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News from the Field: "Activating" youth participation in the Palestinian political process

Given the “increasingly fragmented” Palestinian society as stated by the Secretary-General, on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people (29 November 2007), involving youth in the democratization process is essential.

Palestinians aged from 18 to 30, represents 45% of the voters. Palestinian youths are also highly represented in the alarming unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip (one third of the labor force) and in the West Bank (one quarter of the labor force).

UNDEF is supporting a two-year initiative entitled the “Youth Rights Monitor” developed by UNIFEM and PYALARA, the Palestinian Youth Association for leadership and rights activation. This project aims to enhance the participation of Palestinian youth in the national policy dialogue with a special focus on youth rights.

Initially designed as an exercise in parliamentary monitoring, the project has been reinforcing its communication and participation dimensions, in response to the current situation.

The project strategy is to involve young activists in two main activities: firstly, monitoring and being a watchdog of the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC) and secondly, advocacy and awareness-raising on youth rights.

This has been done by selecting a cadre of one hundred young men and women who are trained and assigned to three different committees:

• the PLC Committee is in charge of attending and observing the public sessions of the PLC and reporting on the PLC’s actions and debates; this action assigns young activists with the responsibility of being a policy monitor;


• the Media Committee works at the public and mass media level on communication and produces a specialized youth TV program; it publishes a youth newspaper, develops a special website for this project and produces thematic documentaries about issues of priority concern to young people often related to youth rights;


• the Grassroots committee is in charge of conducting awareness-raising workshops in coordination with local councils, youth clubs, schools and universities and of organizing two regional conferences targeting grassroots organizations and government representatives in the West Bank and in Gaza.

The recent political developments, in particular, regarding the PLC’s action have led to some adaptations in the project activities.

Despite the circumstances, PYALARA has continued, in the West Bank and Gaza strip, to conduct workshops and intensive training sessions to educate young volunteers on the role and functions of the PLC. Lubna Abu Safye, a 22 years old student at Birzeit University, explained that “the Youth Monitor Program” provided the trainees with the opportunity to observe and learn about the duties of the Legislative Council and enabled them to link their knowledge with their every-day reality.

Furthermore, PYALARA, concentrated on outreach activities with the view to “activate” youth and enhance its political mobilization. Meetings were held in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Through the distribution of a new publication entitled “the Youth Monitor Parliamentary Annex” an awareness campaign will be conducted on the consequences of the recent political developments for the Palestinian people.
Training sessions and workshops will continue to take place in universities and community centers.

This will, hopefully, contribute “to reverse the growing sense of despair” of the Palestinian population and will help realize the wish expressed by Harb, a Youth Monitor volunteer, when he said “Today’s monitor, tomorrow’s parliamentarian.”

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