Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA)

Activities

• Produces a youth newspaper and television program, conducts seminars and training sessions, and operates a peer counseling hotline. The paper is distributed at Palestinian government and UNRWA schools.
• According to a PYALARA official, Palestinian youths’ “sexual problems, fights with their parents and all sorts of difficulties that appear to be unrelated to the occupation … can be attributed to the present situation.”
• According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), PYALARA-produced TV programs “glorify terrorists,” including suicide bombers.
  • In January 2014, PYALARA referred to Jews as “crows” and “rats.”
  • In December 2013, PYALARA accused Jews of killing Jesus and endangering Islam and Christianity, stating “Who will save the New Testament? Who will save the Quran? Who will save Jesus from those who killed Jesus?”
  • In June 2012, referring to 91 terrorists who were reinterred in the Palestinian Authority,  the host of a PYALARA program stated, “[The terrorists are] more honored than all of us… They are the greatest role models for us.”
  • In May 2012, PYALARA interviewed family members of Palestinian prisoners serving multiple life sentences for planning bombings, who praised and celebrated the terrorists.
• In March 2025, on the occasion of international women’s day, PYALARA published a statement calling on the international community to “fulfill its contractual obligations by pressuring the occupation to halt the genocide and ongoing violations against women” and “take clear positions on the crimes of the Israeli occupation, including raising their voices and including violations of Palestinian women’s rights under occupation on the international agenda. This includes accelerating work with the International Criminal Court to strengthen and establish effective international justice.”
• In October 2024, PYALARA CEO Hania Bitar participated in a webinar titled, “Implementation of International Law to Stop the Genocide” to “Engage in meaningful discussions that will outline concrete steps toward the implementation of UN resolutions, trade sanctions, an arms embargo, and humanitarian action.”
• In December 2023, PYALARA was a signatory on a statement calling for UN Women to “actively endorse international initiatives to establish investigation committees concerning sexual crimes and acts of genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Additionally, it should advocate for expediting the investigation process of these crimes, through the International Criminal Court.” 
• In November 2023, following Human Rights Watch claiming the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza was caused by a misfired rocket by Palestinian armed groups, PYALARA was a signatory on a statement claiming, “Without definitive results, key evidence, or access to the Al Ahli Hospital site, HRW’s decision to publish this while Israel continues its genocidal war including the targeting of hospitals must be questioned…HRW is choosing to spread unfounded theories. Given the lack of evidence, this can only be seen as supporting Israeli propaganda and justification for the ongoing genocide. Indeed, HRW risks exacerbating the already catastrophic situation facing Gaza’s health care system by emboldening further Israeli attacks on medical facilities.”
• In October 2023, PYALARA was a signatory on a letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to “Issue Arrest Warrants, Investigate Israeli Crimes and Intervene to Deter Incitement to Commit Genocide in Gaza.”
• In May 2023, following comments by the EU Commission President celebrating Israel’s Independence Day, PYALARA was a signatory on a statement accusing the president of “using racist anti-Palestinian tropes and denying Palestinian history and the atrocities of the Nakba.”
• In May 2021, PYALARA was a signatory on a joint statement referring to home demolitions as “part of the Israeli policy of apartheid, persecution, and seizure of others’ property by force,” and called on the United Nations to “condemn the Israeli fueling of the conflict and its apartheid policies in the region and to take practical and genuine action for accountability and to stop the allowance of impunity.”
• In August 2020, PYALARA Deputy Director Salah Abdel Ati published an article titled “Ways to Resist Normalization” where he called for “recruiting the Arab peoples to pressure regimes to stop rushing towards normalization…[and] exposing the occupation’s crimes against Palestinians and Arabs and putting forward legislation that outlaws normalization.”
• Refers to the security barrier as the “apartheid wall.”
• Director Hania Bitar signed a July 2006 letter demanding “the cessation of the irresponsible and totally unacceptable policy of deprivation and collective punishment” in Gaza.
• After NGO Monitor published a 2003 report on PYALARA’s praise for the head of the PFLP terror group and its implied justification of suicide bombing, PYALARA removed the related material from its website.