Palestinian Resistance starts with the youth

This coming October 7 will mark the third anniversary of the historic Al-Aqsa Flood initiated by the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and its allied organizations against the U.S.-backed Zionist regime of Israel. Since that time, the people of Gaza have experienced hell on earth with a genocide by the Israeli Occupying Force (IOF). The IOF has massacred tens of thousands of Palestinians and is responsible for the destruction of at least 80% of Palestine’s infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools and fields.  

The population of Gaza continues to be starved due to an Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid. Hamas reported on April 21 that “over 2.25 million Gazans lack the most basic necessities of life.” (Hamas Online English Mirror)

Close to 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including youth, are being abused and tortured. Many of them are now threatened by the Israeli state with “legal” lynching by hanging without any formal charges.

Palestinian children are not immune from this genocide. In fact, they are specifically targeted since the Zionists’ goal is the erasure of future generations of resistance fighters who struggle to liberate their stolen land. This erasure was the longtime goal by Zionist terrorists years before the state of Israel was officially established in May of 1948. 

Doctors who have traveled to Gaza witnessed many Palestinian children being killed by horrific gunshots to the head. And these killings were not accidental, but rather part of a deliberate policy of the fascistic Israeli military.  

A youth tradition of resistance

Under Israel’s occupation, children have always played a role in the resistance, a role that was mainly hidden from most of the world until Oct. 29, 2000. That was the day when 11-year-old Faris Odeh was photographed throwing a single stone at a gigantic Israeli tank in Gaza. This heroic act helped to expose to millions of people worldwide the horrendous conditions that exist under apartheid and that the spirit of resistance knows no age limit. Ten days after the photo was taken, Odeh was killed with a bullet to the neck.  

Since that time, countless children have demonstrated various forms of resistance.

Fast forward to April 20 of this year, when Palestinian children attempting to walk a certain path to attend school in the occupied area of Um il-Khair in the West Bank were tear gassed by the IOF. On the same day, the soldiers put up barbed wire, hoping to scare the children away. But this cowardly act had the opposite effect on children determined to go to school, despite the fact that their beloved teacher, Awdan Hathaleen, was murdered by a Zionist settler last July. 

The courageous children brought signs to place inside the barbed wire that included slogans such as “Protect Our Children,” “We Love School” and “Protect Our Right to Education.” The children boldly decided to open their own makeshift school right at the barbed wire fence in the face of these masked armed thugs. The name of the school is Um il-Khair Freedom School. 

The children stated that they will continue their studies every day until the barbed wire is removed. During the first Intifada [Uprising] in 1987, Palestinian schools were banned by occupation orders.  

These children are risking their lives every day to demand their right to an education and, more importantly, their right to exist as human beings. And while the Israeli military puts on a menacing display, it is really a facade to conceal their fear of how deep the Palestinian Resistance runs — starting with the children.

These children and many more like them have drawn their inspiration from the resilience and heroism of resistance, past and present, that burns like a fierce fire within them.  

Workers World salutes the message from these students, who say, “We will not leave,” reflecting the sentiment of the entire besieged Palestinian people who have told the Zionists and U.S. imperialism: We will not be forced to leave our homeland. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!