Palestinian youth take to the streets in Italy: navigating identity, belonging, and political engagement

Abstract

This paper examines the role of Palestinian youth in Italy in organizing mobilization efforts against genocide during the 2023-2025 political movements. Hundreds of demonstrations, sit-ins, campaigns, and encampments have been organized across Italy to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the multiple attacks in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen. This mobilization has significantly departed from the way Palestinian solidarity movement has historically been organized in Italy, presenting new challenges for various political actors involved in the movement. Additionally, it has fostered a new protagonism among the so-called “second-generation” Italians of Palestinian descent. I emphasize the importance of this emerging protagonism, as it has introduced new buzzwords, analyses, and tools to the mobilization for Palestine, urging allies within the movement to decolonize their perspectives and question their positionality. Furthermore, it calls for an understanding of the Palestinian liberation struggle within the broader context of anti-colonial resistance. This paper argues that analyzing the mobilization for Palestine as a central political movement is crucial, as it highlights contradictions within Western societies concerning the agency of colonized peoples from the Global South, racialized subjectivities born and raised in Europe, and the lack of recognition of Italy’s colonial legacy.