Most of us, I’m sure, have felt misunderstood in our teenage years, the age of hormonal imbalance, acne, developing crushes, making plans for the future, everything feels new and uncertain. The experience is often incredibly isolating.

 As adults, we can look back at our youth with more clarity, having already muddled through the paths less taken, and finding pieces of ourselves along the way. But despite the way youthfulness is so universal, these formative years of our lives are deeply personal. It is a time when we navigate our values, our friendships, and our individuality, while also navigating the larger context of where we fit in the world and how our identity is built from the people and experiences that came before us. 

 For young Palestinians, there is an additional factor that must be taken into consideration, whereby their adolescence cannot be removed from the shared culture and history of Palestinians who came before them. In a world where the mere existence of Palestine as a people is fought against, growing up becomes inseparable from the legacy of struggle, resistance, and inherited identity. And while it is an honor to pay homage to those who came before you, it is important to remember that the kind of self-focused individuality that many in the West cherish may not carry the same value for young Palestinians. 

For many Palestinians, self-discovery is not a simple, private journey. It is a negotiation between self and history, between personal dreams and communal survival. And it is clear, in the ways youth put their bodies on the line, putting their people beyond self, that their understanding of the collective manifests even in their individuality.

Where other children have room to thrive in their own self-interest, Palestinian children must hold tightly to their history and right to existence. In Western culture, we assume independence means individualism, being alone, and choosing for oneself. In Palestine, where happiness is measured by how well all are doing communally, the drive for self-determination cannot be decoupled from the broader struggle.

This is shown in the bravery of 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who chose to utilize her own artistry to document the lives of her people in Gaza. She knew the risks of truth telling and wrote, “If I die…I want a death that the world hears, an effect that remains for the extent of the ages.”  One day after Hassouna learned her film was being recognized at the Cannes Film Festival, Israel bombed her home, killing her and ten other members of her family.

Academic and writer, Brian Barber, who has spent nearly three decades researching and living with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, much of it in Gaza, interest in the singularity of Palestinian youth was piqued with a single question asked of four young people in East Jerusalem: “when are you happy?” The answers he received were different from what young people in 15 other countries said: Palestinian youth tied their happiness to a stable political environment and one they were ready to help shape. You can read more about Brian here and learn about the young people he watched growing up in Gaza by reading his book, No Way But Forward.

Children in Palestine see every day the risks of their activism. Every stone thrown; every image captured is a testament to their steadfastness. The majority of the Palestinian population is young, with 41% of the population in the West Bank and 47% in Gaza being under the age of 18. Simply put, Palestinians have fewer opportunities to grow old under war and occupation.

Yet, Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with 98% of people over the age of 15 knowing how to read and write. As one of the world’s largest refugee populations, this figure is incredibly significant and represents Palestinians’ ambition and understanding of their condition. Even in dispossession, Palestinian youth hold tightly to their agency and never lose sight of liberation for all.  It is a lesson to all of us young people throughout the world.