Palestinian teens bring robotics dreams to global stage amid war

Five Palestinian teenagers will compete next week in Panama City at the FIRST Global Challenge, one of the world’s largest youth robotics competitions, representing their homeland amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Their mission extends beyond winning—they aim to inspire STEM education among displaced Palestinian youth and demonstrate resilience through innovation.

What you should know: Team Palestine has overcome significant logistical challenges since its founding in 2018, including shipping restrictions that prevented them from receiving robotics kits in advance.

• Founders Khalil DarOmar and Sara Saleh started the program with “zero experience” but were driven by passion to represent Palestine on the global stage.
• For their first competition in 2018, Team Canada built their robot remotely after months of video calls, while students from Argentina, Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan wore Team Palestine shirts to compete on their behalf.
• The team finally received their robotics kit in Palestine ahead of time in 2024, improving their ranking from 97th place (2023) to 74th place with a score of 68.09.

The big picture: Team Palestine’s journey illustrates how young innovators can pursue STEM education despite conflict and restrictions, using robotics as a bridge to connect with peers globally.

• The team operates from their own foundation office in Ramallah, established in 2022, where students spend intensive 11-hour days preparing for competition.
• Alumni like Fayez Ismail (studying computer engineering at Queen’s University) and Mohammed Shanti (studying business intelligence) return to mentor current students, creating a sustainable knowledge transfer system.

Overcoming adversity: The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack occurred just hours before the Singapore competition’s opening ceremony, adding emotional weight to their participation.

• Despite the shock, Team Palestine won the Clara Barton Award for Helping Hands that year by assisting Team Sudan, whose students faced similar displacement due to conflict in their country.
• “We tried to represent Palestine with a passion and with a hope to live in peace,” DarOmar explained about maintaining focus during the crisis.

This year’s mission: The 2025 team will compete with a robot designed to collect “biodiversity units” and shoot them into simulated ecosystems, addressing climate change challenges.

• Sixteen-year-old Dalia Nasr will serve as the team’s “human player,” responsible for aiding the robot’s shooting mechanism using her basketball experience.
• “Being able to take part in a competition where I can inspire other Palestinian youth… is genuinely one of the most life-changing experiences in my life,” Nasr said.

Looking ahead: DarOmar and Saleh plan to create a mobile robotics lab to reach students across Palestine who cannot travel to Ramallah due to checkpoints and security concerns.

• The mobile lab would include 3D printers, CNC equipment, and robotics kits to overcome geographical barriers created by the occupation.
• “A lot of Palestinian students cannot learn robotics… because they cannot come to cities,” DarOmar noted, citing settler attacks and military checkpoints as obstacles.

What they’re saying: The program’s impact extends beyond technical skills to personal growth and international connections.

• “There are not a lot of robotics courses in Palestine. It’s not really common for us to have these kinds of things. So it’s a really, really big opportunity for me,” current team member Nasr explained.
• Alumni Shanti emphasized the lasting relationships: “When we traveled to Singapore, I made global friends. The competition was in 2023, but we still speak.”