Op-Eds & Articles

Al-Shabaka advisor Sam Bahour's impressively concrete proposal for a political way forward, written with British researcher Tony Klug, was published earlier in 2014 at various outlets including Le Monde diplomatique, AlQuds, and openDemocracy, and was likely noticed by the Palestinian leadership. If adopted, it would be "a game changer that matches the seismic shift that has just emerged from Gaza," Bahour writes. Their proposal bears revisiting.

“International efforts continue to provide relief and to seek an end to violence in Syria so as to allow Syrian refugees to return home. Syrian Palestinians will enjoy no such return.”

Ma'an News Agency republishes Al-Shabaka member Randa Farah's [commentary on persistent failure of negotiations](http://al-shabaka.org/palestinian-dead-end-highlights-right-return?page=show), for which the Palestinian people must hold the Palestinian leadership accountable. As she argues, the PLO/PA should not replace different forms of resistance to the occupation with unlimited negotiations while finding itself under pressure to actively work to halt other acts of resistance simply for these negotiations to continue – and should remember the centrality of the right of return.

Al-Shabaka Program Director Alaa Tartir brings to light the authoritarian transformation of the Palestinian security forces, both in the West Bank and Gaza, and their cooperation agreements with Israel, which have dogged all previous Fatah-Hamas unity efforts. Learn more about this cooperation and its devastating consequences in this Al-Shabaka commentary by Haidar Eid.

"We need to break free of the divisive and increasingly stifling one-state-versus-two-states straightjacket that tends to polarize debate and in practice ends up perpetuating the status quo."

"We need to break free of the divisive and increasingly stifling one-state-versus-two-states straightjacket that tends to polarize debate and in practice ends up perpetuating the status quo."

Energy production and distribution are a case-in-point of "increasing forced Palestinian dependence on Israel," explains Al-Shabaka's Commissioning Editor Jacqueline Sansour. "As a [U.S.] taxpayer, I want Americans' $600 million-a-year contribution to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help end this occupation, not make it easier for Palestinians to endure it." Sansour's study is also a guide to several other Al-Shabaka-exclusive critiques on the Palestinians and their embargoed energy resources.

Energy production and distribution are a case-in-point of "increasing forced Palestinian dependence on Israel," explains Al-Shabaka's Commissioning Editor Jacqueline Sansour. "As a [U.S.] taxpayer, I want Americans' $600 million-a-year contribution to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help end this occupation, not make it easier for Palestinians to endure it." Sansour's study is also a guide to several other Al-Shabaka-exclusive critiques on the Palestinians and their embargoed energy resources.

Ma'an News Agency republishes Al-Shabaka member Zachariah Sammour's commentary on the latest round of US-driven negotiations. As Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Mahmoud Abbas went to Washington in March to meet U.S. President Barack Obama, Palestinians have been fast approaching a critical juncture in the U.S.-driven negotiations with Israel.

Palestinians are divided over whether law can serve a positive function in their quest for self-determination. Jadaliyya republished this Al-Shabaka policy brief by Policy Advisor Noura Erakat, who argues that law’s value is wholly contingent on the broader political framework that gives it meaning. She proposes that Palestinians adopt a complementary approach that includes using the law when justice can be served and political avenues when the law itself entrenches unjust outcomes.