Press Release

Fifty Years of Occupation: Looking Back, Looking Forward

June 11, 2017

Please join us on Thursday June 15, 2017 for Fifty Years of Occupation: Looking Back, Looking Forward, a panel discussion marking the 50th anniversary of the occupation organized by Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. The event is sponsored by the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program at George Mason University.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

10:30 – 12:00 pm Panel Discussion

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036

The panel will include Tareq Baconi and Nur Arafeh, US and Palestine-based fellows respectively at Al-Shabaka; and Noura Erakat, assistant professor at George Mason University and co-founding editor of Jadaliyya journal. The panel will be moderated by Khaled Elgindy, Fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution.

The three panelists will reflect on the implications of this enduring violation of international law on the Palestinians and explore how this occupation has manifested itself in the political, economic, and legal spheres, and the manner in which it has left a lasting impact on the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

Noura Erakat will examine the legal mechanism Israel established in 1967 to enable it to steadily take the land without the people within a rule of law framework. The global uproar to the 2017 Regularization Law that retroactively sanctioned the confiscation of private Palestinian lands vividly demonstrates the enduring utility of this mechanism today.

Nur Arafeh will examine the economic aspect of the past 50 years and will explore the structural mechanisms of Israeli colonial control that led to the fragmentation of the Palestinian economy, making it heavily dependent on the Israeli economy.

Tareq Baconi will discuss the impact the occupation has had on the Palestinian national movement, addressing specifically the evolution of the movement from the establishment of the PLO through the emergence of Hamas, and the present state of paralysis within the political leadership.

Looking forward, each panelist will review the options available for the Palestinians in each of these areas, and offer thoughts that might inform a future trajectory for the Palestinian national movement.

Please respond to [email protected] Space is limited and seats will be reserved on a first come first served basis.

Nur Arafeh

Nur Arafeh is a Fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, in Washington DC, where her work focuses on the political economy of the MENA region, business-state relations, peacebuilding strategies, the development-security nexus and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She previously served as Al-Shabaka's Palestine Policy Fellow between 2015 and 2017, worked as an Associate Researcher at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), and as a Visiting Lecturer of Economics at Al-Quds Bard College. Nur has also consulted for several Palestinian and international organizations, on issues related to development policies, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and socio-economic policy analysis. Her commentaries have appeared in English, Arabic and French in The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al-Jazeera, and Al-Akhbar, among other outlets. Nur holds a doctorate in International Development as a Rhodes Scholar from the University of Oxford, a Master’s in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a dual-BA degree in Political Science and Economics from Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University.”

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is an assistant professor at George Mason University where she teaches in the legal studies, international studies, and human rights/social justice studies concentrations. An attorney and human rights advocate, she previously served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives and as an advisor on Middle East affairs for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Noura comments regularly on US foreign policy and international law matters. She has appeared on Al Jazeera International, NBC's "Politically Incorrect," and Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor." Her writings have appeared in The Huffington Post, Berkeley Law School's Journal for Middle East and Islamic Law, Counterpunch, Al-Majdal, and the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).