Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
Donate Sign Up
  • العربية
  • English
  • Policy Analysis
    • Civil Society
    • Economics
    • Politics
    • Refugees
  • Policy Insights
    • Policy Focus
    • Policy Labs
    • Podcasts
  • Policy Network
    • Members
    • Contributors
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Vision & Principles
    • Who We Are
    • Internship Program
    • Contact
    • Donate
    • Privacy & Terms of Use
  • Media & Outreach
    • Op-Eds & Articles
    • In the Media
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Contacts
Al-Shabaka Logo
Al-Shabaka Logo
FocusPolitics

Focus On: Palestinian Political Leadership

by Jamil Hilal, Marwa Fatafta, Yara Hawari, Zachariah Sammour, Fadi Quran, Dana El Kurd, Noura Erakat, Haidar Eid, Samah Sabawi, Loubna Qutami, Inès Abdel Razek, Ali Abdel-Wahab, Tareq Baconi on February 23, 2021

  • Download
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Email
  • Print

The Palestinian national movement is in an acute state of crisis, and the Palestinian political system and institutions are incapable of bringing the Palestinian people closer to realize their rights. The existing style of governance and models of leadership prove on a daily basis to be unfit for present and future Palestinian generations seeking equality, justice, and freedom above all. The Palestinian people urgently need a new political leadership that is representative, legitimate, responsible, responsive, and accountable. 

In this selection of pieces, Al-Shabaka policy analysts reflect on the history of leadership in Palestine and explore what lessons can be learned from the past with an eye to the future. They discuss the shortcomings of the existing political leadership and argue for the utmost need for youth-led leadership to emerge and flourish, and for that, they propose a number of concrete steps and actions, envisaging what a new leadership model might look like.

Learning from the Past

Reflections on Palestinian Leaderships Past

Jamil Hilal 

In this commentary, Jamil Hilal reflects on Palestine’s history of leadership. He draws on his own rich experience in the Palestinian national movement, as well as on his scholarship for and about that movement, to identify strengths on which to build and weaknesses to avoid. Read more…

Palestinians and Their Leadership: Restoring the PLO

Marwa Fatafta 

Can we envisage a representative and accountable leadership that enables Palestinians to contribute to the political decisions that shape their lives, that provides them avenues for action, and that serves as an arena for Palestinian political engagement and participation? Marwa Fatafta explores how Palestinians can reclaim and redefine their leadership in the PLO. Read more…

Abbas and the Farce of Palestinian Democracy

Yara Hawari 

What’s behind Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ dissolution of the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2018/19? Yara Hawari analyzes the move, uncovering likely motives and consequences in light of Abbas’ broader grip on power, and proposes ways to increase Palestinian democratic space. Read more…

An Illegitimate Leadership Can Sign Away Rights

Zachariah Sammour 

It is clear that Palestinians are fast approaching a juncture at which decisions of extreme national importance may be taken. Zachariah Sammour argues that this requires an immediate and sustained response from all Palestinians, including those in the diaspora. Read more…

Youth and the New Generation of Leaders

Palestinian Leadership Through Resistance or Leaderless Subsistence? The Role of Youth

Fadi Quran 

Fadi Quran addresses the real, indeed, sometimes deliberate, obstacles placed in the way of developing authentic leadership among Palestinians, particularly the youth, and insists that leadership through resistance is the way out of the morass. Read more…

A Leadership Model from the Palestinian Diaspora in the US

Dana El Kurd

The Palestinian diaspora in the US has achieved success in effective organization and activism. Dana El Kurd offers insights into how the experiences of this diaspora can offer new models for leadership that benefit Palestinians everywhere. Read more…

Upending the Palestinian Leadership: The Role of Youth

Fadi Quran 

Though prospects for self-determination appear hopeless under the current Palestinian leadership, Fadi Quran argues that a new generation of young leaders is emerging with the potential to achieve Palestinian liberation. He outlines their challenges and opportunities in light of past leadership trends. Read more…

A New Model for Leadership 

Beyond Sterile Negotiations: Looking for a Leadership with a Strategy

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat explores how a national liberation strategy can be elaborated and who can lead it. She explores the South Africa model, and argues for a dual approach of working for rights while at the same time actively seeking answers to the pressing need for a unified political program and leadership. Read more… 

Looking for a Leadership with a Strategy

Haidar Eid, Samah Sabawi, Loubna Qutami, & Noura Erakat 

In this roundtable, Haidar Eid, Samah Sabawi, Loubna Qutami, and Noura Erakat critique issues relating to the questions of representation and self-determination, the colonial condition, and the future of the struggle, all from a leadership perspective. Read more…

Palestinian Leadership: What a New Model Might Look Like 

Inès Abdel Razek, Ali Abdel-Wahab, Tareq Baconi, Marwa Fatafta, & Dana El Kurd

In this roundtable, Inès Abdel Razek, Ali Abdel-Wahab, Tareq Baconi, Marwa Fatafta, and Dana El Kurd engage in an open-ended discussion about what can and should be done to ensure a Palestinian leadership that fully represents Palestinians, restores their unity, and respects their rights while they struggle for freedom. Read more…

Jamil Hilal

Jamil Hilal is an independent Palestinian sociologist and writer, and has published many books and numerous articles on Palestinian society, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and Middle East issues.  Hilal has held, and holds, associate senior research fellowship at a number of Palestinian research institutions.  His recent publications include works on poverty, Palestinian political parties, and the political system after Oslo.  He edited Where Now for Palestine: The Demise of the Two-State Solution (Z Books, 2007), and with Ilan Pappe edited Across the Wall (I.B. Tauris, 2010).

Marwa Fatafta

Marwa is a Palestinian writer, researcher and policy analyst based in Berlin. She leads Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region as the MENA Policy Manager. She is also an advisory board member of the Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh. Previously, she worked as the MENA Regional Advisor for Transparency International Secretariat. Marwa was a Fulbright scholar to the US, and holds an MA in International Relations from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She holds a second MA in Development and Governance from University of Duisburg-Essen.

Yara Hawari

Yara Hawari is the Senior Analyst of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work, which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets including The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Al Jazeera English.

Zachariah Sammour

Al-Shabaka Policy Member Zachariah Sammour completed his undergraduate studies in law at the London School of Economics in 2012 and received his master's degree from Oxford University in 2013. He is particularly interested in international law, constitutional law, and constitutional theory.

Photo of Fadi Quran
Fadi Quran

Al-Shabaka Policy Member Fadi Quran is a Senior Campaigner at Avaaz and a Popular Struggle community organizer. He previously served as UN Advocacy Officer with Al-Haq’s legal research and advocacy unit. Apart from his work in advocacy and international law, Fadi is also an entrepreneur in the alternative energy field, where he has founded two companies bringing wind and solar energy to Palestine and other countries in the region. Fadi holds degrees in Physics and International Relations from Stanford University.

Dana El Kurd

Al-Shabaka Member Dana El Kurd received her PhD in Government from The University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in Comparative Politics and International Relations. Her dissertation explores how international patrons affect authoritarian consolidation in the Palestinian territories. Dana writes regularly for publications such as Al-Araby al-Jadeed, The Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, and Foreign Affairs. She currently works as a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and its sister institution, the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is an assistant professor at George Mason University where she teaches in the legal studies, international studies, and human rights/social justice studies concentrations. An attorney and human rights advocate, she previously served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives and as an advisor on Middle East affairs for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Noura comments regularly on US foreign policy and international law matters. She has appeared on Al Jazeera International, NBC's "Politically Incorrect," and Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor." Her writings have appeared in The Huffington Post, Berkeley Law School's Journal for Middle East and Islamic Law, Counterpunch, Al-Majdal, and the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).

Haidar Eid

Haidar Eid is Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern Literature at Gaza's al-Aqsa University. He has written widely on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including articles published at Znet, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Chronicle, and Open Democracy. He has published papers on cultural Studies  and literature in a number of journals, including Nebula, Journal of American Studies in Turkey, Cultural Logic, and the Journal of Comparative Literature. Haidar is the author of Worlding Postmodernism: Interpretive Possibilities of Critical Theory  and Countering The Palestinian Nakba: One State For All.

Samah Sabawi

Samah Sabawi is a political commentator, author and playwright. She is a member of the board of directors for the National Council on Canada Arab Relations (NCCAR). Sabawi wrote and produced Cries from the Land (Canada 2003), Three Wishes (Canada 2008) andTales of a City by the Sea (Palestine & Australia 2014).  Her past work includes being public advocate for Australians for Palestine, Executive Director for the National Council on Canada Arab Relations (NCCAR) and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Canadian Foreign Service Institute’s Centre for Intercultural Learning.

Loubna Qutami

Al-Shabaka Policy Member Loubna Qutami is a Presidents Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a PhD from the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Qutami is also the former Executive Director of the Arab Cultural and Community Center (ACCC) in San Francisco as well as a founder, member, and the former International General Coordinator for the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). 

 

 

Inès Abdel Razek

Inès Abdel Razek is Advocacy Director for the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), an independent Palestinian organization. Prior to joining the PIPD, Inès held advisory positions in the executive offices of the Union for the Mediterranean in Barcelona, the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi and the Palestinian Prime Minister's Office in Ramallah, where she focused on international governance and development cooperation policies. Inès is also an advisory board member of the social enterprise BuildPalestine. She holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs from Sciences-Po, Paris. Twitter: @InesAbdelrazek

Ali Abdel-Wahab

Ali Abdel-Wahab works as a data analyst and evaluation and follow-up assistant at the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Gaza. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and is interested in the world of data, big data, and computer social sciences. He has worked as a research assistant in several Palestinian and European institutes and has written several articles and scientific papers. He is also a member of the political youth forum in Gaza's Masarat Center. His research focuses on issues of political economy, digital transformation, and the social network, with particular focus on Palestine.

Tareq Baconi

Tareq Baconi serves as the president of the board of Al-Shabaka. He was Al-Shabaka's US Policy Fellow from 2016 - 2017. Tareq is the former senior analyst for Israel/Palestine and Economics of Conflict at the International Crisis Group, based in Ramallah, and the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (Stanford University Press, 2018). Tareq’s writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, among others, and he is a frequent commentator in regional and international media. He is the book review editor for the Journal of Palestine Studies.

An independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and self determination within the framework of international law. Al-Shabaka materials may be reproduced and circulated with due attribution to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. The opinions of individual members of Al-Shabaka’s policy network do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization as a whole.

  • Policy Analysis
    • Civil Society
    • Economics
    • Politics
    • Refugees
  • Policy Insights
    • Policy Focus
    • Policy Labs
    • Podcasts
  • Policy Network
    • Members
    • Contributors
  • About Us
    • Vision & Principles
    • Who We Are
    • Internship Program
    • Contact
    • Donate
    • Privacy & Terms of Use
  • Media & Outreach
    • Op-Eds & Articles
    • In the Media
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Contacts
  • Contact
    • Contact al-Shabaka by email at:
      [email protected]
    • Or by mail:
      Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
      P.O. Box 8533
      New York, NY 10150

© 2010-2022 Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. All rights reserved.

Stay Informed

Join Al-Shabaka’s mailing list and find the latest Palestinian policy analysis in your inbox:

I agree to Al-Shabaka's Privacy Policy

×