“If you can make it in Palestine, you can make it anywhere.”
The latest webinar in our “Mobilizing for Gaza” series convened three Palestinian job creators who are delivering innovative initiatives that invest in Palestinian talent while creating dignified employment opportunities: Abeer Abu Ghaith, founder of MENA Alliances, Jafar Shunnar, co-founder of TAP, and Fadi Issawi, co-founder of HopeHub.
We encourage you to catch up with the discussion here.
Here are links to the various initiatives led by our speakers:
- MENA Alliances: https://menaalliances.com/jobsforpalestine/
- HopeHub: Donate to support the Gazan freelance community
- TAP: https://www.tapcareers.io/future
Some key takeaways:
💡 Beyond aid, people in Gaza are requesting employment opportunities. Among the destruction, hopelessness, and dehumanization of the genocide, they want to feel a sense of dignity and normalcy through sustainable livelihood-generating opportunities.
💡 The local market is insufficient in meeting the employment demands of the local population. We need to enable Palestinian youth to build the skills to work remotely and tap into the global economy.
💡 Palestine has a highly educated population skilled in creative problem-solving born out of decades of overcoming challenges posed by military occupation.
💡 Palestinian families invest heavily in education. Knowledge is something the occupation cannot take.
💡Palestinian job facilitators have creative solutions in place to mitigate the risks of hiring in Palestine. Employers should also adopt a social responsibility to create flexibility and avenues for Palestinian inclusion in the workplace.
💡When you support for-profit Palestinian companies, you help Palestinian economic development pivot from donor-dependence and charity. You help create a sustainable Palestinian economy.
Resources:
We hope you learned as much from attending this webinar as we did by organizing it. We invite you to join BuildPalestine’s interactive membership network, Under the Olive Tree, to plug into an active community of Palestinians and allies all working towards a better future for Palestine.