TEHRN - Members of “A Thousand Youth for Palestine”, a non-hierarchical, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist youth movement based in Turkey share their journey, principles, and goals. 

Founded in December 2023 after the October 7 events, the movement unites students, activists, and workers from diverse backgrounds under a shared commitment to end all normalization with Israel. 

Emerging from street protests and boycott campaigns, the youth movement, which is also a member of the International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine, challenges both state and corporate complicity in the occupation of Palestine.

Rejecting symbolic gestures, it focuses on research-driven, grassroots action, exposing trade networks, organizing direct actions, and mobilizing public pressure that has already led to corporate withdrawals and trade restrictions. 

Beyond Turkey, the movement works with youth organizations across the Middle East and Europe, leading coordinated global protests and strikes. For A Thousand Youth for Palestine, liberation “from the river to the sea” remains both a moral and political mission.
The following is the text of the youth movement’s interview with the Tehran Times:

A Thousand Youth for Palestine is built on the principles of anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Zionism.

How was “A Thousand Youth for Palestine” founded, and what motivated it to launch this movement in December 2023?

The story of the A Thousand Youth for Palestine movement began when the Al-Aqsa Flood resistance on October 7 called on people across the world to take to the streets and join the boycott. As young people, we saw the issue of Turkey–Israel relations and the expulsion of Zionist capital from our country as the most urgent parts of this agenda.

We knew that the strength of an anonymous youth movement to speak to and organize the masses could only be found in the streets.

The vigils and protests that began in public squares and in front of companies collaborating with Zionism exposed the empty rhetoric of the AKP government, which organized large pro-Palestine rallies full of emotional slogans, while revealing the need to uncover one by one its normalization with Israel and its bureaucratic, economic, academic, and military ties.

We became convinced that cutting these ties required a genuine people’s movement.

In December 2023, together with the Labor and Justice Platform, Youth Committees, and independent friends unaffiliated with any institution, we founded A Thousand Youth for Palestine. 

From the very first day, we believed that victories are won in the streets. Capital relations that seem powerful and unshakable can be broken through grassroots struggle. Today, two years later, the gains we have achieved prove this to be true.

Our campaign against Zionist corporations began with Zorlu Holding; recently, Zorlu Energy announced that it had withdrawn its investments from Israel. As a result of the protests, we have carried out every single week without interruption; the Turkish government announced on April 9, 2024, that it would first restrict and then suspend trade with Israel.

But we did not stop there. We have renewed our oath to continue the struggle until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.

Despite the government’s official statements, we continue to expose the covert trade routes that remain active behind the scenes. We are determined to keep organizing until all commercial and political ties between Israel and Turkey are completely severed.

Despite the Turkish official statements, we continue to expose the government’s covert trade routes that remain active behind the scenes.

What are the core principles that define your movement? How do you differ from other activist groups in Turkey?

A Thousand Youth for Palestine is built on the principles of anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Zionism. It is a movement where young people from diverse backgrounds unite around these shared ideals.

What distinguishes us most from other groups is that we turn this diversity into a sense of shared responsibility rather than conflict. Our movement is non-hierarchical and operates through a horizontal organizational model. We do not believe in a single “leader” figure, but in collective coordination through committees.

In practice, our difference is this: it is not enough to simply chant slogans for an oppressed people. We combine research, legal action, civil disobedience, and public pressure to expose the institutions, corporations, and so-called solidarity discourses that conceal real political and economic relationships. This transforms the movement from an emotional reaction into a political and institutional actor capable of creating real impact.

Another key distinction is our determination to hold those in power accountable. We expose the ongoing economic ties between the government, corporations, and port/logistics actors and Israel; we conduct field research, gather data, and organize targeted direct actions to make visible the flow of resources, logistics, and finance.

This approach has taken concrete form, for example, in the investigations and protests against companies like SOCAR—actions that require us to confront state and corporate power directly.

We are a youth movement that makes decisions collectively and combines street action with research and exposure. This approach, both in theory and in practice, sets us apart from many traditional forms of activism in Turkey.

It is moral weakness or hypocrisy to oppose Israel’s moves in Gaza while continuing economic ties with Tel Aviv. 

In your opinion, why do countries in the region publicly oppose Israel’s occupation of Gaza while continuing economic relations in practice?

It’s easy, but superficial, to explain this contradiction merely as a matter of moral weakness or hypocrisy. In reality, regimes operate within a security–economic web woven by global capital(ism) and geopolitical dynamics: security alliances, energy and trade pipelines, military–industrial relations, and regional balances all determine their decisions.

For this reason, leaders must constantly balance the public anger rising in the streets with the institutional interests of the state.

While the massacres in Gaza have mobilized public opinion, governments simultaneously act to preserve their networks of energy, technology, security, and capital—because these networks sustain their political and economic power.

What strategies or measures would you recommend for Islamic countries to provide concrete and practical support to Palestine?

As the A Thousand Youth for Palestine movement, we first and foremost demand that governments provide genuine support to Palestine by immediately cutting all diplomatic, economic, and military ties with Israel. This is more than a symbolic gesture—it is the most effective and urgent form of sanction against occupation policies.

While the massacres in Gaza have mobilized public opinion, governments preserve energy, technological, and security ties with Israel. 

Do your activities extend beyond Turkey, and do you collaborate with young people in other regional or Islamic countries?

To strengthen the global intifada, we have organized and continue to organize joint actions with many movements abroad. Last year, on November 11 and November 16, we held synchronized global protests in 13 different countries—including Jordan and Palestine—under the slogan “Turkey, shut down the genocide valves.”

On November 21, as part of the International Day of Action, we joined a student strike endorsed by 40 organizations and involving more than 400 universities across nine countries. We went on strike to demand the severing of all academic and political ties with Israel, standing against the governments, corporations, and universities complicit in genocide.

Together with our comrades from the Middle East, Europe, and across the world, we have built networks of solidarity, coordinated actions, and shared models of resistance.