Focus On: Jerusalem

David Friedman, who has voiced approval of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is expected to be confirmed as US ambassador to Israel tomorrow. In the range of pieces selected below, Al-Shabaka analysts provide the context and analysis necessary to understand the history of Israel’s colonization of Jerusalem and its impact on Palestinians, as well as the likely fallout from a US embassy move. 

Moving the US Embassy: The Fallout

Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem Would Destroy Palestine’s Hopes of Justice

By Nur Arafeh

This Guardian op-ed by Arafeh argues that a US embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would not only violate international law, but would also deny the Palestinian right to self-determination and freedom. She details the move’s potential consequences, including an increase in settlement construction and inflamed tensions. Read more…

On Trump’s Pledge to Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem

With Mouin Rabbani

In this expert Q&A for IMEU, Rabbani explains how the establishment of a US embassy in Jerusalem would mean an extreme U-turn in US policy — one that “would constitute an act of premeditated political pyromania with unforeseen local, regional, and global consequences.” Read more…

Israel’s Strategies – And Why They’re Wrong

Israel’s Dangerous New Transfer Tactic in Jerusalem

By Munir Nuseibah

Nuseibah’s Al-Shabaka commentary investigates the “breach of allegiance” to the state of Israel residency revocation policy and how it creates new Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, with the aim of maintaining a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. Read more…

Which Jerusalem? Israel’s Little-Known Master Plans

By Nur Arafeh

Arafeh’s in-depth policy brief for Al-Shabaka dissects Israel’s relatively unknown master plans and their aim to shape the city into a tourism and high-tech center, and the ways they use urban planning to reshape the city’s demography, to the detriment of Palestinians. (See also this panel discussion on Israel’s master plans, with Raja Khalidi, Maha Samman, and Nur Arafeh). Read more…

In Jerusalem, “Religious War” Is Used to Cloak Colonialism

By Nur Arafeh

Arafeh’s Al-Shabaka policy brief analyzes how the media and Israeli right wingers bill conflicts between Israeli settlers and Jerusalemite Palestinians as part of a “religious war,” though they are the outcome of longstanding Israeli plans to “Judaize” the city and empty it of its Palestinian inhabitants. Read more…

The Impact on the Palestinians in Jerusalem

More Israeli Settlements Will Mean Fewer Palestinians

By Munir Nuseibah

Nuseibah’s op-ed for The Hill recounts how Israeli settlement construction affects Palestinian individuals and families, and outlines how settlements and other displacement strategies are part of a larger Israeli plan to remove Palestinians from theWest Bank and Israel proper. Read more…

Living Under Israeli Policies of Colonization in East Jerusalem

Al-Shabaka, with five other civil society organizations and Visualizing Palestine, created graphics to raise awareness of Israel’s apartheid policies in Jerusalem, their effects on the Palestinian population, and the violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that arise. Read more…

Jerusalem: Israel’s Vision Vs. Palestine’s Reality

By Nur Arafeh

In this Al-Shabaka briefing, Arafeh details Israel’s continued efforts to “Judaize” Jerusalem and presents recommendations to halt these policies, as well as to improve the economy and society of East Jerusalem. Read more…

Economic Collapse in East Jerusalem: Strategies for Recovery

By Nur Arafeh

In yet another authoritative Al-Shabaka policy brief, Arafeh examines Israel’s deliberately engineered economic collapse of East Jerusalem through the deterioration of its tourism sector and the commercial markets of the Old City. Read more…

Looking Forward

The Future of Jerusalem: Sacred Space or Open City?

By Salim Tamari

Tamari, a renowned expert on Jerusalem, dissects for Al-Shabaka the origins of the sacrilization of Jerusalem and how it has obscured changes on the ground. He argues that proposals for the future of Jerusalem ignore the fact that at its core the conflict over the city is a case of colonial subjugation that must be addressed and resolved equitably. Read more…

Al-Shabaka’s Nur Arafeh, Munir Nuseibah, Mouin Rabbani, and Salim Tamari are available for media interviews. Please email [email protected] for more details.

Salim Tamari is a senior fellow and director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies which is affiliated with the Institute for Palestine Studies. He is...
Nur Arafeh is a Fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, in Washington DC, where her work focuses on the political economy...
Mouni Rabbani is an independent writer and analyst specializing in Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is a senior fellow at the Institute for...
Munir Nuseibah is a human rights lawyer and academic based in Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Palestine. He is an assistant professor at Al-Quds University's faculty...
(2017, March 8)

Latest Analysis

 Politics
The erasure of Indigenous populations lies at the core of settler-colonial narratives. These narratives aim to deny existing geographies, communities, and histories to justify the displacement and replacement of one people by another. The Zionist project is no exception. Among Zionism’s founding myths is the claim that it “made the desert bloom” and that Tel Aviv, its crown jewel, arose from barren sand dunes—an uninhabitable void transformed by pioneering settlers. This framing obscures the fact that the colonial regime initially built Tel Aviv on the outskirts of Yaffa (Jaffa), a thriving Palestinian city with a rich cultural life and a booming orange trade. The “dunes” description projects emptiness and conceals the vibrant agricultural and social life that flourished in the area. By casting the land as uninhabitable until redeemed by settlers, this narrative helped justify dispossession and colonial expansion. This process intensified after 1948, when Tel Aviv absorbed the lands of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, including al-Sumayil, Salame, Shaykh Muwannis, and Abu Kabir, and ultimately extended into the city of Yaffa. This same settler-colonial discourse drives the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, where destruction is reframed through the narrative of “uninhabitability.” Gaza is increasingly depicted as a lifeless ruin—a framing that is far from neutral. This commentary contends that “uninhabitable” is a politically charged term that masks culpability, reproduces colonial erasure, and shapes policy and public perception in ways that profoundly affect Palestinian lives and futures. It examines the origins, function, and implications of this discourse within the logic of settler colonialism, calling for a radical shift in language from narratives that obscure violence to those affirming Palestinian presence, history, and sovereignty.
Abdalrahman Kittana· Aug 27, 2025
 Politics
Since October 2023, Israel’s assault on Gaza has produced one of the most catastrophic humanitarian crises in recent history—an unfolding genocide enabled by world powers and continuing unabated despite the sweeping global solidarity it has sparked. Alongside relentless bombardment and mass displacement, the Israeli regime is waging a deliberate campaign of starvation. In response to this Israeli-manufactured catastrophe, several European states have begun recognizing or signaling their intent to recognize the State of Palestine. Most recently, France announced its intention to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. The UK has stated it will follow suit unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and recommits to a two-state solution. The recent wave of symbolic recognitions that began in 2024 now appears to be the only step many European powers are willing to take in the face of genocide, following nearly two years of moral, material, and diplomatic support for the Israeli regime as well as near-total impunity. This roundtable conversation with Al Shabaka policy analysts Diana Buttu, Inès Abdel Razek, and Al Shabaka’s co-director, Yara Hawari, asks: Why now? What political or strategic interests are driving this wave of recognition? And what does it mean to recognize a Palestinian state, on paper, while leaving intact the structures of occupation, apartheid, and the genocidal regime that sustains them?
 Politics
In March, Israel shattered the ceasefire in Gaza by resuming its bombing campaign at full force and enforcing a total blockade on humanitarian aid—ushering in a new phase of the ongoing genocide. In response to mounting international criticism, the Israeli regime introduced a tightly controlled aid scheme designed not to alleviate suffering, but to obscure its use of starvation as a weapon of collective punishment. Through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Israel has transformed humanitarian aid into a tool of control, coercion, and forced displacement. Israeli forces have additionally blocked UN and other aid agencies from accessing over 400 distribution points they once operated throughout Gaza. They consequently forced two million Palestinians to rely on just four GHF sites, most near its southern border in what appears to be a deliberate effort to push mass displacement toward Egypt. Investigations have also revealed how US-based private contractors are actively profiting from the GHF’s deadly operations. In this policy lab, Yara Asi and Alex Feagans join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to discuss how the GHF fits into Israel’s genocidal strategy—and to expose the network of individuals and companies profiting from what has been a death trap masquerading as humanitarian assistance.
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