The «Preparing and writing research papers» training concludes

“Pal-Think for Strategic Studies” concluded a training programme titled “Preparing and writing research papers”, within the project “Youth Forum for Politics and Development”, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which aims at building the capacities of rising Palestinian youth in strategic thinking and communal work, with the participation of 20 trainees, university students and graduates from different specialisations.

The director of the “Pal-Think” institution, Omar Shaban, said that this training comes within “Pal-Think's” efforts, continuous since 2007, in the service of economic and political development, and especially for the youth, to advance their research capacities — as this training will help the trainees in analysing the current issues, and shedding light on the rights of the Palestinian people to convince non-Palestinians of them.

The trainer Islam Atallah said: “This training focused fundamentally on the practical application of scientific research: I applied the mechanism of analysing the conflict environment, which I acquired from a specialised course “Pal-Think” presented previously, and taught it to the trainees so that they develop their capacity in digging for information”. He pointed out that the trainees will issue four research papers on: the effect of Israeli digital diplomacy on Israeli foreign policy, the effect of the Palestinian division on the water crisis, begging, and the extent of the Palestinian visual media's capacity to influence international public opinion.

On the first day the trainees became acquainted with deriving the subject of the research problem and how to formulate it; on the second day, with dividing the axes of the research paper; and finally with finding varied reliable sources of information and the different documentation mechanisms, in addition to reviewing many varied research papers.

The trainees expressed their gratitude to “Pal-Think”: the trainee Nour al-Louh (23 years), a psychologist, said on behalf of the trainees: “We thank the Pal-Think institution, represented by its director Mr Omar Shaban, as a patron of the youth, for all the trainings we received within the Youth for Politics and Development project, which developed our skills and personalities, and eased our path to the future”.

In the same context, Haya al-Ghalayini (18 years), a commerce student, said: “In short, the training is more than wonderful. Before the training, I had a passion and curiosity to know how to write the research paper. For me, the most important thing I learned is finding the two variables, the dependent and the independent”.

As for Amjad Abu Kmeil (23 years), a civil engineer, he said: “We as youth must speak to the world about our reality and our issues, and this training taught us to formulate these issues in a research paper to address the world in a logical and convincing way and by relying on reliable information”. He added: “In the coming period I will write a research paper on the effect of the absence of programmes qualifying the youth for marriage on the divorce rate in the Gaza Strip”.

It is recalled that this training is the last in the project “Youth Forum for Politics and Development”, which extended from July to December 2019, at 80 training hours, divided into five training programmes: leadership and communication skills, building the digital identity on the social-media sites, methods of lobbying and advocacy in human rights and democracy, conflict-resolution and communal-peace-building skills, and preparing research papers — in addition to ten varied lectures in Palestinian history, democracy, law, and international politics, presented by an elite of specialists.