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.

The Palestinian Authority’s security sector receives the largest portion of its budget, allowing it to consolidate its authoritarian and repressive rule over the Palestinian people. Al-Shabaka’s policy analyst and program advisor, Alaa Tartir, explores this troubling reality and offers recommendations for rethinking security sector governance whereby it can bring about inclusivity, accountability, and dignity for the Palestinian people.

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.

Palestine has an abundance of natural resources, but in the decades since the establishment of the state of Israel they have been compromised and exploited. In this collection of analysis, Al-Shabaka experts provide insight into issues related to Palestinian natural resources, from their theft by Israel to the effects of climate change and its intersection with the Israeli occupation.

The Trump Administration’s aid cuts to Palestinians, while disastrous, can spur a reassessment of the Oslo Accords aid model, which for decades has failed to bring Palestinians closer to freedom, self-determination, or statehood. In this collection of pieces, Al-Shabaka analysts examine aid to Palestine and its harmful ramifications, and suggest ways to reform and reinvent Palestinian aid.

In this compilation Al-Shabaka’s top analysts dissect the Accords’ political and economic dimensions and discuss their repercussions for Palestinians while also providing recommendations on ways forward.

Current Palestinian governance is facing a legitimacy crisis. So what alternative options exist? Is a fully representative leadership even possible in the Palestinian context? Al-Shabaka analysts Marwa Fatafta and Fadi Quran will explore these questions and more in our second policy lab, facilitated by Alaa Tartir.  

As Israel’s military occupation reaches its 50th year, Al-Shabaka Program Director Alaa Tartir argues that the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have not protected Palestinians, but have instead contributed to the criminalization of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Tartir analyzes the evolution and “reform” of the PA security establishment and concludes with recommendations to overhaul the PA forces.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s top leadership body, the Central Council, called for a halt to Palestinian security coordination with Israel in 2015. Yet PLO Chair Mahmoud Abbas has described it as sacred despite the breakdown of the peace process to end Israel’s 50-year military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory. The killing by Israeli forces of activist and youth leader Basil Al-Araj, whom the Palestinian Authority had previously imprisoned – raising accusations that his jailing was part of its so-called revolving door policy - has refocused public attention on the issue. In the selection of pieces below, Al-Shabaka policy analysts discuss the origins and pillars of Israeli-PA security coordination as well as its consequences for the Palestinian people, who experience it as an additional layer of oppression to the multiple violations of their rights under occupation, within Israel, and in exile. 

With the election of Donald Trump, Israel believes it is free to do what it likes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, making a difficult Palestinian leadership transition much harder. Al-Shabaka policy analysts examine different scenarios and propose alternatives ranging from consolidating the state to a struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people as a whole.