This month, we are shining FMEP’s spotlight on Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, a necessary and transformative initiative cultivating and elevating the voices of Palestinian experts on policy issues which impact the Palestinian people. Below, you can read about Al-Shabaka’s work and listen to a podcast with Al-Shabaka’s co-founder and Board president, Nadia Hijab, and Senior Policy Fellow, Dr. Yara Hawari. You can also watch recent FMEP webinars featuring al-Shabaka analysts and fellows, which showcase the remarkable depth and breadth of Al-Shabaka experts’ expertise.
We urge you to take the time to learn about Al-Shabaka’s important mission — and we hope you will join FMEP in supporting Al-Shabaka’s work. You can also learn more about FMEP’s grant philosophy and the other amazing organizations that FMEP supports here. Previous partner/grantee Spotlights can be found here.
For more about Al-Shabaka, listen to Sarah Anne Minkin interview Al-Shabaka’s Nadia Hijab and Yara Hawari:
Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
Making Palestinian Voices Impossible to Ignore
Al-Shabaka challenges, expands on, and offers alternatives to existing stale and failed visions for achieving Palestinian human rights and self-determination. This think-tank-without-borders has established and continues to develop an unparalleled cohort of Palestinian experts, including many younger Palestinians and many younger Palestinian women, who regularly and professionally articulate Palestinian perspectives in key policy debates. Through their frequent and consistently excellent briefs and commentaries, Al-Shabaka challenges the status quo in which global media and policymakers too often exclude, marginalize, or tokenize Palestinian voices in discussions about policies and news that directly affect Palestinians and their future.
The critical importance of Al-Shabaka’s work is clearly seen now, at a time when Israeli de jure (under Israeli law; illegal under international law) annexation of Palestinian land seems imminent. While it is Palestinians who will directly suffer as a result of Israel’s actions, most international discourse around annexation is focused on its implications for Israel, with skeptics and critics of annexation almost universally framing their analysis in terms of why annexation hurts Israel’s interests (or American or European interests). To the extent that such analyses acknowledge the existence of Palestinians — people whose lives are already dominated and defined by ongoing policies of de facto annexation — such acknowledgement is largely limited to analyzing the policies of the Palestinian Authority or assessing the likelihood of Palestinians responding to annexation with violence.
In this context, Al-Shabaka plays a more important role than ever, offering a desperately needed corrective to such discourse. Through their production of timely analysis, commentary, and recommendations written from a deeply informed, carefully documented, intellectually persuasive perspective, Al-Shabaka is succeeding in centering Palestinians’ experiences, interests, and expertise with respect to Israel’s policies, present and anticipated. Al-Shabaka’s work is also offering courageous thinking that challenges both the existing Israel-Palestine “peace” paradigm (that paved the way for impending annexation) and the failed policies of current Palestinian leaders.
Recent Publications by Al-Shabaka analysts/members:
- Using Trump’s “Vision” to Break Free of Past Frameworks, by Yara Hawari
- Trump’s “Deal” for the Palestinians: Repercussions and Responses, by Inès Abdel Razek, Munir Nuseibah, Oraib Rantawi, Omar Shaban, Jaber Suleiman, Randa Wahbe
- Palestine and COVID-19: Global Standards, Local Constraints, by Alaa Tartir & Yara Hawari
- Annexation as a Symptom of Israeli Apartheid, by Rania Muhareb and Nada Awad
- Israeli annexation and a history of broken American promises, by Dalal Yassine
- Reflections on Palestinian Leaderships Past, by Jamil Hilal
- Criminalizing Palestinian Resistance: The EU’s Condition on Aid to Palestine, by Tariq Dana
- The myth of the Gaza ‘border’, by Amjad Iraqi
Recent webinars featuring Al-Shabaka’s analysts:
- Chatham House, “What is a State without the People?”: Statehood Obsession and Denial of Rights in Palestine, June 10, 2020, with Alaa Tartir
- London School of Economics, An Israeli Political Crisis: Elections, Unity Government and Annexation, May 28, 2020, with Yara Hawari
- Progressive International Forum, Imagining a Palestinian Future: Dexceptionalizng and Re-internationalizing the Struggle, May 26, 2020, withs Yara Hawari and Randa Wahbe
- Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The New Nakba: Israel’s Annexation Plan, May 13, 2020, with Diana Buttu
- Foundation for Middle East Peace and the Middle East Institute, Annexation and What It Means, Part 2: Palestinian Perspectives May 15, 2020, with Yara Hawari.
Learn more about Al-Shabaka & read its publications:
Website: https://al-shabaka.org/en/ (English)| https://al-shabaka.org/ar/ (Arabic)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alShabakaPalestinianPolicyNetwork
Twitter: @AlShabaka
Subscribe: Click here to sign up for Al-Shabaka’s email list and stay up-to-date on its activities and publications.
Join FMEP in supporting the work of Al-Shabaka by making a charitable contribution today.