Lecture: Palestinian digital diplomacy

8 September, 2019

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies carried out a lecture titled “Palestinian digital diplomacy”, within the project “The Youth Forum for Politics and Development”, in cooperation with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Pal-Think hosted the university doctor in the field of media and journalism, Sami Aqila, with the participation of a team composed of 25 youth (13 females : 12 males) within the age category 18–25, who have the passion to learn about politics and development.

Dr Sami spoke of digital diplomacy generally and the need for its existence in Palestine compared with the other states, for its importance in putting forward the Palestinian issues and delivering them to the greatest possible number of people at a world level — as it is counted an important instrument for enriching communications with the public, creating direct personal channels of communication with citizens abroad, and strengthening freedom of expression and democracy.

During the lecture Dr Sami took up a number of principal issues, among them the concept of diplomacy, popular diplomacy, and digital diplomacy, in addition to talk of the goals of digital diplomacy. He likewise made a comparison between Palestinian and Israeli digital diplomacy, and presented successful world models and experiences of digital diplomacy.

Dr Sami concluded the lecture by presenting 3 questions to the participants to discuss and answer, comprising the following:

• What is the effect of Israeli digital diplomacy on Palestinian society?
• What is Palestinian youth's role in supporting digital content (digital, popular/youth diplomacy)?
• What are the mechanisms of making Palestinian digital diplomacy?