Ramallah- Today, MIFTAH capped off the first part of a workshop entitled “Promoting dialogue among Palestinian youths on political action” as part of its Supporting Young Palestinian Political leaders in partnership with the Irish and Norwegian representative offices.

MIFTAH CEO Dr. Lily Feidy said that the workshop is part of the institution’s interest in empowering and supporting young women leaders and which springs from its understanding of the challenges and problems faced by Palestinian youths. Dr. Feidy explained that MIFTAH launched the program to empower and support young women leaders back in 2003 aimed at enabling youth to have active and fruitful participation in contributing to the process of change and development in Palestine at the political and social levels. The project also aimed at providing a platform for youths for conflict transformation and building a consensus around opinions on vital issues regarding the transformation process in Palestinian society towards building a democratic state.

Around 24 representatives from the various factions participated in the workshop in addition to youths from student councils in Palestinian universities and colleges (Al Najah, Bethlehem, Arab-American, Al Quds , Hebron Universities and Al Aroub Technical College) where open dialogue between the group took place in order to break any barriers caused by demographic or partisan biases.

Over three days, a team of facilitators offered an analysis to the conflict and its variations, delving into the cultural and structural makeup of the communities of the conflict through identifying the goals, uncovering the contradictions and through social transformation in cases of conflict and strategic planning through participation. One of the contradictions was searching for the role of social inheritance in stereotyping the role of women and excluding them from political decision-making positions.

The participants were impressed with the methods used and the training methodology, all aimed at reviving the role of youths and enabling them to participate in positive social change. Daliyeh Lahaliyeh, an activist from Bethlehem University said the workshop was an eye-opener. “The differences between the participants are important in that they gave us the opportunity to get to know about the other parties and try to understand them more. This allowed some of us to rethink things that were permanent and nonnegotiable in our minds before we heard other opinions.”