“From the river to the sea”—promoting Palestinian resistance through praxis

This chapter looks into the role of models of “community development as empowerment” (Craig, Mayo, Popple, Shaw, & Taylor, 2011) within the context of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and against the brutality and trauma of daily life under occupation (Amnesty International, 2017; Jones & Lavalette, 2011). We explore “community development as empowerment” through the work of two youth and community centers (one in Balata, one in Jenin) on the Palestinian West Bank. The research we present is drawn from a series of interviews conducted with youth workers, young people and community activists in situ in the camps. The interviews were carried out between 2010 and 2016 (some in English, some in Arabic), part of a larger project looking at the experiences of young people living under occupation. To protect the identities of children and youth workers in the context of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, we have used pseudonyms for all interviewees. ¹