Policy Focus

New digital technologies have reinvigorated the Palestinian cause locally and globally. However, Palestinians and their allies have been increasingly targeted online, including through surveillance, silencing, and cyberthreats. In this Focus On, Al-Shabaka analysts examine these trends and address Israeli surveillance tactics, the complicity of the PA, and how Palestinians and their allies can resist violations of their digital rights.

Jerusalem is increasingly at the center of developments across colonized Palestine. Indeed, from forced expulsions to attacks on worshipers, the Israeli regime is determined to de-Palestinianize the city. In light of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign and Palestinian Jerusalemites’ resistance to it, Al-Shabaka revisits the topic of Jerusalem with a new selection of publications from our analysts.

Palestinian resistance to Israeli hegemony is transforming significantly. In this Focus On, Al-Shabaka’s policy analysts examine the trajectory of contemporary Palestinian resistance. They focus on ongoing challenges, including the censorship of anti-Zionist activists, and the persecution of Palestinians by Palestinian security forces. They emphasize which actors and tactics should be harnessed as the resistance continues to grow and confront oppression.

Palestinian political leadership is in a state of crisis. How did this come to be and what does the future hold? In this Focus On, we look back on several pieces authored by Al-Shabaka analysts which explore issues of Palestinian leadership in the past and present, and which propose concrete possibilities for future models that specifically engage youth.  

How can the PLO maintain accountability as both a national liberation movement and governing body? How might Hamas and Islamic Jihad be integrated after decades of exclusion? What models of Palestinian youth leadership can be further developed? Al-Shabaka analysts address these and other questions in this full-length report, a year-long exercise facilitated by Alaa Tartir…

To mark the 72nd year of the Nakba – the catastrophe when Zionist forces evicted the majority of Palestinians from their homes and lands, occupying 78% of Palestine – Al-Shabaka reissues this insightful compilation of essays by its engaged scholars and analysts.  These timely pieces dissect the betrayal of Palestine, the struggle of the refugees, the warning signs during the decades of seeking Palestinian-Israeli peace without justice, and strategies for the future. They give us strength at a time of looming annexation and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Palestine has an abundance of natural resources, but in the decades since the establishment of the state of Israel they have been compromised and exploited. In this collection of analysis, Al-Shabaka experts provide insight into issues related to Palestinian natural resources, from their theft by Israel to the effects of climate change and its intersection with the Israeli occupation.

The Trump Administration’s aid cuts to Palestinians, while disastrous, can spur a reassessment of the Oslo Accords aid model, which for decades has failed to bring Palestinians closer to freedom, self-determination, or statehood. In this collection of pieces, Al-Shabaka analysts examine aid to Palestine and its harmful ramifications, and suggest ways to reform and reinvent Palestinian aid.

In this compilation Al-Shabaka’s top analysts dissect the Accords’ political and economic dimensions and discuss their repercussions for Palestinians while also providing recommendations on ways forward.

World attention has refocused on Gaza since the Palestinians imprisoned there for more than a decade began their peaceful “Great March of Return” on March 30. In this collection of publications, Al-Shabaka analysts review the conditions and developments of the past decade to address the most important political and economic issues informing the current situation.