Pal-Think concludes the «Preparing Young Leaders» debate-training programme

In light of its continuing pursuit of empowering youth and entrenching the language of dialogue and acceptance of the other, Pal-Think for Strategic Studies concluded the debate-training programme “Preparing Young Leaders”, which aims to develop and strengthen the debating skills of young people of both sexes, encourage them to discuss with an organised strategy, and develop their capacities in delivery and in persuading others of the ideas and viewpoints they believe in, in a civilised and peaceful manner.

The training programme ran for two weeks, targeting 55 young men and women from all governorates of the Gaza Strip.

Islam Atallah, the trainer specialised in debating, noted that during the training programme — shaped to suit the young people's needs — an overview was given of debates and their different strategies, and of the mechanisms and tools of research and obtaining information from accredited sources so as to avoid falling into the trap of misleading news.

He said the training aimed to strengthen young people's skills and foundations in constructing discourse, and the skills of building arguments and evidence, rebuttal, refutation, and cross-examination. He added that these training topics work to strengthen young people's capacities to build and organise ideas, develop higher-order and critical-thinking skills, cultivate the skills of analysis, scientific research, and note-taking, and develop their ability to present balanced, constructive arguments and to use logic and evidence.

For her part, trainee Engy Abdel Aal (24) said that “Palestinian youth today in general, and the youth of the Gaza Strip in particular, need to develop their skills and knowledge in the subjects not addressed during university study, and to be involved and integrated in civil-society institutions. This is what Pal-Think pursues through its activities, which work to provide fertile ground for raising the topics that touch the reality of Palestinian youth, and try to lift them up through proposals and trainings that enable them to participate effectively in society, whether political or civic participation.”

She added that “the debating programme Pal-Think implements helps form a knowledge base for us through searching for information and documenting with evidence and proofs that engage reality and critique the conflict — and this is what brings us to the intellectual, knowledge-based, and political awakening of Palestinian youth.”

For his part, trainee Ibrahim al-Tartouri (22) said that “the trainers were specialists in debating, which marked a qualitative leap for me in acquiring the skills of reaching information. We likewise learned new strategies for adversarial dialogue and how to handle the statement of a view and its import — and this had a marked effect on my practical life in developing my debating faculty, and enabling me to present the ideas and views I believe in before an audience and defend them with scientific methods and approaches we learned during the training.”

It is worth noting that the trainees will carry out 20 debates in the universities and various local institutions, as one of the principal outputs and a practical application following the training they received — taking on the full coordination of the debates, to strengthen their skills in communication and coordination and integrate them further into the civil-society environment.