Palestine and the ICC: what’s next?
Victor Kattan discusses the reasons for and consequences of Palestine’s accession to the International Criminal Court and considers possible scenarios for developments around the Palestine question.
‘You are part of the problem, not the solution’: Open letter to the editors of The New York Times
Palestinians of Gaza have been “unreasonably reasonable” given what has fallen upon them, writes Al-Shabaka advisor Sam Bahour in this open letter to the New York Times shaming Roger Cohen and his “Gaza is Nowhere” editorial as “part of the problem.”
Analysis: The customs union and the Israeli no-state solution
Ma’an News Agency republishes our policy brief by Amal Ahmad on the Israeli-Palestinian customs union. Since it occupied the Palestinian territory in 1967, Israel has had a consistent strategy: To contain Palestinians by rejecting final status arrangements, whether Palestinian sovereignty in two states or equal rights in a single bi-national state. The customs union illustrates this often ignored reality.
Toothless ‘threats’ won’t deter Israel
The PNA should invest all its efforts to demand Israeli accountability and ostracise Tel Aviv from the world community.
Under Siege: From Leningrad to Gaza
Tikkun’s short summary of our roundtable on the impact of the siege of Gaza in contrast and comparison to Leningrad. Jews and others under Leningrad’s 2.5-year siege ate wallpaper for its potato starch glue. In Gaza’s siege with no end, Palestinians die quickly under Israel’s bombs or slowly under its tight controls on food, services and even books.
Malala, where is your money?
From Jerusalem, Al-Shabaka member Nora Lester Murad writes in The Hill Newspaper that she has tried unsuccessfully to track down the $50,000 that Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai gave UNRWA for rebuilding Gaza’s schools. “Problems with transparency and accountability are not unique to any one agency. Rather, it is a consequence of an entire aid system that has an interest in protecting itself from scrutiny to avoid being exposed as complicit in the ongoing denial of Palestinian rights.”
Since this op-ed was published, UNRWA has been in touch with Ms. Murad and Al-Shabaka, providing detailed information that had proved unobtainable at the time of writing, including about the completion of repairs to schools, and the import of 293 trucks of construction materials in October and November.
There Are No Centrists in Israel
Diana Buttu writes that “Israeli politicians who are called moderate would be considered right-wing extremists in other countries.”
Palestinian sovereignty: Between international recognition and security coordination
“Without an acknowledgment of the necessity to break Israeli security logic, there is very little to celebrate in the international recognition of a State of Palestine,” writes Al-Shabaka member Sabrien Amrov. “That the PA and the Palestinian people are expected to ensure that Israel, the occupying power, feels safe is taken for granted … International donors, including EU member states, should confront and rethink the reality that international development aid and state-building agendas supported by donor states are geared towards embedding this power dynamic…”
Subcontracting Repression in the West Bank and Gaza
“One high-ranking official from the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Force told us: ‘We get lists with names’ from the Israelis. They ‘need someone, and we are tasked to get that person for them.’ These policies backfire. Palestinian forces lose the trust of local communities when they are seen as enforcing the illegal occupation and the losses of land and rights that go along with it.”
