With COVID-19 spreading in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and neighboring refugee camps, the consequences of the US’s defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees are even more dire. Al-Shabaka’s Randa Farah examines these challenges and outlines ways Palestinians can reclaim UNRWA and ultimately use it as a vehicle of empowerment and self-determination.

The US administration’s $65 million cut to UNRWA has placed the agency in jeopardy, prompting an international conference in Rome this week to help it meet its financial needs. Al-Shabaka Policy Analyst Randa Farah analyzes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s response to the US move, and calls for Palestinian grassroots action in the face of the crisis.

Research on Palestinian refugees overwhelmingly takes place in camps. Al-Shabaka Policy Analyst Anaheed Al-Hardan critiques this trend, tracing the ways in which such research is based on unequal power relations, a hegemony of European knowledge, and “Westernized” universities that ensure its production. She concludes with recommendations for how researchers can begin to address this intellectual pitfall.

The Palestinians of Syria are forced to maintain political neutrality or support the regime, given their vulnerable position. Al-Shabaka Policy Analyst Samar Batrawi unpacks the roots of this predicament, identifies avenues that suggest how to move beyond it, and recommends tactics for Palestinians in Syria and elsewhere to better advocate for human rights and self-determination.

Israel exploits temporary crises to promote permanent measures that it uses to create new refugees and internally displaced Palestinians. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Munir Nuseibah discusses the cases and events used as precedents since the 1990s, and zeroes in on the latest effort to dispossess Palestinians accused of a breach of allegiance to Israel.

Al-Shabaka policy analysts Mai Abu Moghli, Nael Bitarie, and Nell Gabiam analyze the effects of the war in Syria on Palestinian refugees through a succinct, country-by-country analysis of the legal and social obstacles they face. They examine the discriminatory legal framework that is being applied to the Palestinian refugees from Syria by Arab countries as well as by the international community, and underscore that the Israeli government’s denial of the right of return of Palestinian refugees – in violation of international law - is a major factor in the current vulnerability of the Palestinians of Syria.

Overview The rights of Palestinian refugees have been long neglected and their suffering has been carried from generation to generation for 67 years. In his recent piece A Bold Proposal: Palestine Should Give Its Refugees Citizenship, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Fateh Azzam argued that the State of Palestine should confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and…

Palestine should confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and enter into bilateral agreements with other states to improve their situation – as citizens - wherever they reside. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Fateh Azzam knows this proposal has pitfalls but argues it is a powerful way to create facts on the road to freedom and rights. Read the policy brief or the executive summary.

All eyes are focused on the bloodshed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but the civil war in Syria continues to rage, making Shatila Refugee Camp in Lebanon – yet again – a destination for Palestinians and others fleeing conflict. Such collective tragedies have made Shatila one of the most heavily researched communities in the world. Policy Member Mayssun Succarie examines the negative impact that over-research has had and concludes that sometimes conducting no new research is the most appropriate response.

The Syrian civil war has seen some 270,000 Palestinians flee their homes, many for multiple times. The discrimination they face as they seek refuge has had little attention. From a Syrian-Palestinian perspective, Al-Shabaka Policy Member Ahmad Diab draws on the siege of Al-Yarmuk as a new symbol of Palestinian suffering and maps the profound effects this conflict has had on the entire Syrian Palestinian community.