Workshop: strengthening the language of dialogue among university students

The Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution carried out a workshop titled “Strengthening the language of dialogue among university students and graduates” in partnership with the Love and Peace association in the north of the Gaza Strip, within the project “The benefits of the culture of non-violence” funded by the FXB foundation, which aims at spreading and strengthening the culture of non-violence and confronting violence in a civilised manner, through targeting 22 young men and women of the university graduates in the Gaza Strip, who received a training course titled “The philosophy and culture of non-violence” in several subjects related to the non-violent aspect and the like, so that they spread the benefits of the culture and philosophy of non-violence in Palestinian society through several awareness and educational initiatives in cooperation with several grassroots institutions in the governorates of the Gaza Strip. The trainee “Maram Abu Harbid”, 23 years old, a computer-engineering student, who graduated from the course “The philosophy and culture of non-violence”, implemented her first initiative with the attendance of 25 students and graduates of various specialisations.

Maram opened the workshop introducing the institution and the project and its role in strengthening the culture of non-violence in society, and continued the meeting with an introduction to violence and its causes in a discussion and storytelling style simulating some of the experiences of the targeted youth. Maram also affirmed the necessity of taking dialogue as an instrument through which we surpass violence and its behaviours, in addition to definitions of dialogue and its patterns, and she continued with the rules of mastering dialogue to avoid the problems that lead to flaring up and violence, and how to spread the culture of dialogue in Palestinian society generally and in the university environment especially. The workshop included several activities, among them on how the dialogue proceeds between the university students and the university's teaching staff regarding some issue, on the model of lowering the fees. The atmosphere of discussion and joint thinking dominated the workshop, and the listening to the opinions that affirm the non-violent language of dialogue.