Study day: Student council elections in Gaza's universities — obstacles and solutions

In the belief in youth and their capacity to achieve change, and in affirmation that syndicate and student activities have the capacity to entrench the principles and culture of constructive dialogue to treat the repercussions of the pending political issues in Palestine, embodied in the division, the Youth Forum for Reconciliation and Tolerance at Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, in cooperation with the secretariat of the student frames in Gaza City, organised a study day titled “Student-council elections in Gaza's universities: impediments and solutions”, with the attendance of a large number of youth, university students, and personalities of civil society.

The encounter was opened with a word by Mr Omar Shaban, head of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, who welcomed the attendees and guests and praised the role of the secretariat of the student frames and this student structure, which comprises students from the various political spectra. He affirmed that Pal-Think, as an independent institution, works to strengthen the secretariat's role in putting forward its topics of a kind to bridge the gulf between the members of the different factions — and this in turn will form a step on the road to the social reconciliation that will lead to the comprehensive political reconciliation. He likewise stressed the importance of entrenching the principles of democracy and working to understand the impediments that prevent the holding of the elections. He made clear that the possibility of communication between the universities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has an effective role in melting the ice and easing the road before the holding of the elections.

For his part, the professor of sociology Dr Rafiq al-Masri discussed the effect of the disabling of the elections on the universities and on the students enrolled in those universities. He pointed out that one cannot surrender to the repercussions of the division, which are of a kind to stop the democratic process embodied in the holding of the elections. He set out the extent of the negativity of the factional framing of students in the universities, which is the matter that impedes the completion of the democratic processes in the universities. He pointed to the importance of uniting around the university demands and moving away from the pending issues such as the division, and beginning a student movement and forming pressure groups in order to ease the students' life and suffering.

Arafat Abu Zayed, coordinator of the secretariat of the student frames, reviewed a glimpse of the secretariat of the student frames, which was founded in order to unite the students belonging to all the Palestinian factions, such as the parties of the Liberation Organization and the Islamic and national forces, and pointed to the criteria and controls they work on and for, which pour into the student's interest and work diligently for the completion of the electoral processes in the Palestinian universities.

The encounter concluded with the division of the attendees into groups, each discussing the impediments facing the elections in the Palestinian universities and how these impediments can be reduced or removed completely. The young men and women spoke of many of the problems facing them on the way to achieving reconciliation, and pointed also to the ways of easing these problems. It was agreed to follow up the recommendations the workshop came out with, which aim to strengthen the role of students in the Palestinian universities in providing a suitable environment for the syndicate and political work that pours into the interest of improving the quality of higher education and its outputs.