MENARY Monitor – Edition 107
April 16, 2023
Politics and Political Engagement
The Palestinian Authority continued its targeted arrests of Palestinian youth, arresting three students from Hebron University over the past week. The political arrests campaign continue, despite calls for its cessation and the release of detainees during Ramadan, according to the statement of the Committee of the Families of Political Detainees. Despite that, the Palestinian Authority has arrested around 20 Palestinian students from various universities under various arbitrary charges, most of whom remain in detention facilities for several weeks without a trial.
Police in Iran said they have implemented a plan to deal with women who violate the country’s dress code, as the number of women defying the dress code that headscarves must be worn in public has increased since a protest movement following the murder of Mahsa Amini. A statement on the police website said action would be taken over violations in public places, in cars and other sites where hijab is sometimes removed. The statement added that “technology will be used for the smart identification of people who break the law. Removing hijab is considered a crime, and the police deal with social anomalies within the framework of the law.”
Economics and Entrepreneurship
A recent study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) finds that digital labor platforms (DLPs) can help alleviate unemployment among vulnerable groups in Jordan by providing them with access to short-term, remote work opportunities. The study examines the differences in working conditions between platform-based and traditional work in the fields of translation and writing as well as creative and multimedia activities. The study stated that platform workers tend to be younger than their counterparts in traditional forms of employment, which are marked by more variability in age. It also showed that platform workers were, on average, more educated than traditional workers. However, they tend to be paid less than traditionally employed individuals.
The Directorate of Parliament and Civil Education in Damietta, Egypt, implemented a number of workshops under the National Awareness Building Forum, titled “Youth conscious towards future leadership.” The workshops aimed to support 100 young Egyptians to be able to contribute to the Egyptian economy. The initiative’s workshops aim to motivate young people to discuss the most important societal issues surrounding it and gathering their views around them with a view to finding solutions through constructive democratic dialogue and raising youth’s awareness of the most important issues facing society, along with raising their awareness of the importance of their participation in the implementation of the state’s development initiatives.
The Qena Governorate Population concluded a training workshop of 300 young men and women from various youth centers, as part of the “Start Your Success, Achieve Your Dream” initiative to qualify young people for the labor market and to create jobs in dignified villages. The initiative will provide training aimed at spreading the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, training employers to develop their enterprises, as well as supporting SMEs and providing them with the necessary expertise in their work. The initiative also aims to train and qualify 5,000 young people in the initial phase during 2023, as well as enable young people to improve their performance in the market by offering them some benefits through the Bank of Egypt, including special offers on their financial services targeting entrepreneurs.
Conflict
The Israeli occupation forces attacked and wounded a young man near the “Kiryat Raba” settlement in Hebron. Palestinian activists deliberated on the news that the occupying forces had shot a young Palestinian. The young man was also arrested by occupation forces after being severely beaten with the participation of settlers.
Two young Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli occupation army during a raid in Nablus. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, medical staff on the ground also transferred a Palestinian youth who was shot in the shoulder to the Rafidia Surgical Hospital. The killings come after the recent killing of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.
The Israeli occupation forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in a raid on a West Bank camp, amid wider clashes during a settler march and a mass intrusion into the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinian medical sources said that the young boy was killed as Israeli forces stormed the Aqabat Jaber near Jericho in the West Bank. The young boy was hit with three bullets to the head, abdomen, and pelvis during the clashes. Two other civilians suffered bullet wounds to their lower bodies and five other civilians were arrested. The Israeli occupation army has killed 96 Palestinians in the West Bank this year, seven of whom were from Jericho. More than 100 Palestinians have been arrested in that time.
A deadly landmine explosion in Syria killed at least six people who were foraging for truffles in the countryside in the Deir Ez-Zor area, a former stronghold of Daesh. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, put the number killed at nine, adding that this incident brings the number of civilians reported killed this year as a result of the explosion of mines and other explosive objects left over from the war to 139, including 30 children.
Development
The Jerash Youth Directorate, Jordan, organized a seminar titled “Dialogue and Tolerance against Violence and Extremism” attended by 100 young people. The aim of this seminar was to raise youth’s awareness and create positive values and trends, especially as youth, security and community peace are a key focus of the National Youth Strategy, through which projects are emerging to strengthen the role of young people in achieving security and peace and rejecting of violence and extremism. The seminar emphasized the importance of rational dialogue to deter violence and extremism.
The Egyptian-German Centre for Employment, Migration, and Reintegration organized free training courses for young people in all governorates, especially those most exporting of illegal migrants, in order to provide safe alternatives for young people, within the framework of the action plan of the Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Affairs Abroad, to combat the issue of illegal emigration.
Education
The Arab Youth Researchers Council announced two new partnerships with the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils and the Emirates Research Center, with the aim of cooperating in empowering young researchers and supporting them in transforming research ideas into promising projects that encourage investments to reflect positively on economic, social, and human development paths. Partnerships were signed to consolidate their mutual efforts to strengthen the role of Arab youth in theoretical and applied scientific research. The areas for cooperation include the implementation of joint scientific activities, organizing specialized forums to exchange ideas and successful practices for young researchers, providing technical services in the field of studies, research, and reports, evaluating research projects to achieve the goals of sustainable development in the Arab States, and using modern information technologies to benefit young researchers in the Arab world. The two sides will also cooperate in an annual honorary award for applied scientific research.
The Palestinian Al-Tahrir Political Party is implementing an extensive campaign against the CEDAW Convention and the Children’s Rights Act. The party organized visits to the Directorate of Education, schools and the municipality of Nuseirat in the central region. They highlighted the gravity of the Children’s Rights Act and the Convention on which it was based, “from pitting the student against their parents and teachers, treating parents as custodians without the slightest regard for their righteousness and well-being, and even enabling children to file complaints against their parents to the responsible authorities, leading to their imprisonment.”
Environment
A young Jordanian woman developed a technology that reduces water loss and leakage by up to 20%, while saving about 10% of household water consumption. Hiba Asaad led SmartWTI, a startup team, to establish a technology to track water consumption and quality via electronic tracking devices by using the latest technology that integrates artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and electronic equipment and software on mobile phones and computer via two models in Mafraq and Jerash governorates. The developed by the young team contributes to water security by creating alternatives to the negative behaviors in water consumption. Asaad stresses that the establishment of her project is a firm belief that achieving decent livelihoods is a right for all, stressing that she has begun to devise methods that help reduce the use of water to sustain this vital natural resource.