Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Osamah Khalil is a co-founder and former co-director of Al-Shabaka. He is Associate Professor of History at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Khalil is the author of America’s Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State (Harvard University Press, 2016).
Al-Shabaka presents a selection of pieces from its archives in which its policy analysts discuss issues related to the reform of PLO institutions and questions of legitimate political representation.
Read More
According to conventional wisdom, the PLO signed the Oslo Accords twenty years ago because it was almost bankrupt and feared an alternate leadership would emerge. But PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat sought to establish relations with the U.S. after the October 1973 War and offered significant concessions before ever reaching the negotiating table.
Read More
Is the Palestine Liberation Organization still the "sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people"? In this thought provoking policy brief, Al-Shabaka policy advisor Osamah Khalil argues that attempts to reform the organization will not make it more representative or accountable, but will instead save a leadership that has lost its legitimacy. He asserts that a new representative body must be built in order to achieve Palestinian rights.
Read More
The latest Al-Shabaka roundtable examines the effectiveness of different forms of resistance in achieving Palestinian rights. The participants discussed a range of issues from the implications of armed struggle to the potential and limitations of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.
Read More
Recent reports that the Obama administration offered Israel unprecedented incentives to continue its limited 10-month moratorium on settlement construction for an additional 60 days have sparked an outcry among Palestinians and their supporters. However, in this policy brief Al-Shabaka Co-Director Osamah Khalil argues that the administration’s actions fit into a much broader historical pattern of public American pressure on Israel and private concessions.
Read More