Footage offers glimpse of critical moments in Qatar's history

To mark the launch of its official YouTube channel, the Associated Press recently uploaded a million minutes of historical footage online that dates back as far as 1895.

The half a million videos include footage of the bombing of Hiroshima, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., World War I fighting and the Titanic leaving an Irish port.

There are also dozens of pieces on Qatar, including footage that captures some of the most crucial events in the country’s modern history. Here are four of the most interesting clips:

Qatar’s independence

This footage shows Qatar’s late Emir Sheikh Ahmed Bin Ali Al Thani signing a friendship treaty with Britain in 1971, after Qatar declared its independence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUT_Hn4Z66I

Representing Britain in the treaty was Sir Geoffrey Arthur, whose official title at the time was “The Political Resident in the Persian Gulf,” which was an official colonial subdivision of the British Empire.

Prior to the agreement, at a time when Britain had control over many of the Gulf countries, Qatar had a deal under which its external affairs were managed by Britain in return for guaranteed protection, according to the BBC.

National Museum opens

This one-minute clip shows the Emir of Qatar at the time and grandfather of the current Emir, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, opening Qatar’s National Museum in 1975 and cutting a green ribbon as part of the ceremony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fglHuLXc7qw

Before it became a museum, the structure was a palace that served as a residence for the royal family and government officials for more than 25 years, according to Qatar Museums (QM).

Under-construction National Museum (in 2014)

The palace, named after Qatar’s former ruler Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani, was originally built in the early 20th century. It included a Museum of the State, lagoon and marine aquarium, according to QM.

Earlier this year, QM announced that the palace had been restored. It will sit in the heart of the new national museum, which is currently under construction and tentatively slated to open next year.

Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Qatar established its official position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not long after gaining independence.

In this two-minute video from 1977, the country’s United Nations representative slams the UN’s “ineffectiveness” following the introduction of new resolutions:

“The draft decisions proposed on the committee today didn’t bring anything new or an alternative to solve the problem, and it has become known to all the members that these draft resolution don’t change anything, but in our opinion it represents evidence to the ineffectiveness of the United Nations, in forcing the Zionist entity to implement (these decisions).

However my country’s delegation has voted in support of these draft resolutions, but at the same time wants to express regret that (they) never leave the routine framework that we go around in every year,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFySypHx7o8

The representative also criticized the lack of a global effort to help the Palestinians. His statements continue to be echoed by Qatari leaders today, as the conflict continues with no resolution in sight.

For example, in June, Faisal bin Abdullah Al-Henzab, the current Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva, lambasted a UN committee’s report on the Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2014, saying that it lacked objectivity, QNA reports.

He stressed that it’s illegal and unethical to make the “executioner and the victim and the aggressor and the resistor equal.”

In this other report from the year 2000, Qatar is seen taking fire over the presence of an Israeli trade office in Doha.

The footage shows the arrival of the head of Muslim states to attend the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Doha. According to the report, Iran and Saudi Arabia threatened to boycott the summit, if Qatar did not shut down Israel’s low-level office, following an Israeli helicopter attack on a truck carrying Palestinian commanders in the West Bank.

The attack left one leader dead and another critically injured.

Qatar acquiesced and temporarily shut the office.

Then in 2009, Qatar permanently severed trade ties with Israel, following Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. At that time, the country asked the head of the trade office and its staff in Doha to leave the country for good.

Thoughts?