Statement from the Palestinian Democratic Youth Union (PDYU)
On the twelfth of August each year, the world celebrates International Youth Day – an occasion established by the United Nations in 1999 as a global platform to shed light on youth issues and challenges, and to highlight their role in development and change.
While the world marks this occasion this year with slogans of development and the future, the youth of Palestine are bleeding on the fronts of struggle. They are resisting genocide in the Gaza Strip, confronting annexation, settlement and ethnic cleansing projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and suffering from poverty, unemployment, marginalization and racism in refugee camps. All of this unfolds under a political and economic siege aimed at breaking their will and uprooting them from their land and national memory.
Since October 7, 2023, the occupation has targeted all foundations of resilience and resistance in its cowardly war, causing catastrophic repercussions for Palestinian youth everywhere. In the Gaza Strip, the occupation has turned schools and universities into rubble and halted the educational process entirely, aiming to destroy the awareness of generations and deprive them of their right to education. This is paralleled by a policy of starvation and blockade designed to break their will and leave them facing an uncertain fate and future.
In the West Bank and Jerusalem, persecution and arrests of young people and students have intensified, with universities turned into arenas of raids and intimidation, in an attempt to silence any resisting voice and block any organized national action. Meanwhile, in the refugee camps, suffocating economic crises have deepened unemployment and poverty rates, narrowing educational and employment opportunities for youth and making their daily life an open battle for survival.
This all-out war on the Palestinian people and youth is but one chapter in a colonial project seeking to kill the present and steal the future. Yet, despite wounds and oppression, the youth of Palestine prove every day that they are the foundation of resistance, the guardians of land and identity, and that they are moving forward until victory, freedom and return.
We extend our pride and honour to the youth of Palestine in the occupied homeland – in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem – and in the refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, as well as in the diaspora. We salute their legendary steadfastness in confronting occupation, settlement, siege and marginalization, and their unwavering adherence to national principles despite attempts at displacement and identity erasure.
We affirm that Palestinian youth are not on the sidelines of the battle – they are at its very heart. Our youth are the vanguard of popular resistance, the initiators in defending land and identity, and the steadfast holders of the right of return, despite all the siege, restrictions and deprivation they face. Every bullet, every stone, every chant in a march and every word of truth is a youthful act defying the liquidation project, proving that the will of the new generation cannot be broken.
We demand an immediate end to the genocidal war on our Palestinian people, and an end to all forms of killing, siege and starvation. We also call for improving the conditions of youth in the homeland and the diaspora, ensuring them a dignified life and decent job opportunities. We stress the necessity of supporting education at all levels and protecting it from targeting, as it is a strategic weapon for preserving awareness and building the future.
We call for the adoption of a comprehensive national emergency plan to address the problems of youth in the homeland and diaspora – taking into account their economic, educational and social needs, opening avenues for their participation in national decision-making, and mobilizing their energies in the struggle for liberation and the building of an independent Palestinian state.
Finally, we call on the free and revolutionary youth of the world to stand side by side with the youth of Palestine in their struggle for dignity and freedom. We urge them to be a resounding voice against injustice and occupation, and to engage in solidarity, boycott and anti-colonial campaigns against all forms of racism and oppression our people face.
Supporting Palestinian youth today is supporting the cause of justice and freedom everywhere – a moral and human duty that demands unity and solidarity across borders.
Let us raise our voices together and build a strong global youth front that upholds the Palestinian right to freedom, independence and return, and confronts all attempts of ethnic cleansing and normalization aimed at erasing our just cause.
On this day, we say clearly: the will of the youth of Palestine will not be broken, and the flame of resistance will not be extinguished – until the occupation is defeated, the land is liberated, the refugees return, and the independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.
Edited slightly for clarity
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