The title comes from the Arabic name for Gaza’s bustling 12^th century port and commercial hub. TIDA is a new, homegrown institution that harkens back to this ancient history of trade and exchange. Our aim is to connect Gaza to the world and the world to Gaza.

We are intellectual producers and brokers. We forge cross-border partnerships with leading thinkers from abroad to generate credible, independent policy-orientated research that sheds light on the most pressing problems confronting the people of Gaza.

TIDA belongs to the community and works to strengthen its resourcefulness. Our lean and agile staff operates with and through local partners, from universities to civil society groups.

We recruit and train promising young Gazan men and women in order to nurture a new generation of skilled and critically minded social analysts.

We equip and encourage media practitioners to tell their stories. Through blogs, journalism and video conferencing, they build bridges to a global audience and show the face of Gaza in all its diversity, complexity and humanity.

Our board includes eminent scholars like Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Members help shape and implement TIDA’s program agenda.

TIDA reflects the vision and values of its founder, Dr Eyad Sarraj, a human-rights activist whose life’s work has been the pursuit of political justice and moral dignity for the residents of Gaza. He has consistently spoken out on behalf of non-violence, inter-communal dialog and reconciliation, and the rule of law. An expert witness before the Goldstone Commission, he testified about the long-term psycho social impacts of war and siege.