An expert delivers a talk at the BilAraby Annual Gathering.
Doha, Qatar: The second edition of the BilAraby Annual Gathering 2026 begun yesterday under the theme ‘With Our Ideas, We Build’ at Multaqa (Education City Student Center).
The gathering brings together senior dignitaries, alongside thinkers, creators, and experts from various sectors, to discuss ways of harnessing knowledge and creativity to address issues facing society. The two-day event organised by Qatar Foundation’s BilAraby initiative features 14 speakers on its main stage. Through dialogue that brings together diverse experiences and allows issues to be examined from different perspectives, participants are exploring ways to leverage knowledge and innovation to develop solutions that respond to the needs of communities while taking their cultural contexts into account.
The programme addresses media, science and technology, Artificial Intelligence, precision medicine, and genomics, alongside architecture, heritage, entrepreneurship, and environmental sustainability. It also covers peacebuilding, sports, and social work.
Executive Director, Office of the Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Foundation, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Al-Ajail said: “At BilAraby, we bring together people with knowledge and experience so that they can learn from one another and find in the diversity of their experiences what can help them understand the issues that matter to their communities.
“Many of life’s challenges cannot be addressed by a single discipline; what may appear clear in theory may need to be reconsidered when tested in practice. We want Arabic to be the language of this exploration, and we want Arabic speakers to have a greater role in creating knowledge through their own creativity and what they learn from others. This is the meaning behind this year’s theme, ‘With Our Ideas, We Build’: ideas that emerge from understanding people and their circumstances, and return to them in ways that benefit them.” The opening ceremony was hosted by prominent media presenters Mohamed Errammach and Sara Rasheed.
Head of the Gaza Strip Bureau, Al Jazeera Media Network, Wael Al Dahdouh delivered the gathering’s first talk. In his talk, ‘Please… Answer Me’, Al Dahdouh addressed the theme of resilience, recalling a message from his wife while he was covering the war and the conflict he faced between his duty to report people’s suffering and his fears for his family.
Describing the experience of a journalist reporting from within his own community, he said: “He talks about everything except the war raging within him.” Al Dahdouh recounted how he returned to journalism after losing his wife and several members of his family.
Professor of Genomics, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of QF, Dr. Said Ismail discussed the role of genomics in understanding identity and tracing historical connections among the peoples of the region. Drawing on examples from DNA studies in Egypt and Yemen, he explained how genetic overlap reveals a long history of migration and contact between communities. He stressed that DNA is neither a passport nor a title deed to land.
“I can read history through DNA,” Dr. Ismail said. “This complex code does not just determine our physical traits and health characteristics; it is also a highly accurate historical record.”
