Exposing Colonial Peace-Building from Palestine to Ireland

The frameworks of peace-building in Palestine and Ireland are profoundly problematic in the context of continued colonization. Over the last few years, western donors and policymakers have been reviving peace-building in Palestine through people-to-people projects. Using the Irish peace process as a model, they argue that dialogue between two sides is the only way forward, obscuring the power asymmetries between Palestinians and Israelis. Why are these initiatives being revived? How and why is the notion of “embedded peace” in Northern Ireland being exported to Palestine?

Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor, Nadim Bawalsa hosted a conversation with Senior Analyst, Yara Hawari, and Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution at Trinity College, Dublin, Brendan Ciaran Browne, to investigate these questions and more.

Yara Hawari

Yara Hawari is Al-Shabaka's co-director. She previously served as the Palestine policy fellow and senior analyst. Yara completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at...

Nadim Bawalsa

Nadim Bawalsa is Associate Editor with the Journal of Palestine Studies. From 2020-2023, Nadim served as Al-Shabaka’s commissioning editor. He is a historian of modern...

(2021, October 20)

Latest Analysis

Roundtable

Refugees

Palestinian Camps in Lebanon: Disarmament, Rights, and Return

Lebanese officials have revived calls to disarm Palestinian factions inside refugee camps, presenting it as part of efforts to curb “illicit weapons” and reinforce state sovereignty. Yet for many Palestinians and regional observers, the refugee-camp disarmament initiative signifies an attempt to recalibrate the region’s security landscape. It also revives traumatic collective memories of earlier disarmament campaigns that left camps exposed to massacres.

Jaber Suleiman,Wesam Sabaaneh· Nov 12, 2025

Policy Brief

Economics

AI for War: Big Tech Empowering Israel’s Crimes and Occupation

US tech giants portray themselves as architects of a better world powered by artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and data-driven solutions. Under slogans like “AI for Good,” they promise ethical innovation and social progress. Yet in Gaza, these narratives have collapsed, alongside international norms and what remains of the so-called rules-based order. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has highlighted the role of major technology companies in enabling military operations and sustaining the occupation. Beneath the destruction lie servers, neural networks, and software built by some of the world’s most powerful corporations. As Israel weaponizes AI and data analytics to kill Palestinians and destroy their homes, the militarization of digital technologies and infrastructures is redefining accountability and exposing a governance vacuum. This policy brief traces how corporate complicity now extends to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—and calls for urgent regulation of AI militarization.

Marwa Fatafta· Oct 26, 2025

Policy Lab

Politics

Two Years of Genocide: Gaza and the Unraveling World Order

In this policy lab, Leila Farsakh and Abdaljawad Omar join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to trace the historical trajectory leading to October 7, examine how Gaza has become both a site of extermination and a catalyst for global rupture, and discuss what comes next for Palestinians.