Last week, the KAS office in Ramallah welcomed the Axel Springer Academy from Germany in Palestine. Throughout the day, our guests were introduced to our experts in order to have a closer look on local and regional challenges Palestinians face.
On Thursday morning, the delegation attended a briefing given by Xavier Abu Eid from the PLO Negation Affairs Department. He provided our guests with an overview on the political challenges, especially with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He further provided insights into local politics and offered the participants an outlook on Palestinian politics.
Later on, the group met with the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Dr. Khalil Shikaki. He presented the main findings of his public opinion poll to provide the group with empirical evidence about the public perception and its implications for the policy-makers. Shikaki then drew on the data as a starting point to discuss future developments in the region.
After the delegation had lunch and discovered the colorful and lively city center of Ramallah, Ines Abdel Razek, an advisor on diplomacy and international cooperation, and Derrar Ghanem, co-founder of our partner BuildPalestine, joined the group in the KAS office to talk on behalf of the Palestinian youth. While they presented the obstacles the young generation faces, they also highlighted initiatives to deal with the unsatisfying situation.
The group finally met with the journalist Mohammad Daraghmeh who addressed challenges regarding the media and press in Palestine. He pointed out the multiple layers of violations of freedom of speech that local journalists have to deal with and thereby provided the basis for a wide array of questions from the aspiring journalists.