MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Ramallah -- MIFTAH recently held a student meeting at An-Najah University on the role of the General Union of Palestinian Students [GUPS] and ways to develop it. Dozens of students attended, including representatives from the student movement and the university’s student council.

During the meeting, a factsheet was presented, which shed light on the most important stages in the history of the Palestinian student movement, which peaked with the establishment of GUPS. The participants discussed the conferences held by the Union and how its structure could be developed and role revived in a way that coincides with the socio-political changes in Palestine. In this context, they discussed the structure, national conference, board of directors and administrative and executive bodies of GUPS and how they are represented in its branches. They also discussed the status quo of GUPS, namely after its conferences stopped convening in 1990. Attempts were made after this to revive the democratic process in GUPS in 1998 by convening its administrative council in Gaza and which resulted in the election of a new executive body.

The participants’ recommendations stressed on the interventions necessary to revive GUPS, including a number of issues such as: getting a feel of the atmosphere in universities to ensure the readiness of the student movement to push for a revival of GUPS; putting pressure on decision makers in the PLO through galvanizing student movements across the spectrum and calling on them to take on their rightful role in the administration of the bodies they represent.; to put pressure on political parties and factions to assume their responsibilities in reactivating GUPS and to take seriously the demands of the student movement in galvanizing its role as a unifying force; to adopt a larger representation of females; to determine the age of the GUPS president and the number of times he/she can be reelected; and to consider every Palestinian university a branch of GUPS.

The participants pointed to the setback in the role of the student movement due to the slackness of PLO political parties and the irregularity of the democratic process inside universities, by which students usually choose their representatives in student councils. However, lately, because of the political conditions which have reflected on the student movement in universities, the process of holding regular and periodic elections has been disrupted. This has deprived students from exercising their right to an elections process during their time at university.

MIFTAH project manager, Hassan Mahareeq said the meeting was part of MIFTAH’s endeavor to influence public policies and the internal regulations of parties active in the Palestinian arena. The objective of this, he said, is to guarantee the fair representation of youth within these parties as a basis for social justice and equality, to cement the foundations of democracy and good governance and so that youth can regain places that guarantee their representation in the Palestinian political system.

GUPS is the most significant popular union for the student movement and is considered the legitimate channel for guaranteeing representation of the youth movement in the PLO. Furthermore, it is a platform for policy-making to encourage, integrate and involve youth in public affairs.

This is the third meeting held at a Palestinian university, preceded by similar meetings in Birzeit and Hebron Universities. MIFTAH implements this project as part of its “Youth Empowerment” Program in cooperation with and support from the Palestinian Arab Investment Company [APIC].

 
 
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