Birzeit University’s CDS and AFSC discuss the results of a field survey

Birzeit University’s Center for Development Studies (CDS) held on December 14, 2019, a joint workshop with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to discuss the outcomes of the field survey titled “The Palestinian Youth: Identity, Participation and Place,” conducted in 2018 as part of the project Palestinian Youth: Together for Change.

In the workshop, participants from Gaza and Birzeit University as well as representatives of international and Palestinian institutions working in the youth sector discussed the survey outcomes via videoconference.

Rami Murad, the coordinator of the Palestinian youth project, inaugurated the workshop from Gaza. He affirmed that the program, that has been going on for three years, has been crucial in introducing Palestinian youth from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the 1948 lands of historical Palestine to their national, collective identity.

The first session was moderated by Dawood Hammoudeh, the acting representative of the AFSC, and featured Ayman Abdul Majeed, a researcher at the CDS. Abdul Majeed explained the findings and outcomes of the field survey. Hasan Ladadweh, a professor of sociology at Birzeit University, shared his views on the outcomes and related them to the Palestinian context.

Jamal Juma’a moderated the workshop’s second session in which Emad Abu Rahmah, an advisor at Masarat Center in Gaza, presented an intervention with his vision of Palestinian civil society with respect to youth. He discussed ways to create shared spaces where youth can make contributions in order to facilitate their participation, especially when dealing with issues that relate to national identity and colonial fragmentation.

The workshop concluded with a series of recommendations that outlined mechanisms by which intersecting paths for the institutions involved in the workshop can be created. These mechanisms also aim at stimulating youth’s participation in discussing relevant social and economic concerns that are part of larger issues, such as national identity and fragmentation.

The survey and its outcomes will be available for download through the websites of the CDS and the AFSC.