This House believes that after Gaza, Arab unity is dead and buried
Sunday February 15 2009
MOTION PASSED
by 77% to 23%
Speakers
Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa
Speaking for the motion
Nasser bin Hamad Al- Khalifa served as Qatar’s Ambassador to Washington until 2007 when he retired from the diplomatic service. Before being posted to Washington, he was Qatari Ambassador to the United Kingdom, the United Nations, Italy and Korea.
He is a Board Member of the Next Century Foundation which works to resolve conflicts in the Middle East and beyond and he continues to administer a $100 million Hurricane Katrina relief fund established by Qatar.
Mr. Al Khalifa has also served as Qatar’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the International Maritime Organization.
He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from West Michigan University, a Masters in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University and is a PhD candidate Law College at the University of Leeds in the UK. He has been a fellow of Princeton University since 1991.
Daoud Kuttab
Speaking against the motion
Daoud Kuttab is an award winning Palestinian journalist and television producer and was the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University from 2007-2008.
Born in Jerusalem, he studied in the United States and has been working in journalism since 1980. In his early career, he worked in the Arabic print press for Al Fajr, Al Quds and Assinara before moving into the broadcast media.
In the 1990s he established and presided over the Jerusalem Film Institute and in 1995 he helped set up the Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN), a censorship free Arab website. For more than 10 years he also headed the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University.
He established Ammanet, the Arab world’s first internet radio station in 2000 and eight years later started working on Community Media Network, an Arab media NGO registered in Jordan and Palestine.
Mouin Rabbani
Speaking for the motion
Mouin Rabbani is an independent Palestinian analyst of Middle East affairs based in Amman and a contributing editor of the online Middle East Report.
He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestinian Studies which focuses on research, analysis and publication of Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is also a Senior Associate of Fafo, a Norwegian independent research foundation.
Mr. Rabbani was a Senior Analyst and Special Advisor on Palestine with the Middle East Program of the International Crisis Group from 2002 until 2008. His research there was primarily on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including research on the Palestinian political system and governance, Palestinian nationalism and Islamism and regional and international approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He has a B.A. in History and International Relations from Tufts University and an M.A. in Contemporary Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Abdulaziz Sager
Speaking against the motion
Abdulaziz Sager is chairman and founder of the Gulf Research Center, an independent research institute located in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. His research interests are in Gulf strategic issues and he is a regular contributor and commentator to international and regional media.
He is also a businessman and is President of Sager Group Holding in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is involved in information technology, aviation services and investments.
In November 2003, Mr. Sager was appointed as a member of the Makkah Province Council. He also serves as a member on the advisory board of the Arab Thought Foundation, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and on the advisory group for the 4th Arab Human Development Report for the United Nations Development Programme.
Mr. Sager holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is currently working on a research program entitled: 'Gulf Security, Dynamics, Perceptions and Policies, 1971-2003: A comparative study of the GCC States.'
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