On September 23, 2018, House of Wisdom Institute for Consultation and Conflict Resolution organized one of the training courses of its program: “The Palestinian Narrative and Western Media: Challenges and Prospects”. The institute hosted the New Zealand professor Alastair Thompson, who talked about “Palestine in the age of stupidity“.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Ahmed Yousef welcomed the guest and expressed his thankfulness and appreciation for the participation of Professor Alastair of this meeting and then left the floor Ms. Huda Jolie, media activist, to introduce her friend. After thanking HOW Institute and giving an overview of his work, Dr. Alastair shed the light on the title of his lecture, showing that it was an age of propaganda, fake news, changing news consumer and Social Media age and then showed the role of Facebook from all of this.
He also talked about the Arab Spring, the March of Return and the wars of 2008 and 2014. moreover, he presented some statistics, which witnessed an increase in the number of Palestinian martyrs and in contrast a decrease in the number of killed Jews from one war to another. After that, he showed What the age of stupidity means for Palestine’s struggle then he listed some points stating his opinion. He ended is lecture by saying: “Palestine is on the right path – a peaceful conflict via media – but it will need to do what needs to be done itself if it is to win its freedom and the justice it desires”.
At the end of the lecture, the discussion was opened and the audience asked Dr. Alastair some questions regarding the Palestinian cause and the role of social media.
