Graffiti on the wall separating the Palestinian West Bank and Israel. Photograph by Maureen
In November 2012, VICE were invited to attend the first Palestinian National Youth Week – an elaborate PR event put on by the Palestinian Authorities (PA) to celebrate the fighting spirit of the Palestinian Youth and bolster their case for sovereignty, the event supposedly culminating in large non-violent demonstrations across the West Bank.
We quickly learnt that Palestinian Youth Week was going to be conferences and speeches, so we dump the schedule and head off to see what the West Bank’s youth are really up to. We visit Balata, the biggest refugee camp in the West Bank, and meet Hassan – a young revolutionary who’s wanted by the authorities but takes us along for his favourite pastime; spray-painting revolutionary slogans on the walls of Ramallah.
We visit a town that’s run by the Israeli army and besieged by settlers, to meet a man whose life is dominated by the armed Israeli soldiers who are practically stationed in his back garden. Then we head north, where we visit the home of a former prisoner who has become a local celebrity after his hunger strikes in Israeli jails, and meet a member of the Islamic Jihad who believes that “what is taken by force, is returned by force.” On the way back to Ramallah, we get a tip off that the National Youth Week plans for a large demonstration may not be as greatly exaggerated as we thought, and head to a secret meeting to learn how not to get shot by the Israeli army.
Protests are taking place all across the West Bank, with settlements outside Ramallah being stormed and prominent Palestinian politicians getting gassed in the Jericho desert. We go on the road with a 30-strong convoy of radical Palestinians and international solidarity activists, shutting down roads with chains and playing an elaborate game of cat and mouse with the Israeli army. We find out if all protest factions managed to tow the government line and stay non-violent, and catch up with Hassan, who shares his dangerous ideas for how to revolutionise Palestine.
