locations along the Gaza’s border with Israel.
Source: Palestine Chronicle
