Civil Society

Palestinians are experiencing unprecedented global solidarity since the 2021 Unity Intifada, yet their struggle for liberation remains trapped by the post-Oslo framework. Al-Shabaka’s policy analyst, Layth Hanbali, explores the rich history of the popular committees of the 1970s and 1980s to offer recommendations for how Palestinians can reorient their communities and institutions to facilitate the emergence of grassroots, liberationist mobilization.

The Palestinian health and education sectors have been neglected by Palestinian authorities and the donor community. How can Palestinians collectively develop these sectors with a vision for liberation? Al-Shabaka’s US policy fellow, Yara Asi, examines this question and offers recommendations based on interviews she conducted with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, behind the Green Line, and in the diaspora.

Israeli and Palestinian policing and incarceration have devastated Palestinian society. How can Palestinian civil society adopt community accountability and transformative justice processes that move away from state institutions and punitive justice? Al-Shabaka’s senior analyst, Yara Hawari, explores this question and offers recommendations to Palestinian civil society and the international donor community for bringing about and supporting these crucial changes.

Palestinian resistance to Israeli hegemony is transforming significantly. In this Focus On, Al-Shabaka’s policy analysts examine the trajectory of contemporary Palestinian resistance. They focus on ongoing challenges, including the censorship of anti-Zionist activists, and the persecution of Palestinians by Palestinian security forces. They emphasize which actors and tactics should be harnessed as the resistance continues to grow and confront oppression.

The latest Palestinian uprising against Israeli settler-colonial rule has been dubbed the “Unity Intifada.” It has brought Palestinians across colonized Palestine in unprecedented national unity around a shared struggle for liberation from ethnic cleansing, fragmentation, and settler colonization. Al-Shabaka’s Senior Analyst, Yara Hawari, examines the historical and contemporary implications of the Unity Intifada, and offers critical insight into how we must understand this unity.  

The recent Israeli assault on Gaza has increased fears about the summer to come. As rising global temperatures continue to threaten Gaza, Palestinians are bracing for a hot summer with widespread destruction and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Gaza is in a state of total collapse. How has the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the challenges Palestinians in Gaza experience as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation and political division in their leadership? Al-Shabaka member Ali Abdel-Wahab examines the impacts of these three factors on the lives of Gazans, and describes their strategies for confronting this reality. 

Palestinians are increasingly reporting that their digital rights are being violated by social media platforms, including YouTube. Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Amal Nazzal, examines YouTube’s problematic community guidelines and policies, and how they are used to discriminate against Palestinian users’ content. She offers recommendations for protecting the digital rights of Palestinian activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

The Israeli state has actively sought to destroy Palestinian Jerusalem since its creation in 1948. Al-Shabaka’s Senior Palestine Policy Fellow, Yara Hawari, examines the July 2020 attacks on three Palestinian cultural institutions in East Jerusalem as part of the Israeli regime’s systematic destruction of the city’s Palestinian identity. She offers policy recommendations for protecting Jerusalem’s Palestinian cultural and political institutions.

While civil society organizations have highlighted tourism’s role in advancing Israeli land theft in the West Bank, few describe how Palestinian Authority (PA) investments can also undermine Palestinian calls for self-determination. Al-Shabaka’s Halah Ahmad analyzes how the PA’s governmental and cultural investments in Ramallah establish facts on the ground that obscure Palestinian claims to a capital in Jerusalem.