Seventy years after the Nakba, the Palestinian dispossession and exile that accompanied the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Palestinians today remain stateless. Their prospects for securing collective or individual rights are bleaker than they have been for decades. Alongside the international and regional developments that are undermining their quest for self-determination, Palestinians are also on the cusp of a leadership change that could have far reaching implications for their collective future.
News emerging from the Gaza Strip today offers a glimpse that Palestinians are entering a new phase in their struggle. Drawing on his newly-released book, Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, Al-Shabaka policy member Tareq Baconi reflects on the wider trajectory of Palestinian nationalism through the prism of Hamas and the extraordinary challenges faced by Palestinians in Gaza. He is joined by Khaled Elgindy, who addresses the history of American policy towards the Palestinians and the peace process and its impact on the Palestinian leadership more broadly. Al-Shabaka analyst Noura Erekat, focuses on the role of international law in shaping the current Palestinian predicament and assess Palestinian officialdom’s legal strategy since 2000 to indicate possible horizons. The discussion is moderated by FMEP President Lara Friedman.
Featured Speaker
Tareq Baconi is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist. He previously served as Al-Shabaka’s US policy fellow and later as president of the board of directors. His work has appeared in The New York Times and The Baffler, among others. He also contributes essays to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He is the author of What Now: On Palestine, Freedom, and Our Global Future (2026), Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance (2018), which was shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award, and Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir (2025).
