MAS Hosts Partners’ Briefing to Welcome Incoming Director General Dr. Firas Milhem
Stakeholders discuss economic headwinds and collective responses amid ongoing crisis
Ramallah, 6 October 2025
The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) convened its Partners’ Briefing today at MAS headquarters in Al-Masyoun to welcome incoming Director General Dr. Firas Milhem, who will assume his position on 1 November, and to thank partners for their continued engagement.
Opening the event, Mr. Mazen Sinokrot, MAS Board of Trustees member and Chair of its Resource Mobilization Committee, welcomed attendees and thanked them for their support. He underscored the critical circumstances facing Palestine and the unprecedented catastrophic situation in Gaza, noting the operational and financial challenges these realities pose for research institutions, and MAS unique status and contribitions, most notably since the war on gaza . He called for collective efforts to safeguard evidence-based policy work and sustain public-interest research.
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Mr. Raja Khalidi, MAS’s outgoing Director General after completing his six-year term, briefed partners on ongoing work and active engagements, emphasing the increasing number of research outputs and the scope and depth of MAS response to the new challenges posed. He also extended his best wishes to his successor. Dr. Firas Milhem then addressed participants, outlining the risks and uncertainties confronting the Palestinian economy, some of tyhe main challenges he foresees, and emphasizing the importance of rigorous analysis and collaboration between institutions and with policy makers to navigate the period ahead.
The session concluded with a Q&A with partners, followed by informal exchanges over a light lunch prepared by the ASALA cooperative kitchen.