Haifa 3/5/2015. In order to assess the question of how to strengthen Palestinian culture and unity more effectively for the future, over 60 intellectuals, artists, actors, authors, academics, journalists and representatives of cultural institutions and media from both the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel gathered in the Palestinian cultural capital of Ramallah for a joint workshop. Participants discussed the issues of developing mechanisms that help unite the Palestinian culture that has suffered from diaspora since 1948 as well as building the intellectual infrastructure for a vivid cultural scene including theater, music, arts, cultural heritage, film and publishing. Additionally, the aspect of how to stimulate the government's and national media's interest in supporting the strengthening of common cultural heritage was addressed.

            In his opening speech on April 24th, Director of the Mossawa Center Jafar Farah explained that "there is a need for joint activity and planning within the Palestinian institutions in order to represent the true dream of a unified Palestinian culture in spite of geographical boundaries". Participants agreed upon the need to prevent the marginalization and segregation of the Palestinian cultural heritage which is fostered by a lack of funding and recognition by the Israeli state. Alining of Palestinian creative artists in Israel, West Bank, Gaza and the Diaspora was regarded as the fundamental means to keep the Palestinian culture alive and strengthen it for future generations. According to Jafar Farah, "the inter-Palestinian communication is the building block to promote Palestinian culture and unity". Thus, a common agenda of how to approach and create future cooperation needed to be established during the workshop.

            On April 25th Riad Hassan, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), promised to suggest a general increase of the Ministry of Culture's budget to Mahmoud Abbas and the council of ministers. He emphasized the importance of strengthening the financial support for cultural activities as a means of enhancing the production of cultural and artistic output in order to create a common identity, free from moral or material bias caused by dependency on external funding. Furthermore, Mr. Hassan announced the launch of the satellite channel "Palestine 48". After the meeting in the PBC building the participants enjoyed visiting cultural sites such as the Muqataa including Arafats mausoleum and the Mahmoud Darwish Museum, emphasizing the strong impact both Arafat and Darwish have had on Palestinian cultural heritage.

            After having discussed the aforementioned issues, the participants came to the following conclusions. Submitting a request to the president, the council of ministers and the ministry of culture to increase the ministerial budget and establish a fund for Palestinian cultural projects, establishing a common platform for cultural works and concepts, creative workshops as well as partnerships between individual artists and cultural institutions, conducting exchange between cultural institutions on a regular basis, joint publishing of works, creating a  legal body that supports individual artists and cultural institutions, consolidating the inter-Palestinian relations, establishing the yearly announcement of a "Palestinian City of Culture", funding for the translation of Palestinian literature, collecting all the books that have been stolen since the occupation in 1948, reactivating the High Council of Palestinian culture and launching the establishment of a Palestinian month of culture were decided to be the first steps towards preserving and empowering Palestinian culture and unity.