Jerusalem is increasingly at the center of developments across colonized Palestine. Indeed, from forced expulsions to attacks on worshipers, the Israeli regime is determined to de-Palestinianize the city. In light of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign and Palestinian Jerusalemites’ resistance to it, Al-Shabaka revisits the topic of Jerusalem with a new selection of publications from our analysts.

The role of tourism in advancing Israel's settler colonial project dates back to the arrival of Zionists in Palestine. Today, it is most clearly articulated through religious tours that legitimize the Israeli regime's continued theft of Palestinian land and oppression of the Palestinian people. How does religious tourism in Palestine serve the Israeli regime's colonial…

Tourism has been critical to the Zionist enterprise since the first Zionists settled in Palestine. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Halah Ahmad explores the role of tourism, and especially religious tourism, in propagating the Zionist and Israeli-state narratives, focusing on the damaging impacts of Israeli settlement tourism in illegally occupied Palestinian land. She offers recommendations for ethical tourism that promotes Palestinian rights to self-determination. 

While civil society organizations have highlighted tourism’s role in advancing Israeli land theft in the West Bank, few describe how Palestinian Authority (PA) investments can also undermine Palestinian calls for self-determination. Al-Shabaka’s Halah Ahmad analyzes how the PA’s governmental and cultural investments in Ramallah establish facts on the ground that obscure Palestinian claims to a capital in Jerusalem.

The topic of Palestine is already proving to be divisive within the U.S. Democratic primaries, and it will undoubtedly remain a consistent question throughout the 2020 election season. Where do leading presidential candidates stand, and what role does civil society play in influencing shifts in political discourse and policy positions? Al-Shabaka analysts Halah Ahmad and Zaha Hassan weigh in on these questions and more in our Super Tuesday policy lab, hosted by Nur Arafeh.

Al-Shabaka’s Halah Ahmad traces the top Democratic presidential candidates’ positions on Palestine and assesses them relative to their stances on racial justice in the US, arguing that while foreign policy has rarely differentiated US presidential candidates, in this election it is a key litmus test for a candidate’s sincerity vis-à-vis their commitment to civil and human rights.