Tulkarem youth; hopes and fears in a troubled society

Dar Qandeel is a Cultural Centre in Tulkarem. It seems as though it is the only place for the Tulkarem youth to meet and socialise in the evenings, when the city becomes quiet and the generally conservative Islamic society retreat into their homes. Thus, for those young men in the age group 18-25 it is a place to play table-tennis, musical instruments, drink (heavily sugared) tea, and sing songs of Palestine late into the mild winter evenings. Yet these innocent pleasures are often regarded as slightly rebellious by Tulkarem society; as it is inappropriate for young women to socialise with unmarried men at this hour, the crowd is almost exclusively male.

Here I meet several young men aged 18 or 19, who are in their final year at school. For them, education beckons, but they face a bleak outlook for employment in their own country. As the expectant faces look keenly at me for advice on ‘what to study’ I think it seems logical to ascertain their interests at the outset. However, ‘interests’ are a luxury that Palestinian youth has little time for. Ask almost any 18 year old Palestinian what he or she wants to study and they’ll tell you “Engineering” or “Medicine”. Surely 30, 000 people don’t want to study the same two professions?

It seems strange to me that these young men believe it wise to choose a specialized career at such a young age. I come from a generation that believes in educating oneself broadly, yet it appears that this is not favourable in Palestine. Palestinians prefer to educate their children into becoming doctors, engineers or pharmacists. Young people realise that they are unlikely to find jobs in their chosen professions in Palestine, due to a vast pool of applicants with the same qualifications. Moreover, few wish to live in a country undergoing political turmoil, and whilst many young hearts will pledge their allegiance to Palestine, their eyes will turn to Europe or the United States.

However, one boy in particular disassociates himself completely from Palestine. He sees only pollution, poor infrastructure and a hopeless political future. He tells me of the beauty of Italy and the United States, and how he will leave Palestine to study and then live in Bologna. I humour him with a wry smile as he tells me of the wonders of Europe and the USA (neither of which he has visited). “Palestine” he says “…..is just dirty, there is rubbish everywhere. People just throw it around and don’t care.” Unfortunately, not only will his pessimism leave him bitter but will frustrate him when he finds that Europe is not always the land of milk and honey - particularly for young immigrants.

However, turning my attention back to the group and the pressing question, “what to study”, I find myself giving a political answer. “I think you should study business” I say. Ironically having studied neither economics nor business, I would be the least qualified to give them career guidance. However, from what I have seen of the Palestinian job market, it does not help to study in a field that will require one to look for an employer. Ideally Palestinians should be looking towards self-employment. Take the model of “Taybeh Beer” for example. Four brothers have literally put their home village of Taybeh on the map, through ingenuity and hard work. Taybeh Brewery, east of Ramallah, is the only Palestinian Brewery to export to Europe and the Middle East. The brothers take great pride in their business and their loyalty to Palestine shines through as they become increasingly involved in politics and development work in their beautiful village. It would be to Palestine’s credit, economically, if more Palestinians could start small businesses in the country, rather than plying their trades abroad.

However, apart from looking towards their careers, this age group of Palestinian society is heavily scrutinized, particularly by Israel. They are assumed to be particularly politically radical and extreme. Thus at any checkpoint, it is the 18-25 year old age group of Palestinians that are looked upon with great suspicion.

A conversation with an 18 year old at Dar Qandeel soon turns towards politics, and after touching on what he thinks of the parties competing in the up and coming Palestinian elections, I am interested to hear his views on the morality of suicide bombing. Immediately he says that attacks on innocent Israeli civilians within the State of Israel can never be justified. However, he believes that terror attacks against the Israeli Defence Force are an effective and morally acceptable response Israel’s occupation of Palestine. He justifies this by saying that the Israeli military is a force prepared for armed combat, and that they should not be surprised when the people that they subjugate rise up using any opposition tactic at their disposal. In the case of militant extremist groups, such as “Islamic Jihad”, the tactic is suicide bombing.

At this point it must be emphasised that none of the young men who socialise at Dar Qandeel are anything other than aspiring academics. They do not sit together and secretly draw their plans against Israel, over several cups of Lipton Tea. Quite on the contrary, they still have the self-conscious demeanour of young adolescents as they chat to me in broken English. Moreover, the conversation is not always so serious, either. We mull over who the best European Football Club is at the moment, and someone asks me if I think the Real Madrid- Barcelona derby is the fiercest rivalry in the world. I guess they have never heard of Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chiefs.

As the evening draws to a close and we battle to refuse anther cup of Arabic coffee, I say goodbye to the musicians and socialites of Dar Qandeel, until another night. They shake hands warmly and ask us when they will see us again. “Tomorrow… Inshalla*” I reply. As they relax back into their chairs and begin to sing another patriotic song for Palestine I realise that as long as adversity is in their way, these bright young minds will work ever harder in order to overcome these obstacles and reach their full potential.

* God Willing