About thirty delegations will participate in Madrid in the first Ministerial Conference for Palestinian Culture

Around thirty delegations will participate in the July 14 to 16 in the first Ministerial Conference for Palestinian Culture organized by the Spanish and Palestinian Ministry of Culture with the intention of getting them out “concrete political and economic instruments” of support for the culture of Palestine, as announced at a press conference by Minister Ernest Urtasun.

“The idea is to create a alliance for the reconstruction of Palestinejoin forces and make a map of what has happened there, and that new possibilities of finance reconstruction projects, as we already did in Ukraine. We hope that concrete instruments will emerge to support Palestinian culture, both political and economic,” said Urtasun, who already announced this initiative on June 23 during his appearance at the Culture Commission in the Congress of Deputies.

It is a international forum promoted by Spain in which around 30 delegations will participate, although Culture has specified that the number will vary “until the last moment”, made up of ministers, secretaries of State and vice-ministers of Culture, along with representatives of organizations such as UNESCO and the Arab League.

Specifically, it is planned attendance of Culture Ministers from Egypt, Algeria, Poland and Luxembourg, as well as representatives from Libya and Tunisia and the Secretaries of State from France, Portugal and Uruguay. “There has been a great response from countries that show solidarity with the Palestinian people,” ministry sources have pointed out.

The inauguration will take place on the 15th July at the Prado Museumin which Urtasun and the Minister of Culture of Palestine, Emad Hamdan, will participate, and the Ministerial Conference will take place the next day at the Reina Sofía Museum, which It will start with a photo in front of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’.

The final objective of this Conference will be to sign a declaration and create an alliance for culture in Palestinein which the participating countries agree on a call to coordinated action that allows them to act in the defense of the Palestinian cultural and artistic sector, as well as in the protection and reconstruction of their cultural heritage.

Likewise, it is intended to highlight the role of cultural reconstruction as a driver of resilience, social cohesion and sustainable economic development; mobilize the international community around the cause of Palestinian cultural reconstruction; and agree on a call to the joint action that encourages a response from the countries involved.

This Ministerial Conference in Madrid follows the path of others similar encounters such as those held in Vilnius (Lithuania) in 2024, in Uzhgorod (Ukraine) in 2025 or Lviv (Ukraine) in 2026. These meetings have had the objective generate an international space to define prioritiesfinancing mechanisms and concrete actions aimed at cultural recovery in Ukraine.

However, Culture admits that it is a “anomaly” to be celebrated in the capital of Spain because the ideal would be to do it on Palestinian soil. “It should be done in Ramallah, but until peace and the consolidation of the Palestinian State arrive, it is not possible,” they lamented.