Palestinian Options at the United Nations and the International Court of Justice
In Victor Kattan’s analysis, it’s premature for Palestinians to approach the International Criminal Court (ICC), in order to end Israel’s occupation. Instead, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) should be asked by the UN General Assembly for an advisory opinion on the legal responsibilities of states to do it. This would circumvent a United States veto as well as the U.S. Congress’s retaliation.
Recognition’s Diplomatic Leverage Could Strengthen Palestinian Rights
"Britain’s House of Commons and the prime minister of Sweden recognized a Palestinian state in order to support Palestinian rights … European recognition of a Palestinian state could well pressure Israel to behave in accordance with international law. But whatever the ultimate outcome, one state or two, you can’t go wrong with rights."
Israel’s water war crimes
Evidence of water warfare, and deliberate efforts to use water as a weapon against Palestinian civilian populations, is being documented at all levels.
Gaza’s revenge: Israelis swim in Palestinian shit
Al-Shabaka advisor Sam Bahour discusses excerpts from Al-Shabaka’s policy brief, “Drying Palestine: Israel’s Systemic Water War,” by Muna Dajani.
"Consecutive Israeli military assaults have caused huge damage to Gaza’s water and sewage systems … One result is that almost all Gaza’s water is unfit for human consumption. Another is the tide of raw Palestinian sewage lapping on the beaches of Tel Aviv. So who should we feel most sorry for?"
Palestinian game-changer: the ultimate act of resistance
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.
Interminable Nakba: Syrian Palestinians return to the unknown
“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.”
Palestinian dead end highlights the right of return
Ma’an News Agency republishes Al-Shabaka member Randa Farah’s [commentary on persistent failure of negotiations](https://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.
Intra-Palestinian Reconciliation: Time for accountability
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.
The Bottom Line for Palestinians
“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.”
