Rotterdam fiasco

The recent Palestinian conference in Holland -- an unmitigated debacle by any standard -- should be a wake up call to Palestinians everywhere, writes Ramzy Baroud*

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In Rotterdam, Holland's third largest city, thousands of Palestinians gathered 5 May for the annual Palestinians in Europe conference. I opted to participate only to witness a PR disaster that could not have come at a more critical time. This article -- another attempt at auto-critique and reflection -- is not intended as chastisement for its own sake. I believe that time is simply too precious to indulge in self- deception.

Despite the clear factional attitude that pervaded the conference, championed mostly by Islamists with Palestinian "secularists" invited as a gesture of kindness (an attitude that still saturates Palestinian activism everywhere), the organisers were well intended. They wished to emphasise the centrality of the Palestinian refugees' problem and their right to return, and to focus the international community's attention on the humanitarian and political crises fuelled by US-led sanctions imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories for electing Hamas to power in January 2006.

Indeed, the organisers did their best to attract media attention by inviting Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to speak. Scores of Dutch journalists descended on the conference hall in Rotterdam, where an estimated 3,000 conferees -- mostly Palestinians living in Europe -- were in attendance. The Dutch government's unwarranted entry denial to Haniyeh, coupled with the dramatic episode in which PA Sports Minister Bassem Naim was disbarred from disembarking at Brussels International Airport on his way to Rotterdam -- his visa obtained earlier from the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv revoked, apparently under Israeli and American pressure -- meant that Dutch, Arab and international media were eagerly watching and listening. Every word uttered, every banner raised, and every leaflet handed out was painfully analysed.

Another headline grabber was the presence of and the poignant statements made by former Dutch prime minister Dries Van Agt, who audaciously acknowledged Holland's "biased" pro-Israeli stances, demanding an end to the boycott in which EU members are participants. "We automatically pardon the occupier and sanction the occupied nation," he told reporters at a press conference which I also attended. This and other strong statements made by Van Agt coincided with a visit by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the occupied territories in which he criticised the embargo. They were both excellent indicators of positive change in Europe, though slow and slight.

But good intentions or encouraging statements by one or two officials do not make media and PR achievements. They are the outcome, rather, of incessant, decided and preset strategy that engages in the task of shaping public opinion with utter care and attention to detail. This was hardly the case in Rotterdam. The conference had no central message but rather several that were hardly related. While the conference purported to address the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the key and recurring topic of all the speeches was present sanctions. Leaflets, which were sparse, spoke of one issue while speakers addressed another.

Then there were failures of logistics. When I requested the media package in English, I discovered there was none. Only Arabic and Dutch were available. Why hold an international conference if you are not prepared to appeal to an international audience and speak to international media using an international language? I was dumbfounded. Further, the speakers were mostly Palestinians from the occupied territories speaking Arabic. As eloquent as they where in their own language, their fiery words were translated into Dutch only. Neither English nor French were important, apparently.

Moreover, angry speeches of angry sounding Arabic speaking men overshadowed or simply supplanted the contributions of some of the most brilliant and eloquent Palestinian scholars and activists who happen to be in Europe. Female participation was almost non-existent. All in all, a fantastic contribution to stereotyping Arabs, whose culture is readily depicted by the media as male-dominated, inherently angry and innately irrational!

Of course, the conference was not a conference at all. No papers were submitted or expected to be published. Indeed, hardly any written material that was meaningful was present. No serious or purposeful discussion was had, and even "workshops" that were announced, but whose time, place or topic were unavailable, were cancelled without warning. Participants roamed the venue for hours seeking information but received none. None of the organisers seemed to know much about anything. The disorganisation and mismanagement were irrefutable.

Although publicity generated by Haniyeh's visit denial and Van Agt's attendance was the perfect opportunity to present to the media a solid case for Palestinian rights and the need for an immediate lifting of sanctions, media attention was barely exploited. There were almost no media experts whatsoever on hand, as if the object was the mere presence of journalists, regardless of what they write and how their articles and reports could damage the image of Palestine and the Palestinians.

Still further, the date chosen for the conference deliberately coincided with the anniversary of when the Netherlands was liberated from the grip of the Nazis, a bad choice by any standard considering the hardly subtle insinuation that the Israeli occupation is reminiscent of that of the Nazis. If it had to be invoked at all, the extremely sensitive parallel should have been handled by those who possess the eloquence and the smarts to do so. The media was simply furious, giving pro-Israel elements within it a field day.

Towards mid-day, a group of teenagers were instructed to gather in a central point in the conference hall and wave Palestinian flags; the euphoria eventually leading them to start running around the building, jeering and laughing, chased by Dutch camerapersons. The PR disaster was now perfect, as was my discontent. I hurried out of the building seeking comfort in a large cup of strong coffee, never to return.

* The writer is an Arab-American journalist.