Palestinian women citizens of Israel have one of the world’s lowest participation rates in the labor market, while their Jewish counterparts have one of the highest. Though Israeli government officials have publicly stated that the country must promote Palestinian women’s employment, their statements have not been followed with action. The Palestinians have instead suffered poverty,…

As Israel intensifies its settler-colonial project, apartheid has become an increasingly important framework for understanding and challenging Israeli rule in historic Palestine. Under international law, apartheid is a crime against humanity and states can be held accountable for their actions. However, international law has its limitations. To bring about true justice and equality for Palestinians,…

Palestine is undergoing a man-made water crisis. Yet government officials, the international community, donor agencies, and even academic literature portray Palestine’s lack of water resources as a result of the region’s climatic conditions. What these narratives fail to address is that Palestine’s water scarcity is a social and political construct that obscures how Israel entrenches…

From the outset, the Palestinian Authority (PA) security establishment has failed to protect Palestinians from the main source of their insecurity: The Israeli military occupation. Nor has it empowered Palestinians to resist that occupation. Instead, the PA has contributed to a situation in which the Palestinian struggle for freedom has itself been criminalized. This dynamic…

Palestinians are mired in a one or two-state debate that leapfrogs the need for a process of decolonization and reparations, argue Al-Shabaka Policy Analysts Nadia Hijab and Ingrid Jaradat Gassner. The authors compare different frameworks of analysis and conclude the anti-apartheid framework is most strategic in furthering Palestinian goals in the absence of a near-term political settlement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently claimed in a video posted to his Facebook page that the Palestinian demand to dismantle illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory constitutes an act of “ethnic cleansing” against Israeli Jewish settlers. Netanyahu’s application of the term to settlers shocked many analysts and created a tense debate in the international media. Yet such rhetoric is but the latest instance of an Israeli strategy of appropriating a narrative of victimhood to shore up public support.

Since 1967, Israel has systematically colonized Palestinian natural resources and, in the case of hydrocarbons, prevented Palestinians from accessing their own oil and gas reserves. Such restrictions have ensured Palestinians’ continued dependence on Israel for their energy needs. This is compounded by the fact that Palestinians’ efforts to develop their energy sector fail to challenge Israel’s hegemony over resources. Rather, they pursue growth and state building within the framework of the occupation, further reinforcing – even if inadvertently – the asymmetric balance between occupied and occupier.

The Palestinian experience in the Syrian war has been one of violence, misery, and double exile, and is a story in its own right. Yet it has also brought into high relief a fundamental dilemma affecting the Palestinians of Syria, namely that of being forced to maintain political neutrality, given their vulnerable position, or to support the regime, despite its direct role in their suffering.

Is one state the only alternative to an unrealized two-state solution? Al-Shabaka Policy Member Asem Khalil discusses the minimal changes in governance the PA has made post-Oslo and forecasts a “status quo+,” an institutionalized system of apartheid and a no-state solution. He also foresees three states – but argues none of this would be sustainable over time.

Israeli military companies such as Elbit Systems appear invincible, yet Israel’s arms industry is more vulnerable than it seems. Al-Shabaka guest author Maren Mantovani and Policy Advisor Jamal Juma’ examine both national and global trends and identify avenues for human rights activists to pursue to hold Israel accountable under international law.