Conflict Resolution Center holds a workshop entitled

Gaza: the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution held a workshop at Al-Azhar University in Gaza entitled "The role of the media in strengthening civil peace", within the events of the project "Women for civil peace". The meeting was held in the presence of Dr. Youssef Jouda, Mr. Akram Al-Bayari and Dr. Mahmoud Assaf from the university, Mr. Ibrahim Abu Rahma, assistant project coordinator, and a number of male and female participants among the university's students. During the workshop there was discussion of the media's role in the history of the Palestinian people. Mr. Akram Al-Bayari spoke about the history of the Palestinian media and its role in the Palestinian cause, explaining that the main purpose of the media's existence is to expose the schemes aimed at erasing Palestinian identity, and that it also plays a decisive role in the matter of settling a dispute between two quarrelling sides. Dr. Youssef Jouda likewise stated that the media's slide in the Palestinian outlets is part of the process of incitement and of inflaming the conflict between the parties, stressing that what is required of the media today is to spread a spirit of patriotism and harmony among the components of civil society and to work towards achieving national reconciliation and ending the division. For his part, Dr. Mahmoud Assaf stated that the media outlets are not the only ones to blame for inflaming the conflict; rather the narrow cultural and intellectual base is the foundation of the process of division. At the end of the workshop there were several interventions and an exchange of views between the workshop's guests and the participating students, and several recommendations were produced, the most notable of them being: employing the media message well and thoughtfully, focusing on community issues, adopting the term reconciliation and working to achieve it, and refusing to let the media be a means of manipulation and of spreading lies.