Given this
instability, thousands of talented youths emigrated from Gaza. In addition, businesspeople,
women, elite medical doctors, professors, and teachers, losing their faith in
Gaza’s future, made their way to Europe. Palestinian civil society in Gaza has suffered
from financial deficits, lack of international funding, and weak investment in
education, technology, and innovation.
I continue to be committed to my
principles and beliefs. We mustn’t give up, and we should continue to work,
especially with young people. In 2007, I established Pal-Think for Strategic
Studies as a “think and do” tank. We work closely with young Gazans who cannot
travel and are in desperate need of hope. One of the key activities of Pal-Think
was connecting Gaza youth with the outside world using digital pathways to
overcome the blockade. We hosted experts, activists, and postgraduate students
from Washington, London, Paris, and many other capitals to broaden young
Gazans’ understanding of what is going on at the international level.
Today’s
problems are the outcomes of yesterday’s shortsighted actions. The Israeli
policies that turned Gaza into a radical, poor, narrow-minded society, and the
absence of serious U.S. involvement in peace talks, are to be blamed for what
has been happening.