Collective Punishment: Israel's Strategy to Subdue Palestinian Resistance

In his July 2020 report to the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur S. Michael Lynk asserts that “Israel continues to rely upon collective punishment as a prominent instrument in its coercive toolbox of population control.”

From home demolitions to the Gaza blockade to the withholding of Palestinian bodies, Israel wields collective punishment tactics to subjugate and suppress the Palestinian population. In this policy lab, Al-Shabaka analysts Nada Awad and Issam Younis join host Nur Arafeh to discuss the toll of this strategy on the Palestinian people and how it fits into Israel’s broader system of apartheid.

* Unfortunately, this YouTube recording cuts off the initial 5 minutes of the policy lab. To view the discussion in full, please click here. 

Al-Shabaka Nur Arafeh

Nur Arafeh

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...
More From This Author
Al-Shabaka Nada Awad

Nada Awad

Al-Shabaka policy member Nada Awad holds a master’s degree in International Relations and International Security from Sciences Pro Paris. She works on human rights violations...
More From This Author
Al-Shabaka Issam Younis

Issam Younis

Issam Younis is the Director of Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza. He is the Commissioner General of The Palestinian Independent Commission for Hunan...
More From This Author
In this article
View PDF

Latest Analysis

Explore All Analysis
Policy Lab
 Politics

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: Aid as a Weapon

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.
Al-Shabaka Yara Asi
Al-Shabaka Tariq Kenney-Shawa
Yara Asi,Tariq Kenney-Shawa· Aug 5, 2025
Commentary
 Politics

Normalizing Israeli Impunity and Dominance: The Arab Role

​​The October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Flood operation aimed to revive Palestinian armed resistance and reassert the cause in Arab and global consciousness after years of marginalization. It dealt a major blow to Israel’s deterrence, rupturing its image as a secure colonial outpost entrusted with protecting Western strategic interests. It also exposed cracks in its militarized social contract that rests on the regime’s ability to protect its settler population. While the operation imposed new political realities on the Israeli regime, it has come at a staggering cost to Palestinian life: Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has unleashed one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory. Yet the anticipated wave of Arab solidarity following the operation failed to materialize or translate into concrete policy shifts. Instead, the moment laid bare the entrenched ties between Arab regimes and Israel’s settler-colonial project that are rooted in mutual interests, regime preservation, and a shared antagonism toward Palestinian resistance. This commentary argues that these alliances—sustained by repression and strategic-economic cooperation and reinforced by Western complicity—transformed a potential turning point for isolating the Israeli regime into an opening for intensified colonial expansion and regional dominance.
Al-Shabaka Tariq Dana
Tariq Dana· Jul 22, 2025
Policy Memo
 Politics

The Hague Group: Mobilizing International Law for Palestine

The Israeli regime’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has exposed the failure of international legal frameworks to protect civilians, marking an unprecedented breakdown in the protective function of international law. While the Genocide Convention obligates states to prevent and punish genocide, and the Geneva Conventions establish protections for civilians under occupation, these mechanisms have proven powerless without the political will to enforce them. In this context, eight Global South states—South Africa, Malaysia, Namibia, Colombia, Bolivia, Senegal, Honduras, and Cuba—have launched the Hague Group, a coordinated legal and diplomatic initiative aimed at enforcing international law and holding the Israeli regime accountable. This policy memo examines the group’s efforts to challenge entrenched Israeli impunity. It highlights the potential of coordinated state action to hold states accountable for violating international law, despite structural limitations in enforcement.
Al-Shabaka Munir Nuseibah
Munir Nuseibah· Jul 8, 2025

We’re building a network 
for liberation.

As the only global Palestinian think tank, we’re working hard to respond to rapid developments affecting Palestinians, while remaining committed to shedding light on issues that may otherwise be overlooked.

Meet Our Policy Network & Contributors
Skip to content