Article - Organized Resistance: Labor Strikes in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle

Throughout history, labor strikes have been used as a potent tool in expressing dissent, voicing grievances, and demanding change. In Palestine, they have emerged as a powerful mode of resistance and a critical source of leverage for workers. These strikes have encompassed diverse sectors, including labor, education, healthcare, and more, showcasing the unity and determination of the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation.

In our latest policy lab, Sumaya Awad and Jamal Juma join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to discuss how labor strikes and union organizing have mobilized Palestinians across the socio-political spectrum, both in Palestine and abroad.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa is Al-Shabaka’s Associate Fellow, based in New York, and co-host of Al-Shabaka’s Policy Lab series. He holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. Tariq’s research and writing have covered a range of topics, from the role of open-source intelligence in exposing Israel’s war crimes to analysis of Palestinian liberation tactics. His writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among others. Tariq also serves as Associate Director of Editorial for the Institute for Middle East Understanding.

Jamal Juma’ is the Coordinator of the Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall), a secretariat member of the BDS National Committee (BNC), and an executive committee member of the New Unions.

Latest Analysis

 Politics
The Israeli genocide in Gaza has laid bare the extent to which the world remains structured by racial colonial hierarchies and exposed the limits of an international legal order that emerged alongside Western imperial expansion. In this roundtable, Palestinian legal scholar Noura Erakat and Jake Romm, legal advisor and US representative for the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), reflect on what becomes of international law after Gaza.
Al-Shabaka Nour Joudah
Noura Erakat,Jake Romm· Aug 25, 2026
 Politics
When four donkeys were evacuated from Gaza to a German zoo in November 2025, their rescue was celebrated as a humanitarian success. Yet while the animals were transported to safety, given new names, and described as leaving behind "hunger and misery, beatings and hardship," Palestinian children have been unable to evacuate amid a relentless ongoing genocide. In this commentary, Asmaa Abu Mezied examines how humanitarian concern operates through racialized hierarchies of grievability that render animal suffering more visible and rescue-worthy than Palestinian human life. She further argues that animal welfare interventions are materially entangled with the dispossession of Palestinian survival infrastructure, showing how it can become an enabling mechanism of colonial violence rather than its interruption.
Asmaa Abu Mezied· Aug 11, 2026
 Politics
In this policy lab, we are joined by policy expert Lara Friedman and investigative journalist and writer Antony Loewenstein to explore the shift in Israel’s relationship with the US from dependence to deeper symbiosis.