Collective Punishment: Israel's Strategy to Subdue Palestinian Resistance

In his July 2020 report to the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur S. Michael Lynk asserts that “Israel continues to rely upon collective punishment as a prominent instrument in its coercive toolbox of population control.”

From home demolitions to the Gaza blockade to the withholding of Palestinian bodies, Israel wields collective punishment tactics to subjugate and suppress the Palestinian population. In this policy lab, Al-Shabaka analysts Nada Awad and Issam Younis discuss the toll of this strategy on the Palestinian people and how it fits into Israel’s broader system of apartheid.

* Unfortunately, this YouTube recording cuts off the initial 5 minutes of the policy lab. To view the discussion in full, please click here

Al-Shabaka policy member Nada Awad holds a master’s degree in International Relations and International Security from Sciences Pro Paris. She works on human rights violations...
Issam Younis is the Director of Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza. He is the Commissioner General of The Palestinian Independent Commission for Hunan...
(2020, August 20)

Latest Analysis

 Refugees
Lebanese officials have revived calls to disarm Palestinian factions inside refugee camps, presenting it as part of efforts to curb “illicit weapons” and reinforce state sovereignty. Yet for many Palestinians and regional observers, the refugee-camp disarmament initiative signifies an attempt to recalibrate the region’s security landscape. It also revives traumatic collective memories of earlier disarmament campaigns that left camps exposed to massacres. 
 Economics
US tech giants portray themselves as architects of a better world powered by artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and data-driven solutions. Under slogans like “AI for Good,” they promise ethical innovation and social progress. Yet in Gaza, these narratives have collapsed, alongside international norms and what remains of the so-called rules-based order. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has highlighted the role of major technology companies in enabling military operations and sustaining the occupation. Beneath the destruction lie servers, neural networks, and software built by some of the world’s most powerful corporations. As Israel weaponizes AI and data analytics to kill Palestinians and destroy their homes, the militarization of digital technologies and infrastructures is redefining accountability and exposing a governance vacuum. This policy brief traces how corporate complicity now extends to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—and calls for urgent regulation of AI militarization.
Al-Shabaka Marwa Fatafta
Marwa Fatafta· Oct 26, 2025
 Politics
In this policy lab, Leila Farsakh and Abdaljawad Omar join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to trace the historical trajectory leading to October 7, examine how Gaza has become both a site of extermination and a catalyst for global rupture, and discuss what comes next for Palestinians.