Dialogue meeting on "The reality of political participation of Palestinian youth in local authorities"
Within the activities of the "A Step Towards Change" project
The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, in partnership with the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) office, held a dialogue meeting on "The reality of political participation of Palestinian youth in local authorities" on Wednesday 16 August 2017 at ten in the morning.
Ms. Samar Hamad, lobbying and advocacy campaigns consultant at the Centre, opened the meeting by welcoming the guests. At the start she stressed the need to highlight the importance of reviving student elections inside universities in order to increase the political participation of Palestinian young people. In the same vein, Dr. Fayez Shaldan, deputy dean of student affairs at the Islamic University, stressed that student elections are an important process within the university: they serve students' interests by providing material and moral support, train students in political participation and create a student body that acts as a link between the administration and students. For his part, Dr. Marwan Al-Agha, vice-president for administrative and financial affairs at Gaza University, stressed that student elections are a right for every student and a duty for universities to uphold, that elections are a means of achieving students' goals, that student elections should not be subject to security oversight, and that they help create a rising cultural and academic generation in society.
Dr. Medhat Saadallah, dean of student affairs at Al-Azhar University, stressed that student elections should be held in all universities at the same time and without security interference.
For his part, Dr. Ibrahim Abu Rahma, an academic at Gaza University, said there is no student council at his university but rather clubs and student bodies, explaining that political parties play a large role in student elections and that there is confusion and a lack of clarity among young people about what happens in the electoral process, whether inside universities or outside. He concluded by stressing that student elections are a right that students must claim from within the university.
Mr. Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi, projects manager at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution,
stressed the need to begin immediately and in practice to grant students their rights by holding student elections, which would genuinely help strengthen democracy within the university and would in turn strengthen young people's participation in the political process.
Youth activist Hanan Al-Wasfiya set out the reasons for weak youth participation from young people's own perspective: limited awareness among young people, and the political and economic obstacles that dominate their thinking.
At the end of the meeting, participants put forward a set of recommendations, the most important of which were:
- Raising young people's awareness of their political rights, particularly the elections law.
- Holding student elections at the same time in all universities.
- Unifying student bodies across the Gaza Strip in all universities.
- Activating the secretariat of student bodies.
- Urging the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to exercise its supervisory role over universities and to call for elections to be held.
Networking between universities and civil society organisations to raise young people's awareness and guide them on the importance of student councils and the electoral process.
- Working to change some of the internal regulations related to holding student elections.
