A Bold Proposal: Palestine Should Give Its Refugees Citizenship

Palestine should confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and enter into bilateral agreements with other states to improve their situation – as citizens - wherever they reside. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Fateh Azzam knows this proposal has pitfalls but argues it is a powerful way to create facts on the road to freedom and rights. Read the policy brief or the executive summary.

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.

Most Palestinians saw Hamas’ steadfastness and ability to hit back during Israel’s November attack as a victory. But will they put it to good use, asks Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Haidar Eid, by ending Palestinian security cooperation with Israel – an opportunity missed after Israel’s 2008-09 operation? He argues that no real reconciliation amongst Palestinian factions is possible in the shadow of such collaboration.

As Mahmoud Abbas heads to the United Nations to secure non-member state status for Palestine, he faces a strong and growing movement among Palestinian civil society activists within and outside the occupied Palestinian territory to reframe the Palestinian struggle as fighting against an apartheid Israeli regime and for inalienable Palestinian rights – and not for a state per se. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Leila Farsakh discusses Abbas’ attempts to placate this movement while retaining control of his political program.

In this policy brief, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Randa Farah examines the relationship between UNRWA and Palestinian refugees in Jordan and compares it to the situation of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria.