typePolicy Briefs
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Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, Palestinian laborers working in the Israeli market have become a top target for Israel's brutal Civil and Economic Affairs Cabinet and the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. During this time, the Zionist regime terminated over 140,000 work permits, detained thousands of Palestinian workers, and began formal discussions with various Asian governments to recruit foreign laborers as replacements.
In this policy brief, Ihab Maharmeh details a recurring pattern in which Israel summons, exploits, expels, or replaces the Palestinian workforce based on its needs. This calculated approach, Maharmeh argues, is designed to systematically dismantle Palestinian political, economic, and social structures, ultimately advancing the goal of Palestinian erasure.
In their struggle against Zionist settler colonialism, Palestinians have long worked towards establishing a resistance economy. Today, food sovereignty constitutes a natural continuation of this process, building upon the principles of agricultural self-sufficiency practiced throughout the history of the Palestinian revolution.
In this policy brief, Fathi Nimer traces the origins of food sovereignty and the challenges Palestinians face today to effectively put the framework into practice. He argues that doing so will help better recontextualize the resistance economy and help pave the way for a more contentious economic order.
For decades, Israel has spearheaded a campaign against UNRWA meant to erase the question of Palestinian refugees and their collective right of return. While not new, the latest defunding of the agency by Israel’s allies is unprecedented in terms of its scope and perilous timing.
Disinformation is being produced at industrial scale by official Israeli sources to justify its ongoing genocide in Gaza. Journalists and open-source intelligence analysts have only added fuel to this fire of Palestinian dehumanization by propping up the false news without necessary scrutiny. In his latest policy brief, Tariq Kenney-Shawa delves into Israel’s information warfare tactics, exploring how these efforts have contributed to the decay of truth and how they hamper efforts to organize a global response. He offers recommendations for reporters, analysts, and the wider public to leverage open-source tools to refute dominant Israeli propaganda and disinformation.
In recent years, much has been written about the overwhelming support former President Donald Trump has received from white evangelical Christians, particularly Christian Zionists. Less examined is the relationship between white supremacy and Christian Zionism, namely their overlapping ideologies and political clout.
In this policy brief, analysts Halah Ahmad and Mimi Kirk examine the sinister synergy between Christian Zionism and white supremacy, unpacking the exceptionalism upon which Christian Zionist racist ideologies, discourses, and politics are based.
Despite the Israeli regime’s increasingly right-wing policies, liberal Zionism still plays a dominant role in Zionist ideology. It fulfills the specific and critical function of providing the settler colonial project with the veneer of enlightened, Western civilization and democratic, progressive politics. In our latest policy brief, Al Shabaka analyst M. Muhannad Ayyash exposes this veneer and proposes a guiding framework for how to confront and invalidate the notion of liberal Zionism.
Open-source intelligence is changing the way information is shared across the world. While increasingly credited as a means to expose war crimes and human rights violations, it is also being used as a tool for entrenching state oppression. In this policy brief, US Policy Fellow Tariq Kenney-Shawa examines the revolutionizing technology and offers recommendations for how to harness it for Palestinian liberation.
In October 2022, PA President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree ordering the establishment of the Supreme Council of Judicial Bodies and Authorities that he would head. Through this and other decrees, Abbas and the ruling elite entrench the domination of the executive authority over the judiciary. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Dana Farraj examines these decrees and offers recommendations for confronting them.
Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a worsening energy crisis due to the Israeli regime’s ongoing siege. As a result, they have adopted different coping strategies, including solar energy technology to offset electricity shortages. Al-Shabaka policy analyst and 2022 Visiting Gaza Fellow Asmaa Abu Mezied examines this reality, and offers recommendations for Palestinian leadership and stakeholders to promote Palestinian economic self-determination in Gaza.
Since 2021, Israeli leaders have proposed a new series of economic policies under the approach of “shrinking the conflict.” This strategy aims to afford Palestinians more economic opportunities and so-called freedoms as a way to sustain the Israeli occupation. In this policy brief, Al-Shabaka policy analyst Walid Habbas debunks the framework and explains why Palestinians will not be pacified with economic incentives.
The Israeli regime’s defenders across the US are ramping up efforts to criminalize the constitutionally protected right to boycott. Beyond violating the rights of Palestine solidarity activists, this threatens to undermine the tenets of a healthy democracy. Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, examines this development and suggests what lawmakers, civil society organizations, and concerned citizens should do to challenge it.
Media & Outreach
The PA’s ban on Al Jazeera is part of a broader crackdown on those criticising its operation in the Jenin camp. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Munir Nuseibah speaks on the topic.
The people of Palestine will not forget the loss of life or the shabiha-style beatings and torture.
Such actions are part of a broader strategy to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a collective and ensure that Gaza's population remains unable to recover or rebuild.
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