policy lab april 2024

For decades, Israel has recognized the importance of information warfare in justifying the everyday violence of occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism. Now they are using the same tactics in overdrive to justify and facilitate genocide. In just six months, Israeli forces have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians and left most of Gaza uninhabitable. Meanwhile, Israel’s most powerful benefactors continue to largely ignore growing public calls for a ceasefire and accountability. This could not have been achieved without the complicity of western journalists across Europe and the US, who have manufactured consent for their governments’ unconditional support of Israel by uncritically parroting Israeli military disinformation and outright propaganda.

In this policy lab, Laila Al-Arian and Abir Kopty join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to discuss the role journalists and the media are playing in shielding Israel from accountability, what journalists should be doing to effectively and accurately cover the genocide, and how the public can navigate the world of Israeli disinformation.

Laila Al-Arian is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and executive producer of the Al Jazeera English documentary series Fault Lines. She is also the co-author of...
Al-Shabaka policy member Abir Kopty, holds an MA in Political Communication from the City University, London, and is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute...
In this article

Latest Analysis

 Politics
After more than a year and a half of Israel’s genocidal assault—marked by mass killings, devastation, and profound loss—even speaking of Gaza’s future, let alone its reconstruction, feels impossible. Indeed, the rebuilding of Gaza feels increasingly out of reach amid stalled negotiations, the collapse of the ceasefire agreement, and the relentless bombardment of people and place. Yet in the face of genocide and the looming threat of forced displacement, which the US administration is audaciously promoting as a fait accompli, there is an urgent need to cultivate a critical Palestinian political voice to reclaim Gaza’s future. As non-Palestinian actors push to impose their vision of the “day after,” this commentary by Talal Abu Rokbeh, Mohammed Al-Hafi, and Alaa Tartir argues for centering a Palestinian vision rooted in unity and self-determination. They emphasize that political reconstruction, not just physical rebuilding, is essential for collective survival and national liberation.
 Civil Society
One year after Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Flood operation, the Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther—an initiative to suppress Palestinian solidarity under the guise of combating antisemitism. The project relies on censorship, lawfare, and intimidation to dismantle advocacy for Palestinian rights as part of a broader bipartisan crackdown that has onlyintensified under Donald Trump’s administration. This policy brief situates Project Esther within the escalating assault on free speech and dissent, revealing how the repression of Palestine advocacy serves as a litmus test for US democracy. It also outlines strategies to resist this authoritarian turn and ensure that the fight for Palestinian liberation remains central to the broader struggle for justice and equality.
Al-Shabaka Tariq Kenney-Shawa
Tariq Kenney-Shawa· Apr 15, 2025
 Politics
In this roundtable discussion, Dena Qaddumi and Jehad Abusalim examine the challenges and complexities of rebuilding Gaza amid the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal warfare. They explore the structural obstacles imposed by the continuing Israeli blockade, questioning the feasibility of meaningful reconstruction under settler-colonial occupation.  Analyzing Gaza’s repeated cycles of destruction and rebuilding, Qaddumi and Abusalim expose a long history of foreign intervention, profiteering, and the prioritization of high-visibility projects by international donors—practices that sideline Palestinians and strip them of agency. In contrast, the discussion highlights alternative Palestinian-led reconstruction models that prioritize indigenous knowledge and local needs, ensuring the preservation of Gaza’s identity, heritage, and self-determination.
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