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UK arms companies have long profited from selling weapons to Israel, with licenses issued from the British government. Since 2008, these exports have totaled an estimated $740 million, continuing even amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Following the Labour Party's July 2024 election victory, which promised alignment with international law, some were cautiously optimistic that an arms embargo would be forthcoming. In September 2024, the British government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel. Activists and human rights groups argue that this is far too limited. Accordingly, this policy memo details Britain's international legal obligations and potential governmental maneuvers regarding arms sales to Israel.
In this episode, our host Yara Hawari joins hosts of the Makdisi Street podcast Saree, Ussama and Karim Makdisi to discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza, intra Palestinian-Israeli politics and more.
Abdullah Al-Arian joins host Yara Hawari to discuss heightened tensions across the Middle East as the Israeli regime expands its aggression on multiple fronts.
In this roundtable, Al-Shabaka analysts Belal Shobaki, Tariq Kenney-Shawa, and Fathi Nimer offer their insights on the impact of Haniyeh's assassination. They reflect on Hamas's future, the impetus behind the operation, and its wider regional consequences, placing them within the historical context of so-called Israeli diplomacy.
Sara Husseini joins host Yara Hawari to discuss the recent British elections, the role Palestine and the Israeli genocide in Gaza played in the election results, and the challenges facing pro-Palestine activism under the new Labour government.
In this policy memo, Tariq Dana examines the mutually reinforcing interests of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel that fuel the prospective agreement. He interrogates Saudi's feigned solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and situates the normalization deal within shifting regional dynamics.
Ali, a humanitarian worker from Gaza now in Egypt, joins host Yara Hawari. He speaks on the experience of Palestinians from Gaza in Egypt as they maneuver the different legal, financial, and social hardships of their forced displacement.
On May 17, 2024, the US began operating a temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza. Since the project’s announcement, many have expressed skepticism towards the pier’s effectiveness and deep concern regarding the US’s long-term plans and the pier’s potential role in serving Israeli objectives.
This commentary examines the pier’s operations and unpacks the many incentives for its development by key geopolitical players. It positions the pier within Israel’s longer-term strategy for Palestine, using the structure as a window into understanding the regime’s broader regional aims. Temporary or not, this commentary contends that the pier must not be viewed as merely a short-term humanitarian effort, but also as a symbol of the US and Israel’s continued imperial and colonial endeavors.
Since the beginning of the Zionist project in Palestine, large efforts have been exerted to paint all resistance to its colonial endeavors as irrational and at odds with progress and modernity. This deliberately manufactured dichotomy between the prosperous and civilized Settler and the regressive and rejectionist Arab standing in the way of progress set the tone for developments between Palestinians and Zionist settlers for decades to come. In this commentary, Al-Shabaka analyst Fathi Nimer explores the nascence of this trope, unpacking its weaponization to deny Palestinians their fundamental rights and demonize their collective aspirations for sovereignty.
Samer Alatout, Al-Shabaka policy analyst and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, joins host Yara Hawari to speak about his experience at a student encampment, where he was assaulted and detained by police. Alatout also touches on the overall significance of the student uprising in the US against the genocide in Gaza.Support the Show.
In this commentary, Omar Shaban offers an entry point to a Palestinian dialogue on what may follow a ceasefire. He does so by delving into the current non-Palestinian “day after” discourse, then by identifying the ways in which reconstruction today is distinct from past efforts, and finally by putting forth a possible approach to begin to embark on rebuilding Gaza.
Media & Outreach
The morning after these recent incursions into the territory began, Phenomenal World spoke with Fathi Nimer about the raids, conditions in the West Bank since October, and the history of annexation and occupation. Nimer has worked at the Arab World for Research and Development, Birzeit University, and the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies. He is currently Palestine policy fellow at Al-Shabaka.
"All measures of forced displacement have seen a drastic escalation since Oct. 7," Tamara Tamimi, a Palestinian policy fellow at think tank Al-Shabaka, told Anadolu Agency.
This article cites an Al-Shabaka policy brief titled The Dangerous Exceptionalism of Christian Zionism, authored by Halah Ahmad with Mimi Kirk and published on October 3, 2023.
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