A training meeting on the art of debating

On Wednesday 7 September 2016, the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution delivered a training meeting on the art of debating for 50 young men and women from different disciplines and interests across the Gaza Strip governorates, within the activities of the project "An Advanced Step Towards Social Accountability", funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.
The training aims to strengthen debaters' listening and time-management skills and to root them more deeply among young people, whether personally or institutionally, and to deepen the art of dialogue so that young people can hold their position with ease. It is not about proving political or economic points so much as the ability to build arguments and use particular strategies around the question being debated. The training also seeks to prepare a generation of young debaters able to debate all community, political and economic issues, using reason, logic, arguments and evidence to make them effective debaters.
This art has basic conditions, which trainer Mr. Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi set out: several points must be observed, including that each of the two debating teams avoids being dogmatic about its own view and declares its full readiness to seek the truth and accept it; that the debaters keep to polite speech, free of mockery of the opponent's view; that they use sound methods of persuasion; and finally that they accept the conclusions both sides reach after a long discussion supported by conclusive evidence.