Palestinian Youth - A study of gendered insecurities and agency

Abstract: Youth present either a risk or a great opportunity for change. Traditionally youth have been perceived in binary terms of either as victim of wars or as threats to peace and security. The UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security presents a shift in the perception of young people, now regarding them as agents of peace and security. This thesis will shed light on young Palestinians through a case study and pursue to investigate how one can understand the experience of insecurities that they face in their everyday life and how it may affect their agency. In order to do so, the thesis uses a feminist security approach, in order to unravel some of the underlying and interrelated factors of different forms of violence harming young Palestinians. Only by adding a gender lens and a broadened concept of security can gendered insecurities be unpacked. Reaching through the spheres of external and internal, domestic and public, I have identified interrelated structures, showing how the Israeli occupation work as an enforcement of a gendered hierarchy deeply rooted in patriarchal structures, thus affecting and harming youth’s ability to engage agency.