Challenging Anti-Boycott Legislation in the US

The Israeli regime’s defenders across the US are ramping up efforts to criminalize the constitutionally protected right to boycott. Beyond violating the rights of Palestine solidarity activists, this threatens to undermine the tenets of a healthy democracy. Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, examines this development and suggests what lawmakers, civil society organizations, and concerned citizens should do to challenge it. 

Exiled Palestinians’ right to Palestinian nationality is protected under international law, irrespective of racist Israeli apartheid policies. How can Palestinians and their leadership in the diaspora activate this right through different legal and political channels? Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor Nadim Bawalsa offers recommendations for how to secure exiled Palestinians their rights to and in Palestine, from wherever they may be.

Administrative detention is central to the Israeli regime’s attempts to suppress Palestinian mobilization. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Basil Farraj shows how Palestinian administrative detainees have continuously resisted this policy and demanded an end to its widespread and arbitrary use. He offers recommendations to Palestinian civil society organizations, national stakeholders, and solidarity groups for how to support the ongoing Palestinian prison intifada.

Donor aid has failed to protect Palestinian Bedouin communities in the E-1 corridor from the Israeli regime’s oppressive policies. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Tamara Tamimi and guest author Osama Risheq show how aid programs in E-1 actually entrench Israeli apartheid. They offer recommendations to donor states, Palestinian civil society organizations, and national stakeholders for how to secure the rights of these communities.

A new wave of repressive UK government policies aims to suppress protest and political expression, posing a direct threat to Palestine solidarity work. Al-Shabaka’s senior policy analyst, Yara Hawari, locates this latest crackdown within Britain’s enduring support for Zionism, and shows how only in broad, intersectional alliances can social justice activists effectively repel state-led repression.

Palestinians are experiencing unprecedented global solidarity since the 2021 Unity Intifada, yet their struggle for liberation remains trapped by the post-Oslo framework. Al-Shabaka’s policy analyst, Layth Hanbali, explores the rich history of the popular committees of the 1970s and 1980s to offer recommendations for how Palestinians can reorient their communities and institutions to facilitate the emergence of grassroots, liberationist mobilization.

For the past two decades, the Palestinian Authority has been collaborating with expatriate Palestinian capitalists, who operate in tandem with the Israeli state, to ramp up ICT development in Palestine. Yet the sector continues to suffer. Al-Shabaka’s guest contributor, David Musleh, examines these power dynamics and offers recommendations for what the PA should do to enhance Palestinians’ economic lives.

The Palestinian health and education sectors have been neglected by Palestinian authorities and the donor community. How can Palestinians collectively develop these sectors with a vision for liberation? Al-Shabaka’s US policy fellow, Yara Asi, examines this question and offers recommendations based on interviews she conducted with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, behind the Green Line, and in the diaspora.

Israeli and Palestinian policing and incarceration have devastated Palestinian society. How can Palestinian civil society adopt community accountability and transformative justice processes that move away from state institutions and punitive justice? Al-Shabaka’s senior analyst, Yara Hawari, explores this question and offers recommendations to Palestinian civil society and the international donor community for bringing about and supporting these crucial changes.

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.