Palestinian Leadership in Israel: Challenges & Opportunities

What are the main challenges that Palestinian citizens of Israel face in terms of leadership? What opportunities exist in the current political context to gain visibility and overcome geo-political fragmentation with those in the West Bank and Gaza?

In our first policy lab of 2019, Al-Shabaka analysts Abir Kopty and Amjad Iraqi join Yara Hawari to weigh in on these questions and more.

Yara Hawari is Al-Shabaka's co-director. She previously served as the Palestine policy fellow and senior analyst. Yara completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at...
Al-Shabaka Member Amjad Iraqi is an editor and writer at +972 Magazine, based in Haifa. He was previously an advocacy coordinator at Adalah - The...
Al-Shabaka policy member Abir Kopty, holds an MA in Political Communication from the City University, London, and is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute...
(2019, February 5)

Latest Analysis

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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.
 Politics
For two years, Israel has inflicted mass starvation, staggering death tolls, and relentless destruction on Gaza and its inhabitants. International efforts to recognize Israeli war crimes and halt the eradication of the Palestinian people continue to lag and fall short. On September 16, 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry confirmed what Palestinians have identified since the outset: Israel is committing genocide. On September 29, US President Donald Trump unveiled a proposal that promises a ceasefire but subordinates Palestinians in Gaza to external governance, denies them self-determination, and entrenches Israeli control over the land. Framed as a peace initiative, the plan is in fact an attempt by the US to shield the Israeli regime from accountability, exemplifying Western complicity in the colonization of Palestine and the extermination of its people. In this context, Hamas’s agreement to release all Israeli captives signals its commitment to ending the ongoing violence, while simultaneously shifting the onus onto the Israeli regime and the Trump administration to clarify and operationalize their commitments to the ceasefire process. This Focus On gathers Al-Shabaka’s analyses from the past year, offering urgent context to understand the genocide and its regional impact. It traces the Israeli regime’s expansionist campaign across Gaza, the West Bank, and the wider region, exposing Western complicity not only in enabling its crimes but also in protecting it from justice. At the same time, it highlights initiatives that resist Israeli impunity while advancing accountability and genuine liberation.
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