With the demise of the so-called two-state solution and the entrenchment of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid across Palestine, the possibility of a sovereign Palestinian state is further from reality than ever before. What does a Palestinian political future beyond partition look like? What would this entail for Palestinians within colonized Palestine and across the diaspora? Given their forced fragmentation, how might Palestinians forge collective visions for their political future? In our latest Focus On, Al-Shabaka’s policy analysts imagine Palestinian political futures within the context of historical and ongoing realities. 

Last month, Israeli forces violently raided the West Bank city of Jenin. PA President Mahmoud Abbas visited the area shortly thereafter, accompanied by a slew of Palestinian security forces. Days later, the PA began an arrest campaign of its own, detaining members of various factions throughout the West Bank. Such a cycle encompasses a critical component of PA-Israeli security coordination: the revolving door/al-bab al-dawaar. In our latest policy memo, Al-Shabaka analyst Alaa Tartir examines the protocol and offers recommendations to both Palestinian leadership and civil society for ways forward.

As the Israeli regime escalates its apartheid and settler colonial practices in Palestine, calls for accountability are mounting. Among these demands are growing calls for sanctions. In this interview, Al-Shabaka speaks with Khaled Elgindy and Nada Elia for further insight on this topic. Together, they detail the varied forms that sanctions may take, their potential to affect meaningful change, and distinguish how sanctions targeting the Israeli regime would differ from those wielded by Western powers in other contexts.

Benjamin Netanyahu has given far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir the go-ahead to establish Israel’s first national guard. Distinct from other Israeli forces, the national guard is designed primarily to target Palestinian citizens of Israel. In this policy memo, guest contributor Ahmed Omar looks at the emergence of the new force in order to understand its implications for Palestinian citizens of Israel and proposes recommendations to relevant stakeholders for how to challenge it and protect Palestinians.

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.

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.

As of 2023, Mahmoud Abbas surpasses his democratic mandate as President of the Palestinian Authority by 14 years. And as speculation mounts about his successor, the question of his legacy lingers. In a new Al-Shabaka roundtable, policy analysts Tareq Baconi, Yara Hawari, Alaa Tartir, and Tariq Kenney-Shawa reflect on Abbas’s impact on Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

While normalization deals between the Israeli and Arab regimes continue to spread and deepen, they have historical precedent across the region. In our latest commentary, Al-Shabaka’s senior analyst, Yara Hawari, situates contemporary normalization maneuvers in historical and geopolitical contexts, and describes the implications of these worrying policies on Palestinian liberation and the future of the region.

Exiled Palestinians’ right to Palestinian nationality is protected under international law, irrespective of racist Israeli apartheid policies. How can Palestinians and their leadership in the diaspora activate this right through different legal and political channels? Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor Nadim Bawalsa offers recommendations for how to secure exiled Palestinians their rights to and in Palestine, from wherever they may be.

In light of the evolving roles of Hamas and Islamic Jihad within Palestinian resistance, we revisit our August 2020 piece about incorporating them into a restructured PLO. Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Belal Shobaki, analyzes the movements’ doctrinal and political characteristics since their establishment, and identifies how they can be included in a rebuilt liberation movement.