Lecture: «Palestinian democracy — successes and failures»

The “Pal-Think” for Strategic Studies institution in the Gaza Strip held the eighth lecture under the title “The media and democratic education”, within the project “Strengthening the democratic and civic values of the youth”.

The lecture was presented by the writer and political analyst Mansour Abu Karim, with the participation of a group of 20 young women and men from the various universities and governorates of the Strip.
The lecture was opened by Omar Shaban, director of the “Pal-Think” for Strategic Studies institution, welcoming the participating young men and women and Mr Mansour Abu Karim.

Shaban spoke of the independent role of the “Pal-Think” institution in its dealing with different issues, pointing out that the institution strives to educate the youth and increase their knowledge and contributes to Palestine being present at the international level.
He added: “This project supports Palestinian youth and contributes to enriching the culture of democracy, and especially what relates to the Palestinian elections.
The writer and political analyst Mansour Abu Karim began the lecture speaking of the democratic experience in the Palestinian situation and what its points of weakness and points of strength are.

The lecturer Abu Karim continued: “We as youth attend to the Palestinian situation and study it and analyse it to reach clear convictions, to know the points of strength and how we strengthen them, and what the points of weakness are and how we avoid them”.
During the lecture he reviewed the Palestinian democratic experience and the history of the elections in the Palestinian situation, making clear the stages it passed through and the beginning of the formation of a Palestinian national identity and being.

The lecturer discussed with the participants the concept of democracy and the elections and what the Palestinian situation suffers from, stressing the necessity of strengthening the people's rule with all the components of democracy, because it is the source of the authorities.
He pointed out that the foundation of democracy is the people's sovereignty over themselves, their possessions, and their resources, noting that without that, democracy becomes formal and the citizen does not feel it.

Abu Karim said: “We as youth and individuals in society need to have a personal motive to strengthen participation in the elections, without allowing anyone to exploit our circumstances — and it is everyone's task to make people aware of the importance of the elections and democracy”.
At the lecture's conclusion the participants were divided into two groups, one expressing the points of strength and the other the points of weakness, with the goal of reviewing the Palestinian democratic situation and knowing its failures and successes.

It is recalled that the project “Strengthening the democratic and civic values of the youth” continues for six months, and includes ten educational lectures and radio episodes on the issues of democracy and political development in Palestinian society, in addition to three training courses in subjects related to fighting corruption and strengthening the instruments of societal accountability and transparency in Palestinian society.