The Shortfall of Development Policies to Address Youth Issues in Palestine

This paper aimed at learning about policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and the extent to which they are sensitive towards youth. It explored the change in the Palestinian society’s perception and status of youth as a result of the shift in the sociopolitical context. The change in the perception about youth was also a result of the change in actors in the area of youth and the practices they utilize. This paper found that most of the policies are youth blind; that there is not one single definition of youth; that family and penal laws and policies are totally blind towards young people and only deal with them from the perspective of young women and children; and that intersectionality of gender, religion, location and economic status need to be included in analysis of youth.