Gaza's unemployed graduates: between Google and falafel
With the unemployment rate steadily on the rise in the Gaza Strip, many college graduates are taking and creating jobs outside their specialty.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Yasser Harara, a 25-year-old engineer, failed to make it to the final-round selections at the Gaza Startup Weekend held June 19 and co-sponsored by the Palestinian Telecommunication Group (Paltel), Google and other organizations. Startup Weekend bills itself as “54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, project managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups.” Harara presented a project about exchanging business cards via mobile phones. He did not lose hope after his project wasn't selected and in the end joined one of the winning projects as an assistant.
“I graduated two years ago, but I haven't found a suitable job. I presented this project today to try to get out of unemployment, but luck was not on my side. I did not get the required number of votes to be selected,” Harara said.
