Samar Batrawi is a Dutch-Palestinian PhD candidate and teaching assistant in international relations theory at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

The so-called Middle East Peace Process has ensured Palestinians’ oppression by a military regime bent on settler-colonial expansion. How has the bilateral negotiations framework consolidated Israel’s hegemony over the Palestinians, and how has Israel maintained it? Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Inès Abdel Razek, explores these questions and more, and offers recommendations to the international community for supporting Palestinian liberation.

The Israeli occupation has crippled Palestinian productive sectors, leading to the dominance of internal trade in the Palestinian economy. Al-Shabaka policy analyst, Ibrahim Shikaki, examines how these structural distortions developed as a result of Israel’s oppressive economic policies since it occupied Palestine in 1967. He offers recommendations to the international community and aid agencies for how to support Palestinian economic self-determination. 

With so much to tackle in the struggle for Palestinian rights, some question why time and energy should be invested in developing the Palestinian narrative and discourse. Al-Shabaka analyst Amjad Iraqi argues that a unified narrative and discourse is essential to the struggle’s success and outlines its key elements and strategic potential.

Buoyed by US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as its capital, Israel has intensified efforts to annex settlements and areas bordering the city, including Ma’ale Adumim and the E1 corridor. Al-Shabaka US Policy Fellow Zena Agha analyzes the implications of annexation and recommends ways the international community and Palestinians can work to block this disastrous outcome.