We are a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians dedicated to the liberation of our homeland and people.
The Palestinian Youth Movement (“PYM”) is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland. Our belonging to Palestine and our aspirations for justice and liberation motivate us to assume an active role as a young generation in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people. Irrespective of our different political, cultural and social backgrounds, we strive to revive a tradition of pluralistic commitment toward our cause to ensure a better future, characterized by freedom and justice on a social and political level, for ourselves and subsequent generations.
Statements
We, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), are honored to announce our participation in the Alternative Palestinian Path Conference مؤتمر المَسار الفلسطيني البديل taking place in Madrid, Spain in October 2021. As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Madrid Conference that initiated the Oslo process, the Alternative Palestinian Path Conference represents an opportunity for Palestinians to come together to express our commitment to the liberation of Palestine and to provide a framework that forwards our national liberation struggle. We call upon Palestinian organizations and institutions globally to join us in endorsing, promoting and participating in the conference.
Last July, a video about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which was created by a high school student for his civics class a few years ago, was removed via pressure from the Ontario education minister due to accusations of it being antisemitic and biased. The York Region District School Board removed the video from the online class’s curriculum, bowing to false and harmful assumptions that Palestinian perspectives are considered controversial in classrooms. The video was recently shown again in an Ottawa classroom for discussion in a social studies class on global issues, which was met with the same response and the Ontario government once again removed the video.
At the end of June 2020, the Syrian regime’s Damascus governorate announced its plans to turn the remains of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp into an urban neighborhood of privatized high-rise buildings to be placed for sale to the highest bidder. The execution of this plan would result in the permanent erasure of the camp, which is considered the capital of the Palestinian shataat due to its cultural and political significance in Palestinian resistance, identity in exile, and aspirations for return and freedom.
We, the undersigned Palestinian youth and student organizations, and with us the associations, organizations and institutions that have signed this statement, call on the masses of Palestinian youth and students throughout occupied Palestine and in exile to join us in a popular initiative for the advancement and initiation of national development for the restoration of the revolutionary democratic approach for a new stage of struggle. The core of this initiative is the objectives of our Palestinian people: return, liberation, and continuing struggle to achieve all of their legitimate national goals and aspirations, no matter how long it may take.
This global pandemic caused by COVID-19 poses a detrimental threat to our people in refugee camps globally, specifically in Lebanon. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon endure institutionalized discrimination, overcrowding, and mass unemployment. The refugee strikes in the camps of Lebanon in the year prior, which sparked country-wide protests, were a response to these conditions.