The Palestine Day program, featuring Gaza Tribunal sessions, a Palestinian youth forum and a friendly football match, has started in Konya, central Türkiye, on Wednesday under the theme "Our Home Is Your Home.”

Organized by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF), the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Konya Metropolitan Municipality, the program brings together officials, Palestinian youth, academics, athletes and civil society representatives as part of the Konya Islamic Cooperation Organization Youth Capital 2026 International Program.

The program opened with remarks by Richard Falk, who led the Gaza Tribunal initiative and previously served as the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.

Speaking at the opening session, Falk expressed gratitude to ICYF for supporting the tribunal from its inception, saying the initiative had been in the making for more than two years.

Falk recalled that the tribunal was inspired in part by the Russell Tribunal, a people’s tribunal established during the Vietnam War by prominent intellectuals including British philosopher Bertrand Russell and French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

He said the Gaza Tribunal was conceived as an independent people’s tribunal, separate from governments and intergovernmental judicial institutions, and that its legitimacy depended on maintaining political independence from governments and vested interests.

"We took the view that it was a people’s tribunal,” Falk said, describing the initiative as being driven by individuals and groups motivated by what he called a "global conscience.”

Falk said the tribunal sought to give civil society a platform to examine the situation in Gaza and influence government policies and international institutions, while acknowledging that it did not have the formal authority of bodies such as the International Court of Justice.

He also highlighted the tribunal’s role in creating what he described as a historical archive documenting Palestinians’ experiences through testimony from witnesses and survivors.

Falk said the tribunal was also created in response to what he described as shortcomings in the existing international system’s response to Gaza.

He stressed that the tribunal’s work should not be viewed as complete, saying its formal proceedings had ended but that the circumstances that prompted its creation continued.

Falk said the tribunal was preparing a book summarizing its work and that its findings had received encouraging feedback from international sources.

Speaking at a press conference on the Palestine Day program, ICYF President Taha Ayhan said the event was organized to build on Konya’s longstanding solidarity with Palestine and revisit the work of the Gaza Tribunal.

"The Gaza Tribunal started in 2024 and completed its work with its final session in Istanbul in 2025,” Ayhan said, adding that a book documenting the tribunal’s judgment had subsequently been prepared.

Ayhan said ICYF had been presenting the tribunal’s findings and judgment to heads of state, governments and international institutions, including the International Court of Justice.

He said the aim was to encourage civil society organizations and individuals around the world to use the tribunal’s findings and seek accountability through their own national and local legal mechanisms.

Ayhan said the Konya session was also intended to examine the legal situation surrounding Gaza and assess developments following the tribunal’s final session.

He said the Palestine Youth Forum would take place in the afternoon, bringing together international guests to discuss how young people could contribute to peace and Palestine’s freedom.

"We will show the world that the Palestine national team, and therefore the Palestinian people, are standing,” Ayhan said.