Pal-Think contributes to lifting the blockade on Gaza

By Dr Nasser Ismail al-Yafawi

The human being is built, in his thinking and his conduct, on a state of acquisition from the other on one hand, and on an inheritance of traits and qualities inherited from the characteristics of his culture derived from the nation to which he belongs..

That is, there is an inclination that dwells in the human being and moves his aspirations, related to his love of gaining knowledge through contact with the other — and the matter is not confined to theoretical knowledge but goes beyond it to practical knowledge as well.

These visions we touched objectively during the contact with the Pal-Think institution, the pioneer in the Gaza Strip and distinguished by a group of objective, wise management represented in the thinker and economic strategic expert Omar Shaban, and an elite of the thinkers and pioneers of Pal-Think — international in extension, local in origin..

Pal-Think, which enjoys a high degree of knowledge and of its kind, dependent on the knowledge environment that contains the human being's activities — so we realised that the more the environment is distinguished by a civilised human culture, the closer the human being who is active in this environment is, in his culture, to this style of thinking and conduct as well. This saying applies to those practices the pioneer of Pal-Think pursues, with his cries aiming at breaking the wall of silence surrounding the Gaza Strip, cut off from the world: yesterday he held a dialogue with the Egyptian ambassador and cast into his memory qualitative issues concerning Gaza, its suffering, and the future of its relation with the neighbouring states..

And today the cry was deeper, and perhaps the voice faster than the speed of light, when there was the qualitative meeting with the American Consul in Jerusalem, and the purposeful and frank dialogue session with a group of the Gaza Strip's academic, political, cultural, and economic elites — to create the first direct contact, and the first realistic dialogue exchange under siege between Gaza's pioneers and the American administration since the official announcement of the blockade of Gaza — for the Pal-Think institution to announce, in a non-sloganeering audible voice, that it has contributed, even partially, to breaking the stagnation and the blockade on Gaza; and for (Omar Shaban) to cry out with his thought that we think here in Gaza, (therefore we exist)

Pal-Think realised with its dialogues that the knowledge environment is what shapes the human being's personality, and on this basis the patterns of conduct and ideas were determined for this Gazan society, thirsty for freedom, communication, and knowledge. And here there ripens with great clarity the role of the contemporary, methodical human culture at Pal-Think in building Palestinian society, out of its realisation that culture is the moral spring that contributes to a great extent to building the personality of the individual and of Palestinian society

We realised, after the brainstorming meetings we went through as writers and intellectuals, through our varied touching and our dialogues with all the colours of the spectrum and of thought, that (the question of culture is among the most important questions in every civilisation. Likewise that culture is what directs

the economy and politics, and whoever possesses it does not lose and does not shrink)

And it has become realised, through that pioneering Palestinian institution, that whoever wishes to enter the cultural field aiming at change must be armed with the weapon of thought and culture. Hence the dialogic, civilisational, cultural work that we drew from it was among the most important works and became by way of the substructure for the other works. Pal-Think's message arrived and touched our minds, and became the very truth, and shattered the frozen idols of stone — and we still await more..

Dr Nasser Ismail al-Yafawi, secretary-general of the Arab Intellectuals Initiative