From November 28 to December 1 2012 the World Social Forum "Free Palestine" will be held in Porto Alegre (Brazil)´. This is a historic event that brings together solidarity, human rights and social justice movements and organizations from across the globe to develop and debate ideas, share experiences, network and plan strategies and campaigns to advance solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation. (For more information and the full call for the WSF "Free Palestine" see: www.wsfpalestine.net)
The Herak Shababi Mustakil, the Palestinian Independent Youth Movement, calls on youth and student activists, social movements, and trade unions around the world to mobilize to support the WSF Free Palestine to build together with us a new generation of Palestine solidarity.
We ask you to join the effort by organising delegations to the event, developing ideas for discussions and strategies, drawing on your own experiences to share with the global solidarity community.
Please join the youth mobilizing effort for the WSF "Free Palestine" and contact us at Herakchababi@gmail.com so that you can be part of the mobilizing process!
Since March 2011, the youth movement in Palestine has become ever more central to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Lately, we have been at the forefront of support for the courageous and inspiring hunger strike of our political prisoners. We have organised demonstrations, blockades of international institutions unwilling to speak out against the injustice and inhumane treatment suffered by the prisoners, and global awareness raising campaigns. Our efforts have inspired the wider Palestinian society to join in the support of the courageous hunger strike.
The need for strong youth activism has become a necessity given continued colonialism, wars, neo-liberal exploitation and the ongoing global economic and environmental crisis that steals the present and future of all of us. Young people have taken to the streets in the Arab world to topple dictators and in Europe and the Americas they protest horrific cuts to public services to pay for the negligence of financial institutions. The new youth movements are keenly aware that their struggles have to be global and that solidarity has to be a key element of their efforts to create a more just world.
As the new generation of activists is taking up its role and responsibility within Palestinian society in the development of resistance strategies to Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid, and, as news of rising youth action and successful solidarity actions co-ordinated by youth and student organisations reach Palestine, the urgent need for more effective coordination as well as the great potential for meeting and networking at international level is evident.
Herak Shababi Mustakil therefore asks youth around the globe to join in the effort to create a vibrant youth space within the WSF "Free Palestine", where we can develop our plans and to make our voice heard.
The potential scope of the WSF "Free Palestine" is tremendous: together we can build relations and coordination mechanisms between Palestinian and global youth movements (including twinnings among universities), specific global action days, global campaigns (including campus divestment, academic boycotts, etc), global youth strategies and much more. The level of success of the WSF "Free Palestine" is dependent on having representation from as many organisations as possible to reflect the diverse nature of Palestine solidarity movement and to be able to share the vast and diverse knowledge and experience it has accumulated.
Let's work together to build a new generation of solidarity,
Herak Shababi