Palestinian Youth Movement

Activities

• In 2019, a French court, citing a 2015 report from the French General Directorate for Internal Security, claimed that Palestinian Youth Movement is “affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”
• Since Hamas’ October 7th massacre, PYM has been organizing demonstrations, rallies, and student encampments across the United States and Canada, accusing Israel of “genocide.” 
  • According to a May 2024 article from CBC, “at McGill, where the first Canadian campus encampment was formed, the official student groups Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill and Concordia are supported by the Montreal chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement.”
  • In February 2024, PYM organized a rally to “End U.S. Funded War Crimes.”
  • In February 2024,  PYM organized a protest against Boeing in Seattle, alleging that the company is  a “genocide profiter” and produced weapons that are “decimating Gaza and terrorizing Palestine.”
  • On October 17, 2023, PYM organized a demonstration in front of the White House, with banners reading “End the Palestinian Holocaust” and “Stop financing the ethnic cleansing.”
• In May 2024, PYM was one of the key conveners of the People’s Conference for Palestine. The conference featured speakers affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, terrorist organizations designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. 
  • As part of the promotion of the event, PYM shared an endorsement video by Salah Salah, one of the founding members of the PFLP. In the video, Salah “call[ed] on the members of the Palestinian and Arab communities and friends and supporters of our cause to participate in the People’s Conference…[It is a racist vitriol that offers a new model to Nazism… Participation in this People’s Conference is crucial on a large scale and on the highest level to set a plan that offers further coordination and an agreement on a strategy for unified action.”
• In April 2024, following Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel, PYM was a signatory on a statement titled, “No war on Iran, stand with resistance.” The statement “firmly support[ed] Iran’s right to defend itself against Zionist aggression.”
• On October 7, 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas atrocities, PYM published a statement accompanied by a photo of Palestinians celebrating on an IDF jeep in the Gaza Strip with the caption, “Palestine lives! The resistance is alive!.” According to the statement, “the resistance in Gaza stormed the illegitimate border fence, reentering 1948 Palestine for the first time in many of our lives…lives…We continue to stand by our people in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine in their legitimate resistance against the occupiers. In the name of our shaheeds, the struggle for freedom and return continues.”
• In May 2023, PYM was meant to host an art exhibit at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas titled “75 Years of Resistance. 75 Years of Glory.” Following criticism, the library canceled the event.
• In December 2022, PYM co-sponsored a webinar titled “Fighting IHRA & Why we Must Fight Antisemitism.” The webinar discussed how “Instead of targeting the primary sources of antisemitism in our society (far-right, Neo-Nazi movements), IHRA is being used as a shield to protect the state of Israel from being criticized for its treatment of Palestinians.”
  • The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by nearly 30 countries and counting, represents the international consensus definition of antisemitism, as well as how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. An example of the latter includes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• In August 2022, Instagram suspended PYM’s account due to violating “community guidelines on dangerous individuals and organizations.”
• In April 2022, PYM co-hosted a rally in New York City with Samidoun and Within Our Lifetime “to support Palestinian resistance and liberation “by any means necessary.” The groups refused to speak with a journalist from The New York Jewish Week, calling the publication part of the “Zionist media.” 
• In October 2021, PYM participated in a campaign titled “No Tech for Apartheid,” calling on Google and Amazon to “end all ties with Israeli apartheid and cut the Project Nimbus contract.” According to the campaign, “Technology should be used to bring people together, not enable apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and settler-colonialism.”

Support for Terrorism

• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, PYM tweeted, “WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED, RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED.”
• In October 2023, PYM released a “reading list” titled “Our History of Popular Resistance: Palestine Reading List.” The list included several articles by members of the PFLP terror group and several that openly support armed violence.
• In June 2023, PYM called for “the immediate release of Walid Daqqah.” Daqqa, a member of the PFLP, was sentenced in 1987 to life in prison for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam.
• In January 2023, following an IDF counterterror operation in Jenin, during which nine Palestinians – eight of whom were armed members of Islamic Jihad and other organizations – were killed, PYM wrote,  “The PYM salutes the nine Palestinians martyred in Jenin yesterday during the occupation’s invasion of Jenin Refugee Camp, the largest massacre in Jenin since 2002 during the Second Intifada. We stand with our people in the camps, and affirm the right of the occupied to resist the colonizer by any means necessary. For every soul taken from us, our people’s determination to defeat the occupation only grows. Glory to all our martyrs!”
• In November 2022, PYM tweeted in support of Fatima Bernawi, claiming her “contributions to the struggle are innumerable, and she will forever be revered by the Palestinian nation.” In October 1967, Bernawi and other terrorists had attempted to bomb the Zion Cinema in downtown Jerusalem.
• In October 2022, PYM tweeted a memorial notice for Oday al-Tamimi, writing, “May Oday al-Tamimi rest in power. Glory to all of Palestine’s martyrs!” Al-Tamimi was responsible for the killing of 18-year-old Israeli soldier Noa Lazar when he opened fire at a checkpoint. He also critically injured a 30-year-old security guard.
• In August 2022, PYM tweeted, “The blood of the martyrs is the price paid for Palestine’s liberation,” listing the names of “martyrs” killed during the 2022 Gaza conflict. The list includes both Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and civilians as well as those killed in PIJ misfired missile strikes. These include PIJ leader Taysir Jabari and PIJ militants Yusuf Saam Qadoum, Mohammed Ahma Abdelfatteh al-Madhoun, Fadel Mustafa Zareb, Mohammed Hassan al-Bayouk, Salma Maharib Abed, Taysir Mahmoud al-Jabari.

Staff

• Mohammed Nabulsi
  • In January 2023, Nabulsi, a leading organizer in PYM, led protestors at an anti-Israel rally in Texas in the chant, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution! … From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”
  • In July 2018, Nabulsi shared a tweet from the Hamas Twitter account: writing, “The resistance is prepared, capable, & moving forward in balancing this equation,as a guarantee, no matter the sacrifices. For our Palestinian people, & the courageous resistance behind them, will exercise all of their might to secure their rights & break the siege on Gaza.”
  • In August 2015, Nabulsi published or posted: “BDS 10 Years On: Anti-Colonial Demands in a Liberal Framework,” calling for BDS activists to “look to and support Palestinian resistance groups and civil organizations that remain steadfast…such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad.”
  • In 2015, while serving as a student government law representative at UT Austin, Nabulsi co-authored a divestment resolution that called on the UT System Investment Management Company to pull investments from five corporations that “facilitate in the oppression of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”  
• Yara Shoufani
  • Shoufani, PYM media advisor, also serves as the Executive Director of the Canadian Friends of Sabeel.
  • On October 8, 2023, the day following the brutal Hamas attack, Shoufani tweeted, “Palestinians have a right not only to resist, but to liberate our land from zionist colonization and western imperialism, to liberate our people from zionist prisons, and to return to our homes after decades of forced exile.”
  • In August 2022, Shoufani tweeted, “Long live the Palestinian resistance. Long live the resistance of all colonized peoples against colonialism and imperialism.”
  • In April 2015, Shoufani posted on Facebook justifying violence, claiming, “When we throw rocks, when we throw rockets, when we scream, we are told to stop being violent. ‘Violence is not the answer, you must engage in dialogue.’…I’m tired of talking about how violence is wrong and how burning property and looting is not going to help.” 
• Shatha Mahmoud
  • On October 11, 2023, PYM member Mahmoud claimed that “we need to situate the root cause of the violence. We need to talk about where did it start from and the fact that this past 48 hours is not the beginning of it…but if you want to end the violence, we need to end the 75-year colonial occupation of Palestinians. We need to end their brutal blockade.”
  • In December 2021, Mahmoud tweeted, “does anyone have any good links to where i could get some Palestinian resistance posters? preferably PFLP.”
  • In November 2021, Mahmoud tweeted, “whenever anyone sends me a photo of their copy of the PFLP [strategy book] my entire heart bursts of my chest.”
  • In October 2021, Mahmoud shared a cartoon that depicted a man labeled “USA” being crushed into the ground by a foot labeled “3rd world.” Ayman commented,“manifesting one day inshallah.”
• In August 2021, PYM’s Montreal spokesperson Elias Ayoub tweeted, “Death to America is the first option on our table.”