For Prof Osama Hamdan, Palestinian youth need hope
The Jerusalem-based scholar talks about the lack of expectations for the future among young Palestinians. Some escape via education or migration. Others choose death and terrorism.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – Due to the difficult economic and political situation, young Palestinians have no expectations for the future. This causes despair and leads many to look for a way out through education and migration. When they find neither, some turn to death and terrorism.
The West Bank has a lot of young people. Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) indicate that in 2016 36.9 per cent of the territory’s population was under 15. Another 30 per cent was between 15 and 29 years. Unemployment among the latter is 39 per cent.
Speaking about Palestinian youth, Professor Osama Hamdan, 57, a professor of architectural restoration at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, said "Life is harder for them than four our generation.”
“It is the same for young people in Europe,” he noted, “but they also have problems due to the political situation. They have little hope, little confidence."
Hamdan’s students hope to find a job, perhaps by furthering their studies with a master or a doctorate. However, only 16 per cent found a job in 2016 according to the PCBS. This drives them out of the country. In the West Bank, 15 per cent said they want to leave, 73 per cent of them at least for a while.
"Of course they want to leave the country, but how can they?" Hamdan wonders. "There is no way out. Those who can go to the Gulf countries. Our best minds are there because the government has not been able to keep them."
Violence and conflict shape the new generations. "If you have this kind experience for 24, 25 years, it is difficult to hope for a better world, and it is easier to let go and close up. The fact that 'Arab' is associated with 'terrorism' does not help. Closure becomes violence. If you push a cat against the wall it can scratch."
Clashes and attacks in the Occupied Territories and Israel have intensified. According Hamdan, these very young attackers seek death. "If you face a soldier armed to the teeth with a pair of scissors, you cannot find anything but death."
This is what happened to Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, a young Palestinian from Hebron, who was killed as he was lying on the ground, wounded. His death has divided Israel over the responsibility of the Israeli soldier who shot him. A court sentenced the latter to 18 months in prison.
According to the Palestinian scholar "what young people need is hope, peace and respect." And many of them work with him.
“In his small way", he tries to help them, in particular with training projects at the Mosaic Centre-Jericho, an NGO he heads whose task is to protect and promote the Palestinian cultural heritage.
"For them, the hope is finding a job, something they might like: beautiful things, art, culture.”
For Hamdan, “All of this could become a bridge between religions, and between the old and the new."
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09/07/2007
22/01/2020 17:57
