The lid on the powder keg of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, has been rattling for years now. Palestinians from all walks of life have lost their voices making the case that Israel’s right-wing government – with its numerous cabinet ministers living in illegal settlements and its fundamentalist prime minister – is pursuing policies bound to lead to exactly what we are witnessing today, violence.

Too few listened.

A seminar with Nadia Hijab, Executive Director, Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.

The Palestinian leadership recently attempted to bring international law back into the picture. Palestinian civil society has made greater gains in this sphere, yet faces serious constraints in translating these gains into meaningful political outcomes.

World leaders converging on the UN General Assembly will soon be hearing from Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. They should focus on Jerusalem, which is again at a boiling point and has the potential to be a global flashpoint if international leaders and diplomats fail to address increasingly reckless rhetoric from Israeli government leaders and the provocative actions of Israeli settlers.

Israel launched a three-day assault on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on 13 September, causing widespread destruction and injuries.

The World Bank on Monday transferred $25 million to the Palestinian Authority to assist with urgent budget needs, a statement from the global financial body said. 

This article provides a contextual analysis of the evolution and reform processes of Palestinian security forces over the last two decades. It categorises the evolution of security reform processes into three phases: the Oslo Accords phase; the Second Intifada phase; and the Fayyadism phase.

The Israeli occupying force’s latest incursions in Al Haram Al Sharif are entirely predictable. Last week, Palestinians attempted to stop Israeli Agriculture Minister, Uri Ariel, from entering the compound, which is the third holiest site in Islam.

President Obama promised that as soon as the Iran nuclear deal is closed he will refocus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Given this shift of focus is now in sight, Obama should grant U.S. recognition of Palestine as an independent state, albeit a militarily occupied one. Such an elementary step is long overdue and may be the sole act that saves the two-state solution.

The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is expected to meet this month in its first session since 2009 to accept the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), along with more than half the Executive Committee’s 18 members. The PNC does of course have the option of rejecting some or all of the resignations, and in any case Abbas still wears several hats: he remains head of state, President of the Palestinian Authority, commander-in-chief, and head of the Fatah political party. Moreover, all those who resign are free to stand again.

Ted Lapkin's claim that Palestinian national identity is a roadblock to peace is a disingenuous attempt to justify the brutal reality Israel imposes on Palestinians every day.

Lapkin asserts Palestinian nationalism evolved in the 1920s as a negative reaction to Zionism, making attempts at reconciliation "impossible" as it would negate "the central pillar" of the Palestinian existence.