During the summer of 2023, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) undertook a major delegation to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. More than 30 Palestinian and Arab youth from North America and Europe participated in the 10-day program, which built relationships with youth formations across Lebanon and strengthened connections between Palestinian youth in exile.

Through lectures, seminar discussions, visits to landmark sites of historical importance, and meetings with community and youth activists, our delegation assessed the current political, economic, and social conditions faced by our people in the refugee camps of Lebanon, while also sharing our movement insights from the perspective of Palestinian youth in North American and European contexts. A major objective coming away from the delegation was to bring back this knowledge and these experiences to our organizing contexts in the far diaspora.

During the delegation, our delegates also learned about how Zionism's expansionist ambitions have manifested across the Arab region, as well as how popular Arab resistance has halted the settler project's attempt to grow and expand its borders beyond those of historic Palestine. This popular resistance was evident during our visit to Qal’at al-Shaqif (Beaufort Castle). Built by the Crusaders in the 12th century, the castle became a site of battle in 1982 between the Zionist army and Palestinian and Lebanese youth, who held out under sustained shelling and siege, repelling the Zionist army's elite “Golani Brigade.” The defense of Qal'at al-Shaqif sent a clear message: the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance were together capable of withstanding Zionist aggression.

Another example was our delegates’ visit to Khiam prison, the “death camp" where thousands of prisoners were held during the Zionist occupation of South Lebanon. There, our revolutionaries experienced brutal torture, including sensory deprivation, electrocution, scalding, flogging, even crucifixion. These tactics were pioneered by the Lahadists—Lebanese Phalangist collaborators of the South Lebanon Army (SLA)—who ran the prison on behalf of the Zionists. Khiam was liberated on May 25, 2000, and today serves as a living memorial to the first total defeat of Zionism.

This delegation also helped to set the foundations for deeper relationships and work to come. PYM is excited to build alongside our comrades in the Palestinian Cultural Club of Beddawi and Mar Elias camps, the al-Naqab Center of Burj el-Barajneh camp, the Palestinian Chess Forum of Shatila camp, and the Institute for Palestine Studies —who all lead programs focused on culture and thought, history and geography, education, health, sports, art, and digital media.