ICT: The Shackled Engine of Palestine’s Development

World attention has been focusing on the Palestinian revolt against Israel’s military occupation. Meanwhile, plans were reportedly still going ahead for an Israeli release of frequencies required for long-awaited 3G and even 4G systems and services. Al-Shabaka analysts Nur Arafeh, Wassim Abdullah, and Sam Bahour provide an incisive account of Israeli obstacles to the Palestinian sector’s development that have led to hundreds of millions in direct losses and lost opportunities.

81% of the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation rank the problem of corruption second only to the occupation itself. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Tariq Dana analyzes the systems and actors involved, arguing that corruption is a structural problem with longstanding political roots that cannot be tackled through adopting codes of conduct and other technical solutions.

The success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement launched a decade ago owes much to the constancy of its founding principles and the flexibility of its context-specific actions, as is evident in this policy brief written half-way along the road by Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Omar Barghouti and republished today.

Technical solutions shorn of political context have contributed to a failed state in Palestine and harmed the collective Palestinian struggle for freedom, transforming the Palestinian Authority into an NGO-like body.  Al-Shabaka Policy Member Ibrahim Shikaki and Guest Author Joanna Springer analyze the situation and suggest alternative approaches for the PA and the donor community. Read the policy brief or the executive summary.

Palestine’s membership of the International Criminal Court takes effect on April 1, 2015. What cases might the Court choose? Will Israel’s legal offensive succeed? Will the UN Security Council suspend the investigation? Al-Shabaka analyst Valentina Azarova addresses many of the misconceptions about what the ICC can and cannot do, and Palestinians should do. Read the policy brief or the executive summary.

The latest Al-Shabaka roundtable examines the effectiveness of different forms of resistance in achieving Palestinian rights. The participants discussed a range of issues from the implications of armed struggle to the potential and limitations of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.