Second discussion session: «Community issues through the eyes of Palestinian youth»

The “Pal-Think for Strategic Studies” institution organised the second discussion session, titled “Communal issues from the perspective of Palestinian youth”, during which five trainees reviewed three research papers — within the project “Strengthening the democratic participation of Palestinian youth”, funded by the Government of Canada, extending from September 2019 to February 2020, with the attendance of an elite of academics, researchers, and those interested in the issues of youth and society.

The session was opened by the projects coordinator at the “Pal-Think” institution, Ms Sally al-Sammak, welcoming the attendees, and she said: “The goal of the discussion session is taking recommendations to improve the quality of the research papers so that they reach decision-makers and politicians, because these papers take up the issues of society generally and youth especially, resting on scientific foundations.”

She added: “Pal-Think always focuses on growing youth's research capacities to express their issues from their perspective in a scientific manner, because this helps in empowering and activating youth's role in society. These young people produced their papers and searched by themselves for the statistics and information from their original sources, and did not rely on copy-and-paste as many do.”

The session was moderated by Dr Islam Atallah, who acquainted the attendees with the trainees and their research papers, and with the efforts “Pal-Think” exerted for the trainees to reach this stage.

For their part, the trainees Abdallah Abu Shamala and Mai al-Sous spoke, in a research paper titled “Graduates and freelance work over the internet”, of the reality of Palestinian youth in the Gaza Strip and freelance work and its effect on the economy. The paper arrived at the conclusion that graduates need courses and training workshops to qualify them to join the freelance labour market, and that there is great neglect from the higher-education institutions of freelance work despite the continuous increase of the unemployment rate.

As for the trainee Waseem al-Khalidi, he shed light, in a research paper titled “Youth and voluntary work between necessity and reluctance”, on the problem of Palestinian youth's turning away from voluntary work in the Gaza Strip despite the experience and capabilities they possess, and on its causes and its negative effect on society.

In the same context, the trainees Nourhan al-Tabatibi and Yasmin al-Duraimli showed, in a research paper titled “Toward bringing the education outputs of the media faculties into accord with the labour market”, the extent of the media faculties' suitability to the requirements of the media labour market, and the effect of that on the media graduates in the Strip.

The attendees praised “Pal-Think's” efforts in training youth in scientific research, and the trainees' effort, and presented recommendations to improve the research papers.

It is recalled that 20 trainees joined the project, which contained 10 intensive training days in intellectual writing and freedom of expression, and in the skills of communication, presentation, and body language. The trainees presented 10 research papers on diverse issues concerning youth and society, and presented their papers on Alwan radio; they will also be presented in discussion sessions with the attendance of an elite of academics and researchers, and finally “Pal-Think” will publish these papers in a booklet. This project comes within “Pal-Think's” efforts, continuous from 2007 until now, in supporting and empowering Palestinian youth, to be able to build their state and contribute positively to sustainable development.