The story did not start Jan. 10 when R.B., a young Gazan, tried to jump off the roof of his house in Rafah city and threatened to kill himself if he was not allowed to meet with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to state his demands. The story began years earlier, as the youth living in the occupied Palestinian territories faced mounting frustrations. According to a 2013 a report by Sharek Youth Forum, youth make up 29.8% of residents of the Palestinian territories, while a quarter of them live in poverty and a third are unemployed.
With the successive crises, the youth found no other alternative than social media pages, which became emergency rooms to tackle them. Activists believe that the first solution should be to separate the Ministry of Youth from the Ministry of Sports, which are currently combined into a single ministry led by Minister Mohammed al-Madhoun, who is also the culture minister.
