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PYM’s 2019 Year in Review
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians dedicated to the liberation of our homeland and people. We engage in year-round projects, campaigns, and programs with the aim of growing our local Palestinian and Arab communities politically, culturally, and socially. As a collective of grassroots, Palestinian and Arab youth volunteers with no paid staff, we rely on your generosity. We know that we can count on you to sustain us in the struggle. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Below are highlights of what we’ve accomplished with the support of our community this year!
TRANSNATIONAL DELEGATIONS & CAMPAIGNS!
In April 2019, we led a delegation of 19 Palestinian youth to Johannesburg, South Africa. Throughout the 10-day program, delegates from Palestine, Lebanon, Qatar, Turkey, Greece, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Africa participated in lectures, focus groups, panels, visits to historic sites, and meetings with political figures and community organizers. The goals of the delegation were to develop a critical analysis of the South Africa-Palestine analogy, to learn from South African strugglers, and to build transnational relationships with Palestinian youth organizers.
In July 2019, we campaigned in support of refugee strikes happening in Lebanon as a response to the Lebanese Ministry of Labor’s decision to ban Syrian and Palestinian refugees from working without visas. This decision resulted in mass unemployment and a crackdown on refugee workers. PYM chapters in Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York organized protests outside Lebanese embassies demanding that the Lebanese Ministry of Labor overturn the decision. We also organized a three-hour long webinar with Palestinian refugee youth in Lebanon to learn about their ongoing struggles.
Building on our joint struggle organizing with indigenous communities, we led a 10-day delegation of Palestinian and Indigenous youth from Turtle Island (encompassing the U.S.) and the Kingdom of Hawaii to Palestine. Focusing on topics of indigenous perseverance, protection of water and land, youth resistance, historic and present cross-movement organizing initiatives, and settler-colonial violence, the delegation explored the intersections of our various struggles and deepened our bonds as communities in joint struggle.
SOLIDARITY & JOINT STRUGGLE
In September 2019, The Red Nation invited the PYM to its 2019 Native Liberation Conference and subsequent 2-day delegation of Arab and Palestinian organizers to the Diné and Pueblo homelands. Three delegates from our Indigenous youth delegation to Palestine spoke on the conference’s Palestine solidarity panel, highlighting the similarities between Indigenous peoples and Palestinians struggles. The subsequent delegation through Diné and Pueblo homes was historic—the likes of which have not been seen since the 1980s. For the PYM, this delegation builds on several previous efforts.
In August 2019, India revoked a constitutional article that superficially gave some autonomy for Kashmir and proceeded to deploy state military forces and occupy Kashmir. In response, we issued a statement expressing solidarity with the people of Kashmir. The statement received over 1,000 reshares online, reached over 155,000 people on Facebook, and was cited in numerous works that discussed the importance of Global South solidarities. PYM chapters in the Bay Area and New York attended protests to affirm our solidarity with the people of Kashmir. We were also invited for an interview on Scope News to discuss the parallel struggle between Palestine and Kashmir.
COMMUNITY BUILDING & YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
We regularly participate in local, Palestinian and Arab cultural festivals. In the Bay Area, we participated in Palestine Cultural Day, “From the Bay to Jerusalem: Celebrating Culture and Building Bridges.” The festival brought together several thousand Palestinian community members and highlighted Palestinian artists, community organizations, and vendors. We organized youth empowerment activities about Palestinian art and history. During the Arab Texas Festival of Dallas, we got to meet U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib who stopped to take a photo and to talk with us about our famous cities t-shirts and our work.
Our Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship is the only scholarship for creative Palestinian youth in North America. Every year, we collect art, creative writing, poetry, and multimedia submissions from diasporic Palestinians in the U.S. and Canada. We invite a select panel, including community figures and artists such as Dr. Steven Salaita, Remi Kanazi and Leila Abdelrazaq, to award the top three candidates with scholarships. The top 20 submissions are then published in an anthology every spring, when we host launch parties in celebration of Palestinian arts, culture, and resistance.
During Ramadan, several of our PYM chapters launched local Boycott Israeli Dates campaigns. The campaigns included educational efforts with community grocers to find alternatives to Israeli dates and political education with the community about the importance of boycott efforts.
We have offered over 20 trainings and workshops to various chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) nationwide, including supporting with National SJP skillshare retreats and conferences. In 2019, PYM-Michigan co-organized the first ever Midwest SJP conference in Dearborn and has host teach-ins and workshops in several local universities.
PYM-Bay Area hosted gatherings and workshops for student organizers with SJP chapters across Northern California. Our LAOCIE and San Diego chapters, co-hosted four student workshops for high school and university students regarding government surveillance programs and are currently developing anti-surveillance campaigning toolkits.
All donations are tax deductible. You can also donate by mailing a check, payable to “WESPAC Foundation” with “PYM” in the memo line, to 77 Tarrytown Rd., Suite. 2W, White Plains, NY 10607.
Thank you!