Shifting the Narrative on Palestine in 2022 and Beyond

From the COVID-19 pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement, events that have unfolded on the global stage have impacted our realities over the past two years. Today, the Palestinian struggle exists in a world of greater connectivity, one where movements for justice are transcending state structures and institutions, recognizing the pervasiveness and interconnectedness of systems of oppression, and seeking expansive forms of solidarity and allyship.

As Al-Shabaka enters its twelfth year, we consider the importance of understanding and presenting Palestine in light of these shifts, and the transnational, regional, and local developments shaping our world order. This is of particular relevance after the 2021 Unity Intifada, which had major local implications, and which shifted the global conversation on Palestine in important ways. As a policy-orientated think tank, how can our analysis incorporate and contribute to these shifts, whether on the streets or in the halls of power? And in highlighting the interconnectedness of oppressed communities worldwide, how can we simultaneously center the voices of Palestinians?

In the first policy lab of 2022, Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor, Nadim Bawalsa, is joined by Al-Shabaka’s new Board President, Tareq Baconi, and Al-Shabaka’s Senior Analyst, Yara Hawari, to ponder 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...
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...
Nadim Bawalsa is Associate Editor with the Journal of Palestine Studies. From 2020-2023, Nadim served as Al-Shabaka’s commissioning editor. He is a historian of modern...
(2022, January 25)

Latest Analysis

 Politics
European empires used Christian missions to legitimize conquest in Africa and advance imperial interests, laying the groundwork for a political form of Christian Zionism. British evangelicals were central in transforming Christian Zionism from a theological belief into an imperial strategy by promoting Jewish resettlement in Palestine as a means of extending British influence. This fusion of religious ideology and imperial ambition endures in contemporary Christian Zionist movements, which frame modern Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and recast Palestinian presence as an impediment to a divinely ordained order. This policy brief shows how these narratives and their policy effects have taken root in the Global South, including in South Africa. In this context, Israeli efforts increasingly rely on Christian Zionist networks to weaken longstanding solidarity with Palestinians and cultivate support for Israeli occupation.
Al-Shabaka Fathi Nimer
Fathi Nimer· Dec 7, 2025
 Politics
On November 17, 2025, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803 endorsing US President Donald Trump’s twenty-point plan for Gaza. The vote, pushed through after weeks of US pressure, establishes two supposedly “transitional” bodies to take control of Gaza: a Board of Peace tasked with overseeing aid delivery, reconstruction, and day-to-day administration, and an International Stabilization Force to take over security and disarm Hamas. Notably, the resolution does not refer to the genocide of the past two years, nor does it address accountability for it. Instead, this policy memo shows how the resolution repackages colonial control over the Palestinian people in Gaza, rewards the US—a co-perpetrator of genocide—with control over Gaza and its potentially lucrative reconstruction process, while simultaneously relieving the Israeli regime of all of its responsibilities as an illegally occupying power. Rather than advancing justice, the UN has once again undermined its own legal principles under US pressure.
Al-Shabaka Yara Hawari
Yara Hawari· Nov 20, 2025
 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.