One chilly spring morning I walked through the large blue gates of a UNRWA school for refugee children in the occupied West Bank and entered the principal’s office. At this point, I had spent quite a lot of time in this school, interviewing and getting to know the principal, teachers and pupils.  But this morning the atmosphere was different.  There had been a night-time military raid in the camp, which was in a Palestinian Authority-controlled area. Israeli soldiers had broken into homes, turned the electricity off and fired live ammunition. Most of the school staff, including the principal, lived in the same refugee camp as their pupils and so they had experienced this military incursion together.  After talking with the principal and with everyone’s agreement, I met a group of girls ages 14-15 in their run-down but peaceful library as planned.  They had wanted to take part in a focus group to share their views on human rights with me.  This particular morning, they were also keen to talk about the raid they had experienced less than 24 hours ago.  Lina (not her real name) told me that her cousin had been shot in the leg and was now in hospital. The other girls described how frightened they were the moment the lights went out across the camp.  Whilst these raids were routine and to an extent they were ‘used to them’; it was clear that the girls found them terrifying nonetheless. Then Lina, returning to the topic of human rights spoke up and addressed me:

‘Yeah, so what do you expect from us? We learn about human rights because of what is happening to us daily’

One of the things I appreciate most about doing research with children and youth is their ability to say it like it is- just as Lina and so many of her peers did.  Her words have resonated with me ever since.  What do we expect from groups whose rights are routinely denied?  The way human rights are understood and mobilised is often influenced by individual’s experiences of human rights (whether enjoyed or denied) in their own specific contexts.  In my new book Rethinking human rights: Critical Insights from Palestinian Youth (Hart/Bloomsbury 2024), I attempt to explore these themes and better understand how Palestinian youths understand, talk about and operationalise human rights and the factors that shape how they do this.

 

Palestinian youth and the layers of injustice they expect to face

For many years, Palestinians have used the discourse of human rights to internationalise the injustices they experience and to express their struggle against the Israeli occupation.  Also, Palestinian children learn about human rights in school through human rights education whether they attend private, government or UNRWA-run schools.But how do young people and their educators navigate the discordance between their everyday struggles for rights verses the more mainstream, UN-centric and decontextualised representations of human rights that they learn about or are expected to teach in school?

This book considers these issues drawing on research I did in 2015 in the occupied West Bank- a few months after the 2014 Gaza war.

I interviewed 96 Palestinian teenagers and their educators from a range of socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. I also observed lessons on human rights and analysed some of the teaching resources being used across the three school contexts.  When talking to young people they identified three obstacles they faced in relation to their rights.

The main barrier was the Israeli occupation that denies them their humanity as Palestinians.  The second obstacle facing the youth was the Palestinian pseudo-state (and those who represented it) that denies non-elites a voice through bureaucratic and violent means.  The third obstacle identified was the patriarchal aspects of the culture that prevent youth generally, and girls specifically from exercising agency.

This book unpacks the intricacies of these layers of injustice and how these shaped their interpretations of human rights but also how they deployed human rights discourse as a vehicle to struggle against these very factors that sought to marginalise them.  Overall, it is informed by decolonial, third world and Islamic contributions to human rights and human rights education.

 

Palestinian research advisory group’s offer their reflections today

When I carried out the research for this book, I worked alongside two Palestinian young person’s advisory groups.  They guided me at different stages of the research from co-designing the questions that were used in focus groups with their peers to helping me analyse the data from the eyes of a Palestinian and a young person.  I learned so much from them and it was their analysis which guided the themes explored in the book.  One of the groups included six girls (aged 13) from a refugee camp, who wrote a child-friendly summary of the findings.

Mindful that since I did this research, Palestinians in Gaza experienced another war in 2021 and are going through one now, I reconnected with some of these girls.  They met with a Palestinian videographer to share their honest reflections on the summary they wrote and the main themes of the book, in light of the current war and now as those in their early-20s.  They also gave their own personal message to potential readers of the book, which you can hear at the book launch (details about the event follow).

The narratives of the youth have been foregrounded across the pages of this book, in accordance with their wishes to have their voices heard beyond Palestine.  And readers will find that these counter-narratives jar against more conventional representations of human rights that tend to be abstract, sanitised and legal.  The situation is the grimmest it has ever been and the fragility of international law is on full display (once more).  But it is my sincerest hope that we can learn (and unlearn) much from the Palestinian youth and their stories in this book; especially, at a time when Palestinians are being routinely dehumanised and their voices erased.

 

Book Launch details

The launch of Erika’s book Rethinking human rights: critical insights from Palestinian youth will take place on Tuesday 12 November at 11:00am in the Moot Court, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast.

The event is being hosted by the Human Rights Centre at the School of Law where we will be joined by Professor Colin Harvey who will chair the event and Professor Laura Lundy, who will share about the importance of listening to the views of children and young people.  There will be refreshments served after the discussion.  To reserve a space, please sign up here. Alternatively, if you would like to hear more about Erika’s book you can get in touch with her via email: e.jimenez@qub.ac.uk

 

Dr Erika Jiménez is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Law (being mentored by Professor Colin Harvey) and a Mitchell Institute Fellow: Rights and Social Justice, Queen’s University Belfast.  Her current project explores how the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan impacts the lives of youth from the remaining Druze communities and their views on the usefulness of human rights in their struggles for justice.  It compares Golani perspectives with those of their Palestinian peers in the occupied West Bank drawing on her previous research but also new insights from Palestinian youth from the refugee community.  It examines what youth from both jurisdictions understand about one another’s human rights situations.  The research team includes two local youth advisory groups, Golani and Palestinian researchers.  This is being done with support from Al-Marsad Arab Human Rights Center and Psychology Spa and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.