GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Oct. 18 was the last day of the Egypt and the Palestinian Issue conference, which was held for the first time at the invitation of the National Center for Middle East Studies at the Ain Sokhna Red Sea resort to discuss the Palestinian cause and the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The conference was met with rejection by supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inside the Fatah movement, under the pretext that it was funded by his sworn enemy, Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah leader who was dismissed from the movement June 12, 2011.

About 130 parliamentary figures, academics, researchers, former ministers and political analysts from the Gaza Strip were invited by the national center to attend the conference that took place over three days, starting Oct. 16. But only 80 people attended, in addition to other Egyptian figures, in light of the controversy, according to Ashraf Jomaa, a parliamentarian in Fatah’s Legislative Council who was among the conference attendees.

Jomaa told Al-Monitor that the conference was “institutionalized,” as it was organized by the National Center for Middle East Studies and was not officially organized by the Egyptian state. He was surprised at what he called an attempt to veer the conference off course.