During the end of November and early December, Gaza was the scene of two closed-door meetings held by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh with a number of intellectuals, authors, academics, university professors, public opinion leaders, representatives of civil society and journalists. These meetings came as part of his continuous effort to keep communications open with this important segment of Palestinian society. Al-Monitor’s reporter had the opportunity to attend both of them.

At the first meeting, Haniyeh gave a lengthy speech about local and regional political developments; the second meeting gave attendees the opportunity to engage in discussions over the course of eight whole hours.

At the two meetings at the Commodore Hotel on Gaza’s coast between Haniyeh, who's the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, and more than 50 personalities belonging to elite academic, cultural and journalistic circles, mostly from outside the Islamist movement that supports Hamas, which many ideas and suggestions were proposed to him, and criticism was leveled against some aspects of the Gaza government’s conduct.

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