Article - Reclaiming The PLO, Re-Engaging Youth

How can the PLO maintain accountability as both a national liberation movement and governing body? How might Hamas and Islamic Jihad be integrated after decades of exclusion? What models of Palestinian youth leadership can be further developed? Al-Shabaka analysts address these and other questions in this full-length report, a year-long exercise facilitated by Alaa Tartir and Marwa Fatafta.1

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  1. To read this piece in French, please click here. Al-Shabaka is grateful for the efforts by human rights advocates to translate its pieces, but is not responsible for any change in meaning.

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.

Nijmeh Ali is a political scientist specializing in peace and conflict studies, with a focus on resistance and activism among marginalized communities, particularly Palestinians. She holds a PhD from the University of Otago and has held positions as a visiting lecturer at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Germany and as a researcher at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago. Her work challenges liberal frameworks of citizenship and examines strategies of resistance employed by oppressed groups, including in the areas of digital colonialism and surveillance. She is the recipient of the Middle East Studies Association Global Academy Award (2024) and the European Commission’s Seal of Excellence (2022).

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 is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond and a senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington. She specializes in Palestinian and Arab politics, with a focus on mobilization, public opinion, and international intervention. Her book Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Her work has appeared in academic journals including Global Studies Quarterly and Democratization, as well as in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and the Financial Times.

Belal Shobaki is the Head of the Department of Political Science at Hebron University, Palestine. He is a Policy Member at the Palestinian Policy Network. He is the founder and coordinator of the Double Master’s degree program in Public and cultural Diplomacy at Hebron University with University of Siena, Italy. He has published on Political Islam, identity, democratization and Palestinian issue. He is also leading Hebron University team of a 3 years project:  Strengthening of National Research Capacity on Policy, Conflict Resolution, and Reconciliation, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union. He has previously taught at An-Najah National University, Palestine and at IIUM, Malaysia. 

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