Dubai: Despite the Palestinian-Israeli conflict being older than them, Arab youth under the age of 25 listed the Palestinian occupation — an issue many thought is forgotten — among the top five obstacles facing the region, the Arab Youth Survey found.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict was listed as the fourth major obstacle facing the region ahead of issues like the rise of living costs, civil unrest, lack of democracy and the threat of a nuclear Iran.
This finding might be surprising to many as the 67-year-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict is often perceived as a lost cause in the Arab world.
“Palestine is the core of it all. I believe that as long as the occupation continues, there will never be peace in the Middle East,” said Emirati Alia Mohammad, a 19-year-old studying international relations. “I don’t think Israel and its allies will let the Arab countries live in peace and unity because the uniting of Arab countries threatens Israel’s existence.”
Jordanian Samar Al Khatib, 24, said youth will never forget [the issue of Palestine].
“Even if we want to forget, how can we when just last year thousands of Gazans were killed by Israel? It will always be a pressing issue,” she said. Jay Leveton, CEO of Penn Schoen Berland, the polling firm that conducted the survey, said the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains among the top five issues because many of the Arab youth surveyed (like the Palestinians and Jordanians) are affected by the conflict.
