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.
Trashing Four Generations of Palestinian Inheritance
As Palestinians commemorate the 46th anniversary of Israel’s occupation on June 5th, the villagers of Rammun are particularly incensed – but their wrath is targeted primarily at the Palestinian Authority. They suspect it of complicity with the Israeli occupation in confiscating their ancestral lands for a trash landfill, just one outcome of the many decades of rights violations Palestinians everywhere experience. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Dina Omar tackles the issues.
The Price of Statelessness: Palestinian Refugees From Syria
May 15, 2013, marks the 65th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) when over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled by Zionist forces. To this day, Palestinian refugees have far fewer rights than other refugees, including protection from forced return to conflict zones. Al-Shabaka guest author Rosemary Sayigh starkly describes the discrimination against Palestinian refugees fleeing from Syria to Lebanon (and Jordan) and urges international action to end these violations.
An Open Debate on Palestinian Representation
Is it better to try to revive the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its institutions or should Palestinians build a new national movement? The participants in this roundtable debate the pros and cons of starting from square one, as Osamah Khalil suggested in a recent policy brief. Additional roundtable insights: a different articulation of the PLO’s value, and a question mark regarding the usefulness of elections to a national liberation movement.
Palestinian Civil Society: What Went Wrong?
Palestinians under Israeli occupation led the civil resistance that culminated in the First Intifada of the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, much of civil society was “NGO-ized” draining the Palestinian national movement of leadership. Al-Shabaka Policy Member Tariq Dana examines the shift in organizational agendas and tactics and recommends ways to reverse course.
Beyond South Africa: Understanding Israeli Apartheid
Israeli apartheid is often compared to South Africa’s but Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Samer Abdelnour argues that it is a unique brand with specific characteristics. He identifies three inter-locking dimensions of Israeli apartheid – physical, architecture, and ideological – concluding that it is far more sophisticated than the South African brand and suggesting directions for thinking and action to successfully dismantle it.
“Who are You?”: The PLO and the Limits of Representation
Is the Palestine Liberation Organization still the “sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”? In this thought provoking policy brief, Al-Shabaka policy advisor Osamah Khalil argues that attempts to reform the organization will not make it more representative or accountable, but will instead save a leadership that has lost its legitimacy. He asserts that a new representative body must be built in order to achieve Palestinian rights.
