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Palestine Addressing the World" conference kicked off in Istanbul, Turkey from 17 to 19 November. 800 international journalists and students came together to take part in the media training and awareness programme to create awareness of the Palestinian cause in the news, Eurasia Diary reports.
Forum covered a number of topics including “What mechanisms can help develop the media discourse on Palestine?”, “Strategies to confront the discriminatory discourse of Israel” and “Addressing normalisation in the Arab world”.
Eurasia Diary presents opinions on issues raised on Palestine at the Forum.
Speaking on the panel, Chief Editor of the Anadolu Agency Metin Mutanoglu “The Palestinian cause, as a humanitarian cause, has excelled in getting global attention.”
“There are those who say it’s important to listen to both sides however even in international law there are those that take priority, having both discourses isn’t always necessary,” Abu Arqoub stressed in released to media groups’ claims that they must give the occupation equal airtime as they do to the plight of Palestinians", said Researcher in Media Issues Omar Abu Arqoub.
“I don’t understand why media are so cautious when they use the word ‘zionists’,” political commentator Malik Ayub Sumbal said, adding: “do they not know that Palestine is occupied?”
"The Palestinian problem is not only the problem of Palestine, but it is also the problem of Israel, mine, yours, and all of humanity. When I see the destroyed places of Gaza in the movies I remember burned and plundered Ashaghi Abdurrahmanly and many other villages of Karabakh, Azerbaijan. I strongly condemn the superpowers which encouraged the creation of problems like Karabakh, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria that shook mankind" said President of International Eurasia Press Fund Umud Mirzayev.
The day ended with three awards being given to creative projects on the topic of Palestine. Four-hundred entries were submitted for the first Creative Media Awards which were named after slain Palestinian artist Naji Al-Ali. The ten shortlisted works included games, feature films and short films of only one minute.
A game called “War Shadows” won the Bronze Award, while slain Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja‘s “Between two border crossings” received the Silver Award as the crowd rose and paid their respects to him with a standing ovation. Murtaja was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in the besieged Gaza Strip as he was filming the “Great March of Return” on 6 April.
The Gold Award was handed to Dima Abu Ghosh’s film “Imwes: Retrieving memories”.