Israel drills disputed West Bank oilfield with 3.5B barrels (Al-Shabaka policy brief cited)
“…Previously unavailable documents obtained from Britain’s Foreign Office by the Palestine Policy Network under the Freedom of Information Act ‘confirm there is potential for a Palestinian petroleum sector in the West Bank. Victor Kattan, program director of … Al-Shabaka, observed: ‘The documents reveal that, in addition, Israel may be exploiting an oil field located near Ramallah within the occupied Palestinian territories.The documents also point to the possible existence of two other oil fields near Qalqiliya and another near Hebron.'”
Peace is war: After the Oslo Accords
On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad explains how the reframing of the concepts of peace and war were at the core of the Zionist strategy in colonising Palestine. His opening paragraphs trace the origins of the Oslo Accords citing original analysis by Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Osamah Khalil, who wrote “Oslo’s Roots: Kissinger, the PLO, and the Peace Process.” This article is the final of a two-part series.You can read part one here.
Israel-Palestine: real estate factor
Program Director Alaa Tartir discusses the current round of peace talks with Gershon Baskin, founder of the Israeli Palestinian Center of Research and Information, and Dr. George Giacaman, Co-Founder and General Director of The Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy in Ramallah. Tartir argues that “real estate projects” are a product of the economic peace paradigm and an excellent example for the corrupted marriage between economy and politics. “Having these projects on the agenda of the peace talks illustrates the low ceiling of such talks and why Palestinian people don’t subscribe to them … Building a nation does not happen through building a real estate project.”
The peace talks and Palestinian representation: in conversation with Osamah Khalil
After much political drama and media fanfare, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to rekindle “peace talks” between Israel and Palestine finally commenced this week with a meeting in Washington D.C. between the Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni, and Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
Are Palestinian Industrial Parks Illusion or Real Development?
“‘The whole economic peace idea … is to provide economic solutions to political problems,’ said Alaa Tartir … [who authored] a study on the Japanese-funded Agro-Industrial Park in Jericho [as well as a commentary for Al-Shabaka]. ‘Historical evidence suggests, and actual facts on the ground suggest, that such a model, while it could achieve very short-term successes, is very distorting at the long-term level. It helps in distorting Palestinian life and economy and normalizes the occupation, rather than end the occupation,’ Tartir said.
Searching for new Palestinian vision (Ψάχνοντας για νέο Παλαιστινιακό όραμα)
Translated from Greek: “At a time when … negotiations can not seem to accomplish anything more than to perpetuate the status quo, Palestinians need to change the paradigm that has defined their conflict with Israel over the last two decades. This emerged recently during a roundtable at ECFR by Nadia Hijab, co-founder and director of Al-Shabaka.”
What future for the Palestinian National Movement? (Audio)
At a time when the two-state solution is experiencing what could be its last agonising convulsions and with negotiations seemingly unable to achieve anything other than perpetuating the status quo, Palestinians need to shift the current paradigm that has framed the conflict with Israel over the last two decades. This was recently highlighted during an ECFR roundtable with Nadia Hijab.
Palestinians say there’s oil in West Bank
Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Victor Kattan tells UPI of documents pointing to Israel’s possible exploitation of an oil field near Ramallah within the occupied Palestinian territories, and to the possible existence of two other oil fields near Qalqiliya and another near Hebron.
Analyses of Israeli apartheid are ever more crucial
Ben White cites the author of Al-Shabaka’s recent policy brief, ‘Beyond South Africa: Understanding Israeli Apartheid’: “Samer Abdelnour argues that ‘the specific characteristics of Israel’s unique brand of apartheid need to be better understood in order to successfully dismantle it’ and thus ‘identifies three inter-locking dimensions of Israeli apartheid: physical, architecture, and ideological.’ Writing that Israeli apartheid is ‘far more sophisticated than that of South Africa,’ Abdelnour warns that the serious consequences of misunderstanding the Israeli regime could include ‘hinder[ing] thoughtful assessment and critique of existing strategies (such as BDS), and prevent[ing] the development of new strategies for securing Palestinian freedom and return.’ Abdelnour’s brief is an important one to read and digest, and highlights smartly the relationship between analysis and response.”
