Article - Palestine Post-Oslo: Moving to a Just Future

September 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords. Looking back, how did the agreement impact the Palestinian national project and cohesion as a people? What does a post-Oslo Palestine look like?

Al-Shabaka analysts Sam Bahour and Amal Ahmad delve into these questions and more in this month’s Palestine Policy Lab, facilitated by Nadia Hijab.

Sam Bahour resides in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine. He does business consulting as Applied Information Management (AIM), specializing in business development with a niche focus on the information technology sector and start-ups. Bahour was instrumental in the establishment of two publicly traded firms: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He is Co-founder & Emeritus Member of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE). He currently is an independent Director at the Arab Islamic Bank PLC and a board member at Just Vision. He writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and has been widely published in leading outlets. He is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians (Olive Branch Press, 1993), tweets at @SamBahour, and blogs at epalestine.ps.

Nadia Hijab is co-founder and honorary president of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She served as Board President from 2010-2021 and as Executive Director between 2011 and March 2018. A writer, public speaker and media commentator, Hijab’s first book, Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work was published by Cambridge University Press and she co-authored Citizens Apart: A Portrait of Palestinians in Israel (I. B. Tauris). She was Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Middle East Magazine before serving at the United Nations in New York. She is a co-founder and former co-chair of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and now serves on its advisory board. She continues to serve Al-Shabaka in an advisory capacity and support its mission.

Amal Ahmad is Assistant Professor of Economics at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her work focuses on development and political economy, particularly on how economic resources and political power intersect, shape institutions, and inform development prospects, and her regional focus is on South Asia and the MENA region. Amal obtained her PhD in Economics in 2021 and previously interned at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute. Her scholarship on Palestine has appeared in Defence and Peace Economics, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, and the Rethinking Economics Network, among others.

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