In the shadow of prolonged colonisation, fragmentation, systemic marginalisation, and ethnic cleansing, Palestinian communities continue to resist erasure through the daily act of rebuilding life from the ground up. The Partnership Youth Forum is rooting Palestinian identity, mobilising popular action, and building a solidarity economy that embraces egalitarian, democratic, locally grounded, and ecologically sustainable values.
The so-called Oslo Accords ‘peace agreement‘ in the mid-1990s, signed between the Israeli Occupation and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), initiated a ‘state-building’ agenda by establishing the Palestinian Authority (PA) and giving it limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. This has reshaped the political terrain in Palestine, sidelining liberation and popular organising in favor of institutional development and foreign aid dependency. Grassroots action – particularly among youth – was often depoliticised or marginalised.
In response to this vacuum emerged the ‘Partnership Youth Forum’ (Multaqa Al-Sharaka Al-Shababi), a youth-led, community-driven network in Palestine. It seeks to build resilient alternatives to dominant political and economic systems. Unlike mainstream development programs that promote entrepreneurial agriculture based on individualism and profit, the Forum offers a resistance-centered model rooted in decolonisation and collective empowerment. It rejects separating economic development from the broader struggle for freedom and self-determination.
The cooperatives are grassroots spaces where collective action intersects with land, food, and identity
It is crucial to note that while the Partnership Youth Forum and its collectives have found some space to grow in the West Bank despite immense and increasing challenges, the reality in Gaza has become catastrophically different. The Israeli settler-colonial project has escalated its assault on all forms of life, committing one of the most atrocious crimes against humanity: the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This includes the destruction of farmland and agricultural infrastructure, the targeting of farmers and fishermen, and the systematic use of starvation as a weapon of war, aiming to eliminate 2.2 million Palestinians from existence.
In July 2025 alone, settler attacks damaged water infrastructure in six West Bank governorates, while Israeli occupation forces deliberately destroyed the multiplication and storage unit of the Palestinian Seed Bank. This act represents a calculated attempt to sabotage Palestinian efforts to reclaim sovereignty over their agricultural systems and safeguard their heirloom seeds.
Reclaiming agency: The birth of the Partnership Youth Forum
The Partnership Youth Forum was founded on the realisation among Palestinian youth that real change could not happen without an emancipatory framework for Palestinians’ goals of freedom and liberation. It seeks to reshape the current depoliticised approach of donor-driven development efforts, which are often marked by symbolic inclusion of youth in institutional spaces without giving them real influence. Incubated initially within the Ma’an Development Center and the Popular Arts Center in the West Bank, the Forum gradually took on a life of its own in 2017. Over the years, it has grown into an independent youth-led network that connects with over 40 youth centers and community-based organisations across the West Bank and Gaza, and maintains strong ties with Palestinian groups in the ‘1948 lands’ (the Palestinian land colonised by Zionist militias in 1948, which established the Israeli state) and refugee camps in Lebanon.
The Forum focuses on three main areas of work:
- Rooting Palestinian identity by fostering direct connections and collective dialogue among Palestinians across the West Bank, Gaza, the 1948 lands, and the diaspora;
- Mobilising popular action by organising volunteering initiatives in marginalised areas, supporting emergency responses, and promoting broad-based community engagement;
- Building a solidarity economy by supporting youth-led agricultural cooperatives and collectives that embrace egalitarian, democratic, locally grounded, and ecologically sustainable values, ultimately aiming to dismantle oppressive economic hierarchies and nurture social fabric.
Youth-led cooperatives as tools for systemic transformation
The Forum’s youth-led cooperatives are not just economic ventures – they are grassroots spaces where collective action intersects with land, food, and identity. The idea to establish cooperatives originated from the youth themselves, not only as a response to the deteriorating socio-economic conditions under colonisation, but also as a deliberate effort to counter fragmentation and structural oppression. By upholding values of social cohesion, collective action, cooperation, and local production, these youth sought to build alternatives rooted in dignity toward the broader goal of liberation.
Some were motivated by a desire to reconnect with the land, recognising agriculture and collective labor as tools to strengthen Palestinian steadfastness and to live with dignity. Others were looking for alternatives to mainstream employment, rejecting roles in profit-driven entities or other forms of institutions that they saw as reinforcing unjust systems. Others believed in reclaiming the role of producers rather than remaining consumers, actively shaping their communities rather than passively relying on external structures. And others were driven by the conviction that collective work is the pathway to collective liberation.
What has been especially remarkable is the organic and flexible way these cooperatives have formed and evolved. Rather than adhering to rigid, time-bound project frameworks, they have adapted in response to shifting priorities and lived realities under a volatile geopolitical landscape, resulting in a diversity of setups.
For instance, some cooperatives are located in areas like the villages of Madama and Burin, where youth are working to protect and cultivate lands under constant threat of settler violence. Others are composed of formerly incarcerated youth, freed political prisoners who, upon their release from Israeli prisons, found little to no official support to help them reintegrate into society and instead built new livelihoods through cooperative farming. In urban areas such as Tulkarem, cooperatives have been established by Palestinians living in refugee camps, who rent farmland as a way to reconnect with their ancestral agricultural heritage and restore a sense of belonging and dignity through the act of cultivating the land.
The cooperatives have a holistic approach that integrates critical understanding of the political and social context with practical experience in farming and organizing, within a collective journey of learning, experimentation, and mutual support. Over a period of more than two years, the Forum engaged youth groups in deep dialogue and reflection on the values of social and solidarity economies, drawing linkages to indigenous Palestinian systems of mutual support, or Al-’Ounah, where community members collaboratively support each other during harvesting, house building, or emergencies. These learning spaces also explore the global and local history of cooperatives, their guiding principles, and agroecology as a liberatory agricultural practice rooted in food sovereignty. They laid the groundwork for a distinct Palestinian community organising model that is simultaneously rooted in history and responsive to present challenges.
For the Forum, food sovereignty is not a slogan; it is a strategy of resistance. Producing local food using agroecological methods is a political act that challenges dependence on Israeli-controlled food systems and global agribusiness. It is also a cultural act that revitalises traditional knowledge, heirloom seeds, and communal farming practices.
An internal bylaw document establishes key characteristics of the cooperatives including voluntary membership, horizontal governance, shared ownership, reinvestment of profits for community benefit, and resistance to exploitative systems. It emphasises self-reliance, collective welfare, and resilience through community-rooted partnerships and mutual aid. Consequently, a solid ideological foundation was built leading to the emergence of 25 youth and women-led agricultural cooperatives and collectives in the West Bank and two in Gaza that embody these shared values and aspirations. Sadly, with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the two cooperatives and their farmland have been completely destroyed.
In their early stages, the cooperatives primarily concentrated on collective agricultural production. Over time, they started incorporating agroecological practices and chemical-free methods, such as companion planting, mulching, and producing natural fertilizers and pesticides. With technical, financial and social support by the Forum and their communities, youth collectives have been able to reclaim land, grow local crops in healthy soil, and develop internal governance systems that reflect their commitment to horizontal leadership.
Hisbet al Ta’awoniyat Market: a living model of solidarity economy
As these cooperatives took root and began producing local crops, a new challenge emerged: how to distribute this food in a way that aligned with the same values of justice and solidarity. In response to this need, the Forum initiated Hisbet al Ta’awoniyat (Cooperatives Market) in 2020, a farmers’ market held biweekly in front of the Popular Arts Center in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Producing local food is also a cultural act that revitalizes traditional knowledge, heirloom seeds, and communal farming practices
The evolution of Hisbet Al Ta’awoniyat began with modest quantities, a few cooperatives and limited varieties of produce. Gradually, the market expanded to include a broader and more diverse selection, with increased volume and enhanced quality. As awareness grew, more people started shopping regularly, becoming known as “friends” of the market, and developed close, supportive relationships with the cooperatives. This increasing sense of community motivated cooperatives to increase production and improve offerings, to include seasonal vegetables and herbs, along with eggs, cheese, tomato paste, molasses, and honey.
What began as a modest sidewalk stall has evolved into a vibrant hub of food, community, and solidarity. There are no fees for farmers to participate; instead its logistics costs are covered by the cooperatives. By establishing alternative food economies, the Forum is decentralising power and redistributing agency to communities. In doing so, it opposes the logic of capitalist extraction and settler dispossession, while sowing the seeds of autonomy and self-determination.
Beyond the transactional: community-rooted support system
For cooperatives, Hisbet Al-Ta’awoniyat is more than a place for economic transactions. It became a communal space where they exchange stories, knowledge, and engage in concrete acts of solidarity. After each market day, cooperative members exchange produce and contribute part of their harvest to food baskets for families in need. When transportation to and from Hisbet Al-Ta’awoniyat becomes impossible for some cooperatives due to checkpoints, other cooperatives and volunteers step in to deliver or sell produce. This spirit of mutual aid extends beyond the cooperatives, as many ‘friends’ or regular consumers of the market not only purchase produce but also contribute financially to help distribute food to vulnerable families, reinforcing a shared commitment to community care and collective responsibility.
These relationships go beyond transactions; they form a mutual support system rooted in trust and shared struggle, which is now the lifeblood of the market. As the coordinator of the Partnership Youth Forum, Rami Massad, said: “The community support system constitutes the foundational guarantee for the sustainability of this initiative.”
Facing crises with collective strength
Operating in Palestine means the constant navigation of crisis, from Israeli army attacks, settler violence and movement restrictions to climate shocks and funding cuts. The Forum has developed a unique capacity to respond to these challenges. When cooperatives face hardship, the Forum mobilises its community to raise funds, share labour, or offer emotional support.
The Forum led solidarity campaigns that promoted direct group purchasing of produce from Palestinian farmers, particularly those at risk of losing their harvest due to Israel’s deliberate influx of Israeli agricultural products into local markets just before the harvest season. This tactic, commonly used to flood the market and crash prices, has especially impacted seasonal crops of Palestinian farmers like melons and faqous (Cucumis melo), threatening the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.
One of the persistent challenges confronting cooperatives is the deliberate targeting and destruction of farmland and agricultural infrastructure by Israeli occupation forces. Incidents include the demolition of a cow shed belonging to the Doma Women Association in Doma village, the destruction of an irrigation network of the Kan’an Women Cooperative in Nassaria, and the restriction of farmers in Burin from harvesting their crops. In response, the Forum has mobilised community-based funding to support these cooperatives. This collective strength is deeply rooted in a millennia-old culture of mutual aid.
Closing the circle: the diaspora takes part
Inspired by the work of the Youth Partnership Forum, Palestinian youth in the diaspora, including in Canada, Jordan, and the USA, began exploring how they could meaningfully become part of this social and solidarity economy model. Recognising that a crucial element was missing, namely community-based, responsive funding mechanisms, they established the ‘Palestinian Social Fund’ in Canada. This fund offers grassroots financial support to Palestinian cooperatives without any conditionalities.
This collective strength is deeply rooted in a millennia old culture of mutual aid
Over the past four years, these youth have organised numerous fundraising efforts through targeted campaigns, growing their annual contributions from US $6,000 in the first year (2022) to US $91,000 in 2024 to support the needs of the cooperatives. Examples include water storage and irrigation networks, farming tools, fencing, and other needed infrastructure, in addition to helping employ stranded Gazans in the West Bank, and providing food parcels to trapped (and later displaced) families from the camp in Tulkarem, which had been subjected to a wide-scale invasion and siege by the Israeli occupation during the genocide in Gaza. Also, compensation for Palestinian farm losses related to destruction by the occupation or weather-based harvest loss was made.
Vision for a liberated future
The Partnership Youth Forum represents an organically rooted awareness that emerges from the lived realities, needs, and struggles of the people. It seeks to explore and articulate what a liberatory vision of a social and solidarity economy might look like within a colonial-capitalist context that actively works to fragment Palestinians, severing their connection to land, identity, and collective existence.
It envisions a future where Palestinian youth are not merely integrated into existing systems, but are empowered to transform them entirely. Their work with cooperatives and markets is just the beginning, a step toward a broader movement for liberation, justice, and resilience.
Despite these steadfast efforts, it is crucial to recognise that Israeli colonisation persists in its systematic campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from all parts of Palestine, employing varying strategies and intensities.
As a result of the current genocide, grassroots organising and food sovereignty efforts in Gaza face complete annihilation, further exposing the violent extremes of colonial domination. For us, this intensifies the urgency of collective mobilisation at all levels (grassroots, national, international, formal and non-formal) to first and foremost put an end to the colonisation of the Palestinian people.
Author: Lina Isma’il is an environmental and community activist, and co-founder of the Palestinian Agroecological Forum, which is concerned with spreading the philosophy and practice of agroecology as a basis for achieving food sovereignty and preserving nature. Lina is a co-author of the book “Conscious Choices: A Guide to Ethical Shopping in Palestine” and has overseen the production of several publications, as well as the documentary “Untold Revolution: Food Sovereignty in Palestine.” Contact: Lina.w.ismail@gmail.com
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This article is part of Issue 3-2025: Weaving Resilience and Resistance
