Palestinian student and youth movements in protracted settler-colonialism. The (re)elaboration of strategies of liberation
10.13125/americacritica/5077
Questo articolo documenta il contributo apportato dal movimento giovanile e studentesco transnazionale palestinese nell'ambito della lotta di liberazione nazionale. Mira a mettere in evidenza il ruolo svolto dalle giovani generazioni in diaspora nell'elaborare strategie di resistenza in diversi momenti e fasi diverse della lotta contro la colonizzazione della Palestina. L'articolo fornisce una breve analisi dei modi in cui il movimento studentesco palestinese ha contribuito alla riorganizzazione della società palestinese in diaspora e alla riarticolazione di un discorso politico subito dopo la Nakba. Verrà poi discusso il ruolo politico svolto dall'Unione Generale degli Studenti Palestinesi (GUPS). Infine, verranno presentate le varie iniziative giovanili e studentesche delle generazioni contemporanee. La tesi fondante è che la gioventù e gli studenti palestinesi siano ancora degli attori fondamentali nella politica palestinese. Viene inoltre suggerito che le nuove generazioni palestinesi sono state capaci di svolgere un ruolo di avanguardia fintantoché sono riuscite ad inserire le proprie rivendicazioni in un contesto di lotta anti-coloniale.
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Mjriam Abu Samra
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Colonialismo d’insediamento, Movimenti giovanili, Movimenti studenteschi, Palestina, Diaspora
Palestinian student and youth movements in protracted settler-colonialism. The (re)elaboration of strategies of liberation
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Mjriam Abu Samra
2021/12/31
10.13125/americacritica/5077
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CSS University of Jordan, Jordan
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Colonialismo d’insediamento, Movimenti giovanili, Movimenti studenteschi, Palestina, Diaspora
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Palestinian student and youth movements in protracted settler-colonialism. The (re)elaboration of strategies of liberation
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                                                                                   doi: https://doi.org/10.13125/americacritica/5077




Palestinian student and youth movements in protracted
settler-colonialism. The (re)elaboration of strategies of lib-
eration
Mjriam Abu Samra1
1 CSS   University of Jordan, Jordan
E-mail: mjriam.abusamra@gmail.com

Received: 08/09/2020. Accepted: 13/03/2021.

How to cite: Abu Samra, Mjriam. 2021. «Palestinian student and youth movements in protracted settler-colonialism.
The (re)elaboration of strategies of liberation». América Crítica 5 (2): 179-188. https://doi.org/10.13125/americacritica/5077


Abstract—This article documents the contribution of the Palestinian transnational youth and student
movements to the national liberation struggle. It aims at highlighting the role young generations in Diaspora
have played in elaborating strategies of resistance in different moments and phases of the struggle against the
colonization of Palestine. The article provides a brief analysis of how Palestinian student movements have
contributed to the reorganisation of the scattered Palestinian society and the re-articulation of the political
discourse in the aftermath of the Nakba. It will then elaborate on the political role of the General Union of
Palestinian Students (GUPS). Finally, it will introduce contemporary Palestinian student and youth initiatives.
The article argues that Palestinian youth and students are a fundamental actor of Palestinian politics and
suggests that Palestinian young generation have been able to play a vanguard role as long as they understood
their struggle within an anti-colonial framework. — Setter Colonialism,Youth, Student movements, Palestine,
Diaspora.

Abstract—Questo articolo documenta il contributo apportato dal movimento giovanile e studentesco
transnazionale palestinese nell’ambito della lotta di liberazione nazionale. Mira a mettere in evidenza il
ruolo svolto dalle giovani generazioni in diaspora nell’elaborare strategie di resistenza in diversi momenti e
fasi diverse della lotta contro la colonizzazione della Palestina. L’articolo fornisce una breve analisi dei modi
in cui il movimento studentesco palestinese ha contribuito alla riorganizzazione della società palestinese
in diaspora e alla riarticolazione di un discorso politico subito dopo la Nakba. Verrà poi discusso il ruolo
politico svolto dall’Unione Generale degli Studenti Palestinesi (GUPS). Infine, verranno presentate le varie
iniziative giovanili e studentesche delle generazioni contemporanee. La tesi fondante è che la gioventù e gli
studenti palestinesi siano ancora degli attori fondamentali nella politica palestinese. Viene inoltre suggerito
che le nuove generazioni palestinesi sono state capaci di svolgere un ruolo di avanguardia fintantoché
sono riuscite ad inserire le proprie rivendicazioni in un contesto di lotta anti-coloniale. — Colonialismo
d’insediamento, Movimenti giovanili, Movimenti studenteschi, Palestina, Diaspora.


     his article documents the contribution of the Pales-        the role young generations in al-shatat1 have played in
T      tinian transnational youth and student movements
to the national liberation struggle. It aims at highlighting     1 Al-shatatcan loosely be translated as “diaspora”.
180                                                            América Crítica 5(2): 179–188, 2021. ISSN: 2532-6724

elaborating strategies of resistance in different moments      society and its political texture. Moreover, the length
and phases of the struggle against the colonization of         and perpetration of the Zionist settler colonial project in
Palestine and the annihilation of its indigenous people.       Palestine has impacted on the way new generations of
    The role of student movements in bringing about po-        Palestinians (re)define their identity and understand their
litical and social transformations has been acknowledged       role in national politics: born in exile, geographically
by several studies that have demonstrated how students’        disconnected from the homeland and the rest of the Pales-
activism has become the driving force beyond social and        tinian people, growing up in other countries, exposed to
political change. However, while it is well documented         other cultures, traditions, languages and political systems
that during the “era of decolonisation” youth and stu-         that shape their everyday life, young Palestinians develop
dents have often acted as the «most effective agency of        a “hybrid identity” and have to undergo a process of
anti-colonialism» (Benda 1962: 237), the transformation        political reflections in order to encompass all these diver-
of young generations’ role in (re)elaborating strategies of    sities in a overarching understanding of “Palestinianess”
resistance in a prolonged and ongoing project of settler       (Schulz 2003). In this sense, the historical persistence of
colonialism has received little attention. How do new          the Palestinian cause offers a long timeframe and a rich
generations born in exile contribute to the anti-colonial      historical repository for examining continuities and dis-
struggle of their people despite geographical fragmen-         continuities in youth and students role in different phases
tation and the changing socio-political context at the         of national liberation.
domestic and international levels? How does the persis-            Several analyses of student political activism in anti-
tence of the settler colonial project impact on different      colonial struggle have highlighted its major contribution
generations and shapes their role in the liberation strug-     to the decolonisation process in Asia and Africa and,
gle over time? How does the generational shift required        more broadly in the Third World. In Student Politics
by the protracted context of colonisation and exile impact     Perspectives for the Eighties, Altbach points out that
on the struggle for liberation?                                student movements in Third World nations have been
    The study of Palestinian youth participation in the        more effective than those in industrialised societies in
liberation movement aims at answering these questions.         bringing about revolutionary transformations. Unlike
    There are two factors that render the Palestinian case     in Western countries, “students in the Third World are
particularly worthy of examination for the study of youth      a consistent, important, and even a legitimate part of
and student role in anti-colonial struggles: its unique        the political equation” (Altbach 1981: 5). In another
condition of geographical dispersion and its historic per-     work, Altbach develops this concept further and suggests
sistence. Palestinians have long been the world’s largest      that students are often considered «spokespersons for a
refugee population. In total, 7.1 million Palestinians (67     broader population» and a «conscience of their society»
percent of the total population) have experienced dis-         which can organise and mobilise larger sectors of society
placement. The unique condition of statelessness and           (Altbach 1989: 14).
refugeness of the majority of the nation is the conse-             While the literature on the role of student movements
quence of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine and its     in national liberation struggles is not exhaustive, the stud-
attempt to eradicate the indigenous population. The ge-        ies available account for student contributions in articu-
ographical fragmentation that characterises Palestinian        lating anti-colonial and anti-imperialist discourses, and
society has historically impacted on the political strate-     in shaping national movement strategies for achieving
gies and modus operandi of the liberation movement:            liberation and cultural emancipation (Barnejee 2003).
transnationalism has become a constitutive element of          Students were identified as one of the first sectors of
political mobilisation for a nation forced to reorganize in    colonised societies to be drawn to prevailing ideas of rad-
exile. As a matter of fact, in the aftermath of the Nakba,     icalism and nationalism and to introduce and disseminate
Palestinians have overcome regional and global bound-          these modern ideologies amongst their own society.
aries reorganising their socio-political structures transna-       This article builds on, and intends to specify further,
tionally; they established numerous political parties and      this body of scholarships, by looking at the experience of
movements, women’s groups, camp committees, unions             the Palestinian transnational student movement. It aims
and professional associations operating across borders.        to analyse how Palestinian transnational student activism
Youth and students have historically contributed to the        has contributed to the development of the anti-colonial
emergence and development of these structures and have         framework and discourse of their struggle in different
played a pivotal role in the reorganisation of Palestinian     times of Palestinian political history: it investigates the
Abu Samra, Palestinian student and youth movements                                                                     181

changes in the role and strategies of student movements        also been gathered regarding political coordination with
in national liberation struggles. After a short section        Palestinian student movements in other countries. The
on methodology, the article will provide a brief analysis      interviews have been conducted between 2011 and 2016.
of how Palestinian student movements have contributed          My long-term residence in the region has facilitated the
to the reorganisation of the scattered Palestinian society     collection of primary and secondary material, in partic-
and the re-articulation of the political discourse in the      ular Arabic sources, and above all has allowed me to
aftermath of the Nakba. In particular, it refers to the        establish lengthy and inspiring discussions with crucial
experience of Palestinian student activism in Beirut and       protagonists of Palestinian and Arab political history. I
Cairo. It will then elaborate on the political role of the     have conducted over forty interviews on the Palestinian
General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in the            student movements of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and
development of the Palestinian resistance’s anti-colonial      have met several Palestinians who had initiated the first
vision and strategies and the transformation undergone         Palestinian student associations and movements. The
by the Union over the decades. Finally, it will introduce      interviewees have been contacted by using ‘snowballing’
contemporary Palestinian student and youth initiatives         as a method of selection: I approached them equipped
in light of the political changes and dynamics that have       with a recommendation from another activist or scholar
characterised Palestinian politics. Taking the Palestinian     (Bryman 2008: 184–185); being introduced by other
Youth Movement as a case study, this paper aims to high-       Palestinian leaders and militants has guaranteed a high
light the contemporary Palestinian youth articulation of       level of trust and willingness to be interviewed from most
political discourses and goals. It will particularly address   of the participants. These interviews took place in Am-
how PYM came to address some of the contradictions             man, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, Tunis and Rome, and on
Palestinian new generations have to face and elaborate a       a few occasions conducted on Skype. For the analysis
new understanding of Palestinian identity for the youth        of the PYM in the post-Oslo period, I rely on the text
scattered across the world through the (re)production of       analysis of internal documents, by-laws, statements and
a polity which problematized and abandoned the ‘state          political papers all accessible through my participation
building’ and ‘civil society’ rhetoric inherited by the pre-   to the meetings, conferences and international schools
vious generation.                                              organized by the moment. My personal direct involve-
    In this article I argue that Palestinian youth and stu-    ment with PYM –since its inception as a Network in
dents are a fundamental actor of Palestinian politics: the     2006- has allowed me to engage with long and inspir-
protracted condition of colonisation requires a constant       ing, formal and informal, discussions with members and
generational shift in order to sustain the struggle for lib-   cadres of the movement and its different branches all over
eration.                                                       the world. At the same time, recent analysis of PYM at
    I suggest that Palestinian young generation have been      the academic level have provided an invaluable contribu-
able to play a vanguard role as long as they understood        tion to the study I carry out in this article: in particular,
their struggle within an anti-colonial framework. De-          Loubna Qutami (2018) dissertation on the history and
spite the discontinuities and challenges Palestinian pol-      development of the Movement constitutes a fundamental
itics faces, new generations are reorgansing in order to       reference for the work presented here.
reclaim their central role in the struggle and in the re-
elaboration of successful strategies of liberation based on    T HE POST-N AKBA PERIOD
anti-colonialism.                                              In the immediate aftermath of the Nakba, Palestinian stu-
                                                               dent activism played a crucial role in reorganising their
M ETHODOLOGY
                                                               scattered society transnationally, by articulating the polit-
This article build on empirical research largely based on      ical revolutionary discourse of the Palestinian struggle.
interviews with Palestinian members or former members          It provided the political framework and strategies with
of Palestinian student and youth movements. Drawing on         which to carry out the struggle for liberation and return
advanced oral history methodologies, interviews on stu-        and it laid the political basis for the development of the
dent activism in the post-Nakba period have been based         Palestinian movements and groups that subsequently led
on the ‘life history approach’ and have focused on the         the PLO. In fact, the student unions and societies estab-
student unions’ relationship with national movements,          lished throughout the 1950s in Cairo, Beirut, Amman,
political leaders in the host-countries and the local Pales-   Damascus, Baghdad, and several other cities constituted
tinian community (Thompson 2000). Information has              the first successful attempt to rebuild the social and po-
182                                                             América Crítica 5(2): 179–188, 2021. ISSN: 2532-6724

litical structure of a stateless Palestinian people in exile.   imperialist and pan-Arab principles were presented as
Accordingly, they were treated by the people and the lead-      the basis of the Palestinian plight2 .
ers of the countries within which they existed not only             At the same time, a similar movement was seeing the
as simple student movements, but also as representative         light in Egypt (Brand 1998). The political activism of
bodies for the Palestinian refugees. The broad popular          Palestinian students in Cairo, in fact, laid the basis for the
support these societies and unions could boast must be          establishment of Fatah (Palestinian National Liberation
understood in the political context in which it developed:      Movement). Among the students who won elections in
these Palestinian students managed to translate into a          the Palestinian Student Union in Cairo as early as 1952
clear, simple and radical language their people’s disaffec-     were Yaser Arafat and Abu Iyad. The political analysis at
tion and disillusionment with traditional political rhetoric    the center of their platform was very simple: «Palestini-
and strategies. Moreover, since the student movements           ans could rely only on themselves» (Abū and Rouleau
were deeply rooted in their communities, their grassroots       1981). While still acknowledging the ‘Arab dimension’
strategies made their attempt to politically engage Pales-      of the Palestinian struggle and appealing to the pan-Arab
tinian and Arab societies successful.                           sentiments of the masses, these students promoted self-
    Two main experiences have characterised the history         reliance and the assertion of Palestinian identity.
of Palestinian student activism in the post-Nakba pe-               The Union’s activities were oriented in two specific
riod: that of Palestinian students in Beirut and that of        directions: helping Palestinian students in Egypt and, as
Palestinian students in Cairo. They are two different           a former student of that time explained «putting Palestine
stories with very different strategies, but in their differ-    back on the map» through intense student and Palestinian
ences they both represented Palestinians as well as Arabs       community mobilization and diplomatic actions at the
in their quest for a radical, revolutionary change. And         domestic, regional and international level.
in fact, from these different experiences the resistance            The Palestinian Student Union (PSU) provided sup-
movements that led the Palestinian struggle in subsequent       port to Palestinian students and refugees with bureau-
years were born.                                                cratic and administrative issues, organised social and cul-
    In Beirut, the activities of Palestinian students, along    tural events at the scope to reconnect the Palestinian com-
with other Arab colleagues, particularly at the American        munity and voice its aspiration to justice3 . It cultivated
University (AUB), were fundamental to the establish-            constant and strong relationships with student unions in
ment of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), the                other countries, supporting their struggles and frequently
mother movement of the Popular Front for the Liber-             participating in their activities: Third World solidarity
ation of Palestine (PFLP) (Kazziha 1975; Bārūt 1997;          inspired PSU international networking. In particular,
Al-Kubaisi 1971). The student group, among which was            Palestinian students played a crucial role in the establish-
also George Habash, who in 1951 won elections and               ment of a General Union of Arab Students (GUAS), thus
ran the Jam‘iyyat al-Urwa al-Wathqa, the historical stu-        again putting Palestine at the core of the regional polit-
dent society of AUB, firmly believed that the revolution        ical process (Interview with Abu Maizar). GUAS was
Palestinians and Arabs were waiting for could only be           founded in 1959 – the same year GUPS was established.
achieved by the mobilisation of the masses, thus it was
fundamental to establish an organisation of mass struggle.
Leading the student society, this core group of students
was able to radicalise the political discourse of their col-    2 Details on the activities of the Urwa and the ANM initial group
leagues in universities and schools as well as in refugee       were collected through personal interviews to members of the Urwa
camps: they understood the liberation of Palestine and          al-Wathqa and ANM, among which: Hani al-Hindi, co-funder of
                                                                ANM, Amman December 2011; Sobhi Ghosheh, member of the
the return of refugees as a crucial precondition for the        Urwa al-Wathqa in 1951 and then member of ANM, Amman, January
defeat of neo-colonialism and imperialism and as inter-         2012; Salah Dabbagh, member of the Urwa al-Wathqa in 1952/53
dependent to the liberation of the Arab world (Ghusayni         and then member of ANM.
1972). This political vision was spread and disseminated        3 Details on the activities of the PSU were collected through personal
                                                                interviews to members, among which: Mohammad Abu Maizar, Ba’th
not only through political demonstrations and protests          representative in the PSU Executive Committee in 1959, May 2011,
in universities, but also through the organisation of so-       Amman; Zuhair al-Khatib, President of the GUPS in 1959 and is
cial activities and cultural events during which political      currently President of the General Union of Palestinian Lawyers
readings were discussed, the liberation struggles of other      and Jurists, Amman, May 2011; Farouq Qaddumi, member of PSU
                                                                executive committee in 1958, Head of the PLO Political Department,
colonised people were explained, and anti-colonial, anti-       Tunis, September 2012.
Abu Samra, Palestinian student and youth movements                                                                          183

T HE GUPS: FROM VANGUARD TO S OLIDARITY                         more popular expression of the people’s will, the GUPS
                                                                integrated into the structure of the organization.
The GUPS founding conference was held in Cairo with
                                                                F ROM   ANTI - COLONIALISM                     TO      STATE -
the fundamental contribution of the Cairo Palestinian
                                                                BUILDING
Student Union and the participation of student unions
from Alexandria, Asyut, Damascus and Baghdad (Brand             Palestinian students all over the world remained the cen-
1988). The political vision of the GUPS was based on            tral reference point for solidarity activists and political
the simple principles of anti-colonialism and liberation        institutions alike throughout the 1960s (and to a lesser
from the river to the sea; the Union included students          extent in the 1970s).
from the various Palestinian political movements, groups            The nature of the GUPS shifted at the very begin-
and factions and the composition of the GUPS executive          ning of the 1970s when the PLO became the umbrella
committee often reflected the ‘balance of power’ among          institution under which the broad-based popular move-
Palestinian political forces (Interview with Abu Maizar).       ments operated: the Student Union was incorporated
GUPS was the first Palestinian popular organisation es-         into the PLO and even amended its constitution in order
tablished transnationally, students were aware of their         to better reflect the political connection to the national
“vanguard role” (GUPS 1962) and aimed to foster ties            liberation movement. Palestinian transnational student
with other Palestinian popular organisations. In the ab-        activism was located inside the PLO structure and was
sence of a national movement, GUPS was the most active          intrinsically linked to the political development of the
Palestinian union among Palestinians as well as at the          organisation. While the PLO has always acknowledged
international level (Brand 1988).                               the crucial political contribution of the students4 , GUPS
    The centralised structure GUPS assured a solid              became an internal arena of mobilisation, from within
transnational strategy: Palestinians studying in Europe         which the various Palestinian movements would recruit,
established branches of GUPS in Germany, Belgium,               and in which cadres would often receive their earliest
France, Italy, Austria, and the UK. Transnational co-           political education. The strong connection and direct re-
ordination was intensive: in 1966 there were already            lations with the Palestinian parties and factions that con-
27 branches throughout the Middle East, North Africa,           stituted the national movement allowed GUPS to become
Europe and the USA with an estimated membership of              an international solidarity-generating structure that could
15,000. (Van Mannen 1966: 324) GUPS soon developed              build political relations in the absence of PLO embassies
a successful international political strategy: it could send    or missions. This intensive political work paved the way
delegations to conferences of friendly student unions,          for PLO’s successive achievements in establishing ties
lobby international student institutions for expressing         with international parties and strengthening diplomatic
solidarity with Palestinians and push for the issuing of        relations. But if students were able to maintain their
communiqués or resolutions in favor of the Palestinian          central role of solidarity-generators among the masses
cause among student movements as well as political par-         until the late 1970s, keeping strong ties with Palestinian
ties and forces worldwide.                                      factions and parties, in the following years they – and
    GUPS established contacts and cooperation with              all sectors of Palestinian society – had to reorganise and
Unions of other oppressed people and played a fundamen-         rethink their activism and role in light of two main events
tal role in the elaboration of radical anti-colonial analyses   in Palestinian political history: the 1982 forced departure
in the International Union of Students (IUS) (Al-Husseini       of the PLO from Beirut and the 1993 Oslo accords.
1968). GUPS maintained this fundamental international               Both events have impacted on the practices, strategies
role even after the national movement was established           and political discourse of Palestinian student movements
and insisted on the rejection of traditional leadership and     and groups, especially at the transnational level. When
diplomacy. In fact, Palestinian students remained scep-         the PLO left Beirut in 1982, its structures and apparatus
tical of PLO role and strategies throughout the 1960s,          lost their cohesiveness and effectiveness and underwent
considering the Organization a case in point of the old         a process of bureaucratisation that negatively impacted
disastrous political dynamics; it was the product of Arab       on the popular organisations and unions, especially those
diplomacy, detached from the Palestinian people. Only           in al-shatat, where their role rapidly eroded (Hilal 1993).
when the popular organisations and parties, established in      4 GUPS was given one seat out of a hundred members while the
the previous years by students themselves, took control         General Union of Palestinian Workers, GUPW, and the General Union
of the PLO institutions, and turned the organisation into a     of Palestinian Women were given one seat each (Hamid 1975).
184                                                            América Crítica 5(2): 179–188, 2021. ISSN: 2532-6724

The PLO political shift, along with the personalisation        maintain the function of solidarity-generators. The post-
of power in the hands of a very restricted group, pre-         Oslo period was characterised by the general impasse of
vented the generational shift in the leadership that the       Palestinian youth activism. Only with the sparking of
length of the Israeli colonisation would have required; the    the Second Intifada, the gradual decline and fall of the
youth lost the role of “vanguard” and solidarity-generator     Oslo cornerstone, and the consequent slow process of
directly tied to the movement. Ever since, the new gen-        self-criticism and re-examination of Palestinian political
erations have not been able to play a prominent role           history, have Palestinian youth and students progressively
in the development of national political strategies and        reactivated and are attempting to reacquire a central role
Palestinian transnational youth activism has focused on        in reorganising the national movement.
achieving international solidarity and support for a politi-
cal agenda that had already been set by the old leadership     T HE O SLO GENERATION
of the national movement. The lack of a substantial            Palestinian student activism in the past decade has been
contribution of youth accelerated the paralysation and         extremely dynamic. Student associations have con-
consequent failure of PLO political strategies and dis-        tributed to the creation of high impact campaigns, in
courses.                                                       coordination with other student groups transnationally
    This transformation was crystallised by the signing of     (notably through the PACBI and the IAW5 ). More impor-
the Oslo accord in 1993. The Oslo Agreements de facto          tantly, Palestinian youth have slowly realized that their
formalised the PLO shift from a revolutionary movement         contribution to the liberation struggle cannot be limited to
working to achieve liberation and justice into a quasi-        a role of solidarity-generator. Palestinian political crisis
state apparatus willing to establish a mini-state (Gresh       requires youth to elaborate new strategies, able to over-
1998: 149) concerned with land, boundaries and state-          come the geographical and political fragmentation that
building discourse. Furthermore, the accords have de-          the Oslo Agreement has attempted to institutionalize.
prived the struggle of its foundational principles slowly          This challenge is ambitious: two and even three gen-
undermining its unity of intent (Abu Samra 2015). This         erations of Palestinians have been living outside Pales-
shift has ratified the fragmentation of Palestinian soci-      tine, the difference in cultural, social and economic back-
ety and the paralysation of Palestinian popular activism.      ground and lived experiences is more marked and sig-
In fact, the negotiations, the new language of neutrality      nificant than previous decades. Palestinians all over the
and compromise imposed by Oslo and the “peace for              world face today a new challenging responsibility: “build-
land” rhetoric reinforced the political and geographic di-     ing” transnationally a common Palestinian identity able
visions that individualised and localised the Palestinian      to incorporate these diversities and reframe their struggle
struggle. Palestinian society has been “chapterised” into      within an anti-colonial paradigm in order to elaborate
“different groupings” with apparently different political      new strategies of liberation. Along with the differences
agendas (Massad 2010: 982). In particular, Palestinians        that shape the perception of identity(ies) among Pales-
in al-shatat were marginalised and isolated from their         tinian youth, the changed political environment at the
own struggle, and when it became clear that, despite           domestic, regional and international system make the
the dominating rhetoric, peace would not be achieved,          task of resisting settler colonialism and (re)elaborating
they found themselves too disconnected from their own          anti-colonial strategies even harder. In this sense, the
society, too detached from their own movements and             experience of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
did not know how to reorganise. The new generation             provides an important example of the new generation’s
of Palestinians born in exile was particularly affected        attempt to reorganise their participation in the struggle.
by this dramatic development: this youth has not been              PYM is a transnational movement established by
prepared to take part in the liberation struggle, they were    Palestinian youth from Palestine and in exile worldwide.
detached from the rest of their society and, above all, they   It aims at being a «space that brings together Palestinian
were embedded in the new rhetoric imposed by Oslo that         youth from all over the world with diverse views and
obfuscates the anti-colonial nature of the struggle bring-     various political, cultural and social backgrounds in a
ing about confusion and uncertainty over the strategies        collective process of decision making, assuming respon-
and methodologies of liberation. This political conun-         sibility, and action. By cultivating the skills of young
drum has prevented the Palestinian youth from playing
the vanguard role typical of previous generations and,         5 Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
                                                               http://www.pacbi.org/ and the Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW)
in al-shatat, youths and students were not even able to        http://apartheidweek.org/.
Abu Samra, Palestinian student and youth movements                                                                         185

Palestinians it also works toward empowering the Pales-            ical and political dimension of Palestinian identity led
tinian grassroots movement around the world»6 . The                to a new understanding also of Palestinian new gener-
effort of Palestinian youth to create a transnational space        ations’ connection to the territory: while these youth
able to provide them with the opportunity to engage with           acknowledge the strong belonging to the land, they see
their struggle started in 2006 and initially converged into        Palestine beyond the narrowed borders of its geography
the establishment of a Network (PYN): young represen-              and understand it, instead, within a transnational and in-
tatives of Palestinian youth groups and associations from          ternationalist frame that makes the liberation of Palestine
all over the world met for the first time in Barcelona with        a central issue in the struggle against oppression world-
the aim of discussing and analysing together the current           wide (Labadi 2018).
state of Palestinian politics and understanding the pos-               This analysis and redefinition of Palestinian identity
sible role of younger generations in national politics. It         has shaped the political vision of the network first –and
is important to notice here that this first attempt to re-         the movement then- and its strategies.
mobilise Palestinian youth within a broad transnational                As a matter of fact, this political awareness translated
network came at a very delicate moment of Palestinian              into two important shifts: on the one side Palestinian
politics: Hamas had recently won the election and the              political history was re-studied through anti-colonial and
fragmentation of what Jamil Hilal has defined the Pales-           revolution lens; on the other side, Palestinian youth re-
tinian political field was becoming a reality. The Oslo            alised they needed a more grassroots political engage-
framework had clearly failed and its disastrous effects on         ment and developed into a Movement, in 2011 (PYM).
Palestinian politics and society were now evident. The                 PYM identified one of the main reasons for the fail-
Palestinian Youth Network was born out of the neces-               ure of the resistance movement in the abandonment of
sity to question and challenge the political outcome of            the anti-colonial framework that used to characterised
the previous decades of negotiations and the Palestinian           and inform the struggle in its early stages. This shift
diplomatic strategies that had let to the accords. However,        that overlooked the settler colonial nature of the Zionist
reorganizing Palestinian youth politically within a com-           project in Palestine and reframed the Palestinian struggle
mon framework after years of political apathy presented            within the narrow framework of state-building was crys-
several challenges. Amongst them, the most compelling              tallized by the Oslo agreement bringing about political
issue was how to forge a collective consensus amidst               and economic dependence from the occupier, and the
acute differences across social, cultural, and economic            atomisation of the society.
lines; or how to overcome the fragmentation of geog-                   Based on this analysis, PYM has attempted to de-
raphy and political ideologies engendered by the Oslo              velop a new strategy based on two main trajectories: the
Accords (Qutami 2018). As Palestinian new generations              revitalisation of grassroots politics able to reconnect the
born and raised in very different political and cultural           Palestinian people to their struggle in order to rebuild
environments, this issue translated in the fundamental             a truly popular movement, and the repositioning of the
question of who is a Palestinian and what identifies Pales-        Palestinian cause at the core of the Arab and international
tinians as people. For the first few years of the Network          struggle against oppression. In this sense, PYM has been
life, new articulations of the Palestinian identity were           trying to re-build political relations and cooperation with
constantly discussed in international conferences and              other oppressed people highlighting the common struggle
summer schools, in an effort to include the diversities            against an unbalanced power dynamic in the international
that forced exile has imposed upon the Palestinian so-             system (Quintanilla and Mogannam 2015). At this regard,
ciety and for finding again the cohesion of the struggle,          several PYM members have emphasised the necessity of
goals and strategies that seemed to be lost. Palestinian           continuity among different Palestinian generations in the
youth soon realised that Palestinian identity is a con-            struggle and the need to study, critically analyse and learn
structed one and that the common factor at the core of             from previous generation examples. Jacqueline Husary,
Palestinian society is the impact of the ongoing Nakba             a researcher and PYM member has argued: «We want to
and the project of settler colonialism imposed on them.            get back to our radical roots, but we don’t know where
Ethnic cleansing, erasure, exile, define Palestinian iden-         to start. [. . . ] a good place is to start at the beginning»
tity much more than language, religion and even land.              (interview with Husary). Palestinian youth have been
As a matter of fact, the acknowledgment of this histor-            trying to revamp the anti-colonial analysis of previous
                                                                   decades, stimulating anew the political framework of the
6 Palestinian Youth Movement Website is available at http://pal-
youth.org/.
                                                                   Palestinian struggle.
186                                                             América Crítica 5(2): 179–188, 2021. ISSN: 2532-6724

    Yet, while emphasising the continuity with the strate-      ling» (Kanafani 1990: 14). In 1968, Ghassan Khanafani
gies of previous generations, PYM is also aware of the          denounced the inability of the national movement to intro-
necessity to re-elaborate these analysis in light of con-       duce new blood into a political body, Khanafani describes
temporary socio-political differences.                          this failure as “a crime” that «not only obstructs the ar-
    If the 1960s and 1970s, were characterised by a             rival of a youthful vanguard, bringing new blood and
favourable regional and international environment where         influence [but] also obstructs a clear view of the enemy
the spirit of Arab and Third World solidarity contributed       and a recognition of the depth and breadth of the danger
to the dissemination of the revolutionary discourse of          it poses, as well as the establishment of any firm strategy
the Palestinian movement, and even more, it allowed             for confronting it» (Omar 2014).
to translate it into concrete strategies of liberations, to-        Khanafani analysis summarises the genealogy of
day Palestinian youth understand that the conditions in         Palestinian youth role and contribution in the national
which they operate are different. The international con-        movement: it identifies in the youth’s “fresh blood” a
text is now dominated by globalised neoliberal dynamics         vanguard role, a role that students effectively played in
that impacted on international solidarity and transformed       reorganising Palestinian society around a shared vision
their strategies. Arab politics especially is trapped in        of liberation and return during the 1950s. At the same
neoliberal economic and political dependence and the            time, Kanafani warned of the shift of youth contribution
Palestinian question is being marginalised in regional          to the liberation struggle: the structures and dynamics of
events. Even more, the conditions of the Palestinian            Palestinian political life are preventing youth from main-
society are radically different today, the geographical         taining their vanguard role. Considering that this shift
and political fragmentation of the post-Oslo period re-         was so evident at the end of the 1960s, it became even
quires a new elaboration of theories and strategies for         more worrying in the following decades. However, today
bringing the original principles of liberation, justice and     Palestinian new generations are attempting to invert this
anti-colonialism back at the core of the Palestinian na-        trend.
tional project.                                                     This paper has provided an analysis of the historiog-
    This has not been an easy task. As a matter of fact,        raphy of the Palestinian transnational student and youth
if PYM was able to establish several branches through-          movement. It has argued that Palestinian student move-
out Europe the Arab world and the USA up to 2014,               ments have historically played a vanguard role in their
in the past 4 years the movement has slowly lost its            national movement by contributing to the elaboration
transnational dimension. Today there is only one active         anti-colonial discourse and strategies for their struggle.
branch in the USA (with several chapters through the                Palestinian student activism in the aftermath of the
countries) and individual members in other regions. The         Nakba was based on a radical anti-colonial vision and
reason for this decline is to be found in the inability of      aimed at the reorganisation of the scattered society. The
the young generation to face the complex political trans-       political mobilisation of Palestinian students through the
formations in the Arab region and everywhere within a           1950s led to the establishment of GUPS that was first
shared transnational framework and vision.                      successful attempt to reorganize and revive Palestinian
    It is not the intent of this article to analyse the limit   social and political structures transnationally and voice
and failure of the Movement, what it is relevant for the        Palestinian political demands at the regional and inter-
purpose of this study is the effort PYM put in rearticu-        national levels. The duration of the Israeli occupation,
lating and reframing the struggle within an anti-colonial       the consequent generational shift within the Palestinian
discourse. While PYM is only one case of Palestinian            resistance movement, and the political transformations
new generation political activism, it well exemplifies the      that took place over the decades have required the con-
attempt to (re)define the struggle within an anti-colonial      stant participation of students. These factors have also
framework.                                                      engendered several changes and discontinuities in student
                                                                movements’ strategies and structures, and the manner in
C ONCLUSION                                                     which students contributed to Palestinian political life.
«Patriarchy is reflected in the very foundations of our             As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the 1970s,
social and political life as well, where it serves to inhibit   The student union was incorporated into the PLO and
the emergence of young people into the ranks of the lead-       its politics became intrinsically linked to the political
ership. In a period of rapid social movement, however,          development of the organisation.
what is required is that generation’s ascent, not its shack-        The political transformation that characterised Pales-
Abu Samra, Palestinian student and youth movements                                                                            187

tinian political life in the 1980s and 1990s negatively im-        Brand, Laurie. 1998. “Nasir’s Egypt and the Reemergence of
pacted on student activism. The process of “bureaucrati-               the Palestinian National Movement.” Journal of Palestine
sation” of the movement began in the 1980 obstructed                   Studies1 17 (2): 29–45.
grassroots activism, thus resulting in an unrivalled paraly-       Bryman, Alan. 2008. Social Research Methods. Oxford: Ox-
sis of social, cultural and political activities at the transna-       ford University Press.
tional level. The signing of the Oslo Peace Agreement              Ghusayni, Rauf Said. 1972. “Student activism at Lebanon’s
temporarily interrupted Palestinian student activism. The              universities, 1951-1971.” Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford Univer-
“crisis of leadership, strategy and mode of politics” in the           sity.
PLO and the fragmentation in the resistance movement,              Gresh, Alain. 1998. “The Palestinian Dream On.” Le Monde
brought about by Oslo (Sayigh 1998), forced Palestinian                 diplomatique.
new generation to elaborate a more articulated concept of          GUPS, General Union of Palestinian Students. 1962. Constitu-
identity in an attempt to overcome the deeper and more                tion.
marked separation of interests imposed on Palestinian              Hamid, Rashid. 1975. “What is the PLO?” Journal of Palestine
society, and to once more contribute to the political artic-           Studies1 4 (4): 90–109.
ulations of the national movement.                                 Hilal, Jamil. 1993. “The Challenge Ahead.” Journal of Pales-
    The analysis of PYM -as one attempt to revitalise                    tine Studies 23 (1): 46–60.
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                                                                   Al-Husseini, Sharif. 1968. Muajha Al-Nashat AZ-Zhayouni
new generations’ effort in this direction. The examina-                3la AS-Said At-Tullabi. Beirut: Palestinian Liberation
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                                                                   Kanafani, Ghassan. 1990. “Thoughts on Change and Blind
articulating their claims within the original analytic of              Language.” Alif. Journal of Comparative Politics 10.
anti-colonialism pushing for different strategies based
                                                                   Kazziha, Walid. 1975. Revolutionary Transformation in the
on Third World solidarity and cooperation among all op-                Arab World: George Habash and his Comrades from
pressed people to achieve liberation. In doing so, Pales-              Nationalism to Marxism. London: Charles Knight.
tinian youth reclaim their role as vanguard in their strug-
                                                                   Al-Kubaisi, Basil Raoul. 1971. “The Arab Nationalists Move-
gle against oppression.                                                ment 1951-1971 : from pressure group to socialist party.”
                                                                       Ph.D. Thesis, American University Washington D.C.
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