Carmel Forum Honors Mohammad Barakeh and Reviews Jamal Zahalka's Vision for the Follow-Up Committee

SadaNews - The Carmel Forum held a special meeting on Sunday evening to honor the former head of the Higher Follow-Up Committee, Mohammad Barakeh, following the end of his term. The new president, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, presented his vision for the next phase in leading the committee.

The meeting was attended by several representatives of the Follow-Up Committee, as well as public, academic, and cultural figures. An open discussion took place about the current challenges facing the Arab populations, the role of the Follow-Up Committee, and ways to develop its performance and enhance its national role.

This meeting is part of the "Carmel Forum" activities, which serves as a platform for strategic thinking, initiated by a group of intellectuals, academics, and activists. The aim is to analyze the political and social transformations in the post-October 7, 2023 era, seen as a pivotal event that reshaped the reality of Palestinians inside historical Palestine and abroad.

The forum seeks to provide in-depth analyses and political forecasts to be presented to leadership, elites, and the public, as well as to support the Follow-Up Committee in enhancing its role in protecting the Palestinian community and strengthening its resilience against policies of plunder, discrimination, and erasure, while ensuring its natural development.

The forum is managed by Professor Asad Ganem, Dr. Hassan Jabareen, and Dr. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury.

Professor Asad Ganem opened the meeting, discussing the forum's objectives and praising Mohammad Barakeh's role during his ten years as head of the Follow-Up Committee, commending his leadership during "one of the most difficult phases experienced by the Palestinian people, and his ability to maintain the committee's independence while balancing his party affiliation and his unifying role for all segments of the Palestinian Arab community inside."

In his speech, Barakeh reviewed the journey of the Follow-Up Committee since its establishment, its representative and activist role, highlighting significant milestones from 2015 and the challenges faced by the committee, including the rising authoritarian attack, the criminalization of Arab political action, and the ongoing genocide.

He also pointed to the committee's achievements during this period, including internationalizing issues of the Arab community, unifying parents' committees of Arab students, enhancing work on education issues, municipal work in mixed cities, human capacity development projects, return marches, and the historic strike in 2021.

He also addressed shortcomings, particularly the decline in popular action and the need to strengthen local financial support.

Many representatives from political and societal parties and movements, who have worked with Barakeh over the past ten years, praised his ability to lead the committee and his capacity to find a balance between his ideological and party affiliation, and his leadership of a self-made committee that does not succumb to any political or financial pressure, while maintaining decision-making independence, despite differences on some issues.

In the second part of the meeting, Dr. Jamal Zahalka was welcomed on the occasion of his assumption of the presidency of the Follow-Up Committee, where he presented the core principles of his future vision, which emphasized maintaining a struggle for national unity, continuing to adopt clear political positions for the committee, developing institutional work and the structure of the Follow-Up Committee, adhering to national constants, defending land and housing, strengthening values of justice and human rights, alongside expanding participation of women and youth, and opening broad dialogue with the Palestinian community inside.

Following the presentation of the vision, a discussion was opened for participants where a number of observations and proposals were raised, the most prominent of which were: the need to enhance the institutional building and financial capabilities of the committee, establishing a local support fund, enhancing women’s and youth representation, incorporating Negev issues into the committee's core work, developing a clear strategy for the coming years, enhancing international work, rephrasing the Follow-Up Committee's constitution to align with current challenges, and deepening public awareness of the committee's role and importance while maintaining its consensus and national character.

Source: Arab 48