The «Dialogue with Youth» programme hosts Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh

Within the programme “Dialogue with the Youth”, Pal-Think for Strategic Studies hosted, at its headquarters in the Gaza Strip, yesterday Tuesday, 16 June 2015, the leader in the Islamic Jihad movement, Mr Khaled al-Batsh, with the attendance of an elite of young men and women from different areas of the Gaza Strip.

Mr al-Batsh's talk centred on the Islamic Jihad movement — its history, its emergence, its philosophy as a Palestinian faction in its relationship with the other factions (as a playing partner in the Palestinian scene and not a spectator) from one side, and in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict (as a resisting faction) from the other side; and the movement's position on what happens internally and regionally, and its strategic vision of Palestinian youth as a force of change toward the better. Mr al-Batsh reviewed the historical events of the Palestinian cause, and touched on talk of the Palestinian factions and their role in the development of the struggle, its forms, and its concepts.

The meeting discussed many important matters, among them: the developments and the sectarian and ethnic fragmentation in the region and their influence and interlacing with the Palestinian condition, and its negative effects on the Palestinian cause; the absence of the Palestinian cause from the Arab and European agendas; the difficult humanitarian situation of the citizens of the Gaza Strip; and the stalling of the Palestinian reconciliation and the effect of that in deepening the political and humanitarian crisis.

The youth, from their side, put to Mr al-Batsh many important questions, among which may be mentioned: Islamic Jihad's position on the two-state solution, the movement's vision of the Palestinian reconciliation, the Islamic Jihad movement's investments in the youth sector, the Islamic Jihad movement's position on the youth movement and the possibility of supporting it; and questions were put about the rockets launched from the Strip at Israel recently.

For his part Mr al-Batsh declared, as concerns the two-state solution, that Jihad will adhere to the Palestinian national consensus once it is reached — although his movement by its doctrine is against the idea of the two states'. On his movement's position on the reconciliation, Mr al-Batsh affirmed that Jihad is with the Palestinian reconciliation and national unity, and will always remain the supporter of national unity; and that his movement has no relation to the rockets launched from the Gaza Strip recently. As relates to the youth, he affirmed his movement's support for the youth sector, and considered them a strategic asset for the movement and for the homeland; he likewise called for the holding of university student elections, and considered this step fundamental for the beginning of change in Palestinian society through the youth.

In the end the attendees expressed Palestinian youth's need to exit the state of social, intellectual, and political paralysis that strikes the Palestinian condition, through the youth initiatives and programmes that strengthen the summoning of thought and purposeful dialogue among the youth themselves from one side, and between the youth and the holders of responsibility and decision from the other side.