Pal-Think delivers the workshop «The culture of dialogue and accepting the other»

The Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution carried out a workshop titled “The culture of dialogue and accepting the other”, within the project “Strengthening democratic education” funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NDE), held at the Educational Forum association in Nuseirat in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

The meeting, which aims at making the youth aware of the methods of dialogue and the values of tolerance and accepting the other, and the positive effect of such a culture on Palestinian society, was attended by around 20 male and female students of different university specialisations.

In the meeting's opening, Mais Zaqout, the administrative assistant of the Pal-Think institution, spoke of her institution's educational role and the projects the institution works on, in addition to the institution's attention to the youth category in particular, and the effect of the project within which the workshop is held on the trainees participating in it, and the importance of these meetings held in all parts of the Gaza Strip.

Wissam Abu Awad, a business-administration graduate and a trainee who passed the training-of-trainers course carried out within the project, began the meeting with a brainstorming process with the attendees around a picture illustrating the difference of opinion between persons and how each side can convince the other of what it sees as correct. She spoke of the concept of the word dialogue and its goals, as the fundamental goal of the dialogue process is establishing the argument and repelling the doubts and the corrupt opinions and sayings, in addition to many other secondary goals.

Wissam continued discussing with the attendees the rules of dialogue, its manners, and the methods of successful dialogue, before showing an entertaining video illustrating the negative results of disagreement for the parties to the dialogue — whereas when using the method of dialogue and tolerance, the viewpoint of the two sides arrives in the correct form, which gives a positive return to the parties of the dialogue.

The participants expressed the extent of their benefit from the meeting's subject and the discussions that took place during the meeting, recommending the importance of such awareness meetings, and their pressing need for spreading such cultures, which would lighten the severity of the problems from which the Strip suffers.