Transforming Our Vision of Palestine Into Reality
A not-so-silent Palestinian majority opposes a peace that brings no justice. This fact underlies Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Sam Bahour’s trenchant reality check for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s push for a two-state solution. Bahour disposes of the myths still shrouding the failed negotiations and calls for economic investment of the right kind on the path to freedom, justice and equality.
Activating Palestine’s UNESCO Membership
Palestinian leaders have not activated Palestine’s UNESCO membership despite the costly battle to join and even though it could help rebalance the skewed Israeli-Palestinian power dynamic. Al-Shabaka Guest Author Valentina Azarov and Policy Member Nidal Sliman review the assaults on Palestinian cultural heritage and set out the significant practical advantages of UNESCO membership, including reasserting sovereignty over Palestinian land and sea and obliging third states to hold Israel accountable.
Can Oslo’s Failed Aid Model Be Laid to Rest?
The Oslo Accords not only left the Palestinian people much worse off politically; they also devastated the economy of those living under Israeli occupation despite the $23 billion-plus that donors have poured into the territory. What’s worse, Wildeman and Tartir found no signs of a change in donor policies in their recent study.
Oslo’s Roots: Kissinger, the PLO, and the Peace Process
According to conventional wisdom, the PLO signed the Oslo Accords twenty years ago because it was almost bankrupt and feared an alternate leadership would emerge. But PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat sought to establish relations with the U.S. after the October 1973 War and offered significant concessions before ever reaching the negotiating table.
Why is the Egyptian Regime Demonizing Palestinians?
As millions celebrated the end of the month of fasting, the Palestinians of Gaza remained under lockdown, the borders almost completely sealed and the tunnel economy destroyed. Al-Shabaka’s Gaza-based Policy Advisor Haidar Eid examines the way in which successive Egyptian regimes, including the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi government, have used Gaza as a tool to achieve their ends and contributed to its plight.
How Sovereign a State?
Will re-launched Israeli-Palestinian negotiations lead to a sovereign Palestinian state? In this brief, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Camille Mansour analyzes Israeli and Palestinian positions relating to key issues of sovereignty (i.e. armaments, alliances, crossings, borders, Israeli military posts). His conclusions – and warnings – are essential reading.
How to Make International Law Work for Palestinians
For many Palestinians, international law has a bad name. It has been ignored or subverted to prolong Palestinian oppression and fragmentation since 1948. But, as Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Ingrid Jaradat argues, drawing on the findings of a major international conference at Birzeit University, the Palestinian people should not turn their back on international law: If used appropriately it is an effective tool for the oppressed.
Political Agency for Palestinian Return
Palestinians must themselves be the agents of their return. Some civil society campaigns are contributing to achieving return, such as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and legal actions. But for real progress the internal obstacles to return must be addressed, including the lack of a consensus on how to achieve Palestinian self-determination. These are among the key points raised in this roundtable organized by Al-Shabaka’s Policy Circle on Return.
Decades of Displacing Palestinians: How Israel Does It
Israel is estimated to have forcibly displaced some 66% of the whole Palestinian population by 2011. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Munir Nuseibah identifies six different methods Israel uses on both sides of the Green Line and elaborates two: Personal status engineering and urban planning. He argues for a holistic approach to address the systematic nature of forced displacement, which is grounded in the very ethos of a state established to create and maintain a Jewish majority in all of historic Palestine.
