Pal-Think holds a special video-conference meeting with American students

The Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution organised a special meeting via video-conference technology with twenty-three American male and female university students who are making a current visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel until the middle of this month, on the morning of Monday 12/8/2013, with the goal of knowing and becoming acquainted with the latest developments the Palestinian territories live through in general and the Gaza Strip in particular. A number of the members of Pal-Think's board of directors and a number of its staff participated in the meeting, along with representatives of civil society and young activists.

Mr Omar Shaban, director of the Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution, opened the meeting by welcoming the American students and the participants, and began the discussion by thanking the visiting students for their interest in what goes on of events in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories in general, and his affirming the importance of this meeting, which is considered an opportunity to spread the beautiful and true picture of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people abroad. He also presented a summary covering the most prominent situations the citizens in the Gaza Strip live through, especially the young category of them: Mr Shaban spoke of the issue of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and what has resulted from it of isolation and constriction upon the Palestinians in their daily life, bringing out the repercussions of the blockade on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and the future of the two-state solution.

From their side, the guests expressed their happiness at the opportunity of dialogue with persons from inside the Gaza Strip, given that it is the first time they do a similar thing, and they described the meeting as a good opportunity for them to become acquainted and touch on several essential issues, through raising and directing important questions to those present. The guests focused on the situations in the Gaza Strip before and after the unilateral Israeli disengagement in 2005, in addition to the Palestinian position and public opinion on the issue of the negotiations. The guests raised in the discussion the unreassuring future of the Gaza Strip in light of the continuation of the Israeli blockade and how it affects living life, and then they asked about the role of Palestinian youth and their activity in society.

From their side, the participants commended the necessity of supporting the peace process in the Middle East, asking the guest students to spread and acquaint their friends and relatives with all that was discussed upon their return from their trip, and to press the concerned bodies to play a greater role toward ending the occupation and the strangling blockade, which has resulted in a deterioration of the health and environmental situations and led to an increase in fanaticism, extremism, and narrowness of horizon among many of the Palestinian youth. At the session's conclusion Mr Omar affirmed the necessity that these activities be purposeful, that they support the Palestinian institutions and consolidate their relations with the international institutions, for the sake of elevating the living standard in Palestine and for the sake of securing a brilliant future for a people that has long dreamed of stability and living in peace. In the end the participants expressed their happiness at the meeting, describing it as a good step toward breaking and surpassing the blockade imposed on Gaza for years, and a wonderful opportunity for acquaintance between the Palestinian youth and the American youth.