Civil Society

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.

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. 

Youth in Gaza have engaged in the digital revolution, especially through social media platforms, to express themselves and critique their corrupt leadership. What are the implications of this turn to technology for Palestinians in Gaza? Can this form of expression affect change in leadership and foster self-determination? Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Ali Abdel Wahab, explores these questions in our latest commentary.

New digital technologies have reinvigorated the Palestinian cause locally and globally. However, Palestinians and their allies have been increasingly targeted online, including through surveillance, silencing, and cyberthreats. In this Focus On, Al-Shabaka analysts examine these trends and address Israeli surveillance tactics, the complicity of the PA, and how Palestinians and their allies can resist violations of their digital rights.

Administrative detention is central to the Israeli regime’s attempts to suppress Palestinian mobilization. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Basil Farraj shows how Palestinian administrative detainees have continuously resisted this policy and demanded an end to its widespread and arbitrary use. He offers recommendations to Palestinian civil society organizations, national stakeholders, and solidarity groups for how to support the ongoing Palestinian prison intifada.

A new wave of repressive UK government policies aims to suppress protest and political expression, posing a direct threat to Palestine solidarity work. Al-Shabaka’s senior policy analyst, Yara Hawari, locates this latest crackdown within Britain’s enduring support for Zionism, and shows how only in broad, intersectional alliances can social justice activists effectively repel state-led repression.

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.