Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, in partnership with UNRWA’s Multiple Intelligences Academy, held a workshop entitled ” Philosophy of Non-Violence and its Integration with Social and Self-Intelligence” in Rafah, the Sothern area of the Gaza Strip. This workshop is a part of “The Benefits of Non-Violence as a Culture and Instrument for Conflict Resolution” project, funded by FXB international, aiming to disseminate nonviolence culture and confronting violence in peaceful and civilized ways. The project basically targeted 22 young male and female university graduates in all of the Gaza Strip governorates through a training course for 10 days. The course was designed to focus on nonviolent communication and peacebuilding, tolerance and accepting others, lobbying, advocacy and their role in conflict resolution, models of nonviolence in the Palestinian history and other related topics. Successfully, trainees completed this course and are currently working on spreading this culture of nonviolence within their society through 25 awareness-raising, educational and creative activities in collaboration with several institutions. The trainee Duha Sha’at, an English Literature graduate, implemented her first activity, in the presence of UNRWA Operations Advisor, Yousef Mousa, Deputy Director of the Educational Area, Serene Al-Shareef, the Representative of the Academy, Mona Awadallah, the Head of Pal-Think, Omar Sha’aban.

Mr. Omar opened the session by initially thanking the initiative implementers and the children attendees. He highlighted Pal-Think’s role in connecting Gaza with the outside world and the importance of targeting the new generation of Palestinian youth and deepening nonviolence culture, tolerance and mutual dialogue. Simply, young people need to be empowered so as they could positively influence their society. After that, Doha started by the initiative activities which instilled the concept of nonviolence within these children as an emerging group at this stage as well as employing social and self-intelligence in spreading this culture. They also dedicated to promoting the values of citizenship, co-existence, community participation, tolerance, and accepting others. Those were interspersed with recreational activities based on teamwork, analysis, and musical contributions presented by children in collaboration with Edward Said Institute of Arts and Music.

Interestingly, this one-year- project also targets civil society organizations which in turns implement initiatives to strengthen and spread nonviolence culture and community peace.