Workshop: Palestinian youth between extremism and moderation

Gaza. In continuation of the philosophy of work of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, represented in strengthening dialogue and joint thinking aiming at spreading awareness around the issues that concern the Palestinian affair, present and future, Pal-Think for Strategic Studies organised a workshop titled “Palestinian youth between extremism and moderation”, in cooperation with the Bar Association and the Center for Development Studies – Birzeit, with the participation of a number of representatives of civil-society organisations, the political forces, academics, interested persons, and youth activists — with the goal of shedding light on the reality of Palestinian youth at the present time regarding the concept of extremism and moderation, and strengthening the idea of the middle way and participation in all the faces of communal life.

The workshop was moderated by Ms Dhikra Ajour, the project's coordinator at Pal-Think, and she welcomed the participants and the speakers, and indicated that the workshop is one of the activities of the project “Toward strengthening the public policies of good governance and respect for women's rights and the values of tolerance in the Gaza Strip”, funded by the Swiss government. The workshop was opened by Ms Reham al-Wahaidi, member of Pal-Think's board of directors, affirming Pal-Think's general principles providing for strengthening and entrenching the attention to research work, forming new networks of experience and competence in the multiple fields of research, and networking with the international research centres and universities to widen the research perspective on the issues.

In his turn, Mr Salama Bseiso, the deputy head of the Bar Association, welcomed the guests and the speakers, and noted that Palestinian youth face great difficulties, the most important of them poverty, unemployment, the Israeli blockade, the political division, and the separation of the West Bank from Gaza — which eases the youth's heading toward extremism, drug use, and family and communal violence. He affirmed the necessity of serious communication with the youth at all the levels to know what goes on in their minds, to avoid the dangers of the consequences of isolation and intellectual fanaticism in society.

The workshop included three fundamental axes: the lawyer Amjad Shurrab spoke in the first axis, carrying the title “The cultural, economic, and social rights of Palestinian youth”; while Ms Islah Hassanieh, member of the Palestinian Bar Association, touched on an important axis titled “Palestinian youth and extremism in all its types.. causes and solutions”; as for the last axis in the workshop, Mr Ghassan Abu Hatab, coordinator of the Center for Development Studies – Birzeit, spoke in it about “The political participation of the youth in Palestinian society”.

The workshop concluded with a set of constructive recommendations, represented in the necessity that the Palestinian youth organisations found a new stage of youth work in Palestine resting on professionalism and expertise, based on the youth needs and priorities, such that their activities and programmes include a realisation of the principle of complementarity in work and a strengthening of the principle of the optimal investment of the human and material resources; besides the necessity of reconsidering how to activate the youth's energies and re-attract them to the parties and public work, and activating the role of the civil institutions through reformulating their priorities and programmes in harmony with the national agenda in a way that achieves complementarity in work between them and the official institutions; and providing the incubating environment for the youth's participation, including looking at the various variables such as the political culture and the social variables such as education, profession, sex, age, and income; in addition to the necessity of strengthening the foundations and principles of the educational process and strengthening the culture of accepting the other, non-fanaticism, and respect for the different opinions in the educational curricula in the basic educational stages. The attendees also affirmed the necessity of ending the Palestinian-Palestinian division immediately, because it is among the most prominent factors supporting extremism, especially among the youth category; they also affirmed that the family must remain in the domain of the middle way and keep away from the manifestations of family violence, being the fundamental incubator of the youth and the source of upbringing; and the necessity of ending the Israeli blockade, opening the crossings, and improving the living conditions of the Palestinian citizens.