Article - The Future of US Policy Toward Palestine

Over the past four years, the Trump administration has enacted major long-term changes to US policy vis-à-vis Palestine. What possibilities lie ahead for the next administration to either expand or reverse this trajectory, and how can Palestinians leverage their power to influence future decision-making?

With US elections looming, Al-Shabaka analysts Hatem Bazian and Nadia Hijab weigh in on these questions and more in this policy lab.

Nadia Hijab is co-founder and honorary president of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She served as Board President from 2010-2021 and as Executive Director between...
Hatem Bazian is a senior lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.  He has taught at...
(2020, November 1)

Latest Analysis

 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. 
 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