Qatar promoted its role in advancing social rights and democratic renewal while senior Qatari figures and media outlets sharply criticized Israel’s democratic credentials during UN General Assembly week in New York, according to statements and reports published on Tuesday.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the event “Realizing Social Rights and Renewing Democracy: From Doha and Chisinau to a New Democratic Compact for Europe” was held on Tuesday. Qatar was represented by a member of the ruling family, Hanouf bint Abdulrahman Al Thani, director of the International Organizations Department at the Foreign Ministry.
The Qatari official highlighted Qatar’s hosting of the Second World Summit for Social Development as a contribution to “renewing the international commitment to placing people at the heart of the development process and promoting social justice,” as part of Doha’s broader message at the event regarding its role in advancing social rights.
Qatar’s focus on democracy and rights was accompanied during the same week by sharp messages directed against Israel.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, the emir of Qatar also attacked Israel on a range of issues, including its democratic character. “Israel is not a democratic state in a hostile environment, as its leaders claim, but rather it is the one that is hostile to its environment,” he said.
Qatar calls out Israel’s disqualification of Balad head for Knesset
The disqualification of Sami Abu Shehadeh’s (Balad) candidacy for the Knesset, amid allegations of incitement to terrorism, also became a prominent issue in Qatari media coverage. Al Jazeera devoted extensive coverage to the disqualification, including footage from the Central Elections Committee.
The Qatari Al Araby channel also interviewed Shehadeh about the decision. He argued that the Central Elections Committee’s move to bar his candidacy for the Knesset was tantamount to silencing an entire community and excluding it from the political arena.
In the interview, conducted with Shehadeh in Abu Ghosh, near Jerusalem, he said: “The Elections Committee, which decided today to disqualify us, is not targeting me alone; it seeks to silence the voice of an entire public, exclude it from the political arena and suppress voter turnout in Arab society.”
He added that the decision, in his view, exposed the fears of “racists,” as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, regarding the Arab vote in the Knesset.
British researcher claims disqualification of Shehadeh disproves Israel’s democracy
British researcher Andreas Krieg, who teaches at King’s College London and previously served as an adviser to the Qatari Armed Forces, also addressed the affair on social media. He argued that the case disproved the claim that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.
Dr. Ariel Admoni of Ariel University and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security said the sequence of events demonstrated, in his view, how Qatar uses internal developments in Israel to portray the country negatively.
According to Admoni, it does so through partial reporting and biased interpretations within a media and academic ecosystem that Qatar has cultivated.
