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.

Will the Palestinians be written out of history? There is a serious danger that this may happen, writes Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Jamil Hilal, who identifies five major misrepresentations of Palestinian history, geography and identity in the dominant discourse. He also discusses how Palestinians and their supporters must take hold of the way their story is told and reclaim their narrative.