The Palestinian Student Movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

This study discusses the Palestinian student movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and it addresses the criticism that the movement has not played the role it is expected to play. The current student movement is compared with the student movement in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as with the General Union of Palestinian Students and its international activities, with particular emphasis on its role in shaping the modern Palestinian nationalist movement. The decline in the student movement has been linked to the decline of political parties and the Palestinian nationalist movement in general. This characterization underestimates the size of the problem because it largely ignores the social structure within which the current student movement operates, which imposes restrictions on the movement's activists and reduces the possibilities for the movement to develop and progress.