Islamic culture ministers call for release of Palestinian intellectuals from Israeli prisons
Culture ministers of Islamic countries, who wound up in Doha on Sunday their third conference, called for the release of Palestinian intellectuals, academics and students held in Israeli prisons.
In its closing statement, the culture minister also condemned Israel's aggressions against the Palestinian people and acts of destruction of Palestinian cultural institutions and centers, recalling in this regard that Israeli authorities closed down the Orient House which used to serve as an outstanding cultural and social institution.
The ministers urged the international community to use all its weight to help in the liberation of Palestinian intellectuals who are subject to all sorts of intimidation, ill-treatment and repression in Israeli prisons. The international community was further called to send international observers to protect the Palestinian people and its cultural and religious institutions in occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The conference urged Muslim countries to bring help and support to the unarmed Palestinian people in its struggle against repeated aggressions by the Israeli occupation forces and its battle for the creation of an independent state.
The ministers renewed the Islamic nation's stand regarding the need for inter-civilization dialogue to be based on tolerance, co-existence and respect of each civilization cultural specificities and insisted on the need to carry the dialogue to serve security, peace, justice and stability in the world. The Rabat-Based Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) was urged to develop an integrated approach on Islamic cultural action in the west, taking into account ongoing mutations worldwide.
It also condemned the disinformation and libel campaign waged in the west by some media to alter and tarnish the true image of Islam and called ISESCO to face this campaign, adding that it is the duty of all Islamic countries to use their information and diplomatic means to restore the image of Islam and Muslims worldwide and foil actions meant to harm the Islamic world's interests.