Zena Agha served as Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow from 2017 – 2019. Her areas of expertise include Israeli settlement-building in the occupied Palestinian territory with a special focus on Jerusalem, modern Middle Eastern history, and spatial practices. She has previously worked at the Economist, the Iraqi Embassy in Paris, and the Palestinian delegation at UNESCO. In addition to opinion pieces in The Independent, and The Nation, Zena’s media credits include the BBC World Service, BBC Arabic and El Pais. Zena was awarded the Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University, completing her Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies.
From this author
The arrival of new digital technologies over the past decade has had critical implications for Palestinian activism. On the one hand, these developments have reinvigorated the Palestinian cause. Indeed, social media platforms have facilitated new channels and modes of social organization, helping Palestinians counter their geographic fragmentation under Israeli apartheid.
Jerusalem continues to lie at the center of political developments in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and in the shifting landscape of US and EU foreign policy toward Palestine and the Israeli regime.
Zena Agha and host Yara Hawari discuss how decades of colonial mappings, first by British imperialism and then by the Israeli colonial project, have undermined Palestinian self-determination and explore how Palestinians are fighting back.
"The practice of mapping in Palestine-Israel has long been an exercise in power, imperialism, and dispossession." So writes Zena Agha in her recent policy brief for Al-Shabaka. But how can maps be reclaimed as tools for resistance? And can they be utilized to help envision a different Palestinian future?
The practice of mapping in Palestine-Israel has long been an exercise in power, imperialism, and dispossession. Al-Shabaka Policy Analyst Zena Agha examines how Palestinians have been excluded from maps of their own land from the British Mandate to today, and explores ways that Palestinians can – and do – reclaim maps as a means of resistance.
Historic Palestine has long had an abundance of natural resources, ranging from fresh and ground water, arable land and, more recently, oil and natural gas. In the seven decades since the establishment of the state of Israel, these resources have been compromised and exploited through a variety of measures. These include widespread Palestinian dispossession of land in the ongoing Nakba, exploitation of water through failed negotiations, and a finders-keepers approach to gas and oil found in or under occupied land.
Bipartisan legislation passed by the US Congress in 1997 limits the quality and availability of satellite imagery of Palestine-Israel. The Kyl-Bingaman Amendment (KBA) to the US National Defense Authorization Act was passed under the pretext of protecting Israel’s national security. It prevents US satellite operators and retailers from selling or disseminating images of Palestine-Israel at a resolution higher than that available on the non-US market. The amendment’s interpretation has been confusing and contradictory in terms of meaning, geographical scope, and legal implications. Its result has been over two decades of limited access to clear satellite imagery of Palestine-Israel.
Climate change is among the greatest threats facing humanity. Although Palestinians and Israelis inhabit the same terrain, Palestinians under occupation will suffer the effects more severely. Decreased precipitation is expected to be the most significant effect on Palestine-Israel over the course of this century, accompanied by a rise in average temperatures.
Climate change is among the greatest threats currently facing human life. Its effects are global, wide-ranging, and unequally distributed. Despite Palestinians and Israelis inhabiting the same physical terrain, Palestinians under occupation will suffer the effects of climate change more severely.
Is the global Palestine solidarity movement exerting its energy in the right places? How can the movement better coordinate with developments in Palestine? Is Palestinian self-determination sufficiently reflected within the movement?
