Since the Oslo I Accord was signed in 1993, international donors have expended more than $50bn in foreign aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). That funding has been channelled through a western development model that was designed, at least on the surface, to foster Palestinian economic and … Continue reading Palestine: How Western Aid Enables Israel’s Colonialism
What is politically conditioned funding? How does it impact Palestinian civil society and the Palestinian liberation movement at large? These questions and more are addressed in this public webinar on politically conditioned funding that we organized in the context of … Continue reading Funder or Censor? How Politically Conditioned Funding Undermines Palestinian Self-determination
The Palestinian Authority’s security sector receives the largest portion of its budget, allowing it to consolidate its authoritarian and repressive rule over the Palestinian people. Al-Shabaka policy analyst and program advisor, Alaa Tartir, explores this troubling reality and offers recommendations … Continue reading The Palestinian Security Sector: Entrenching State Repression
Before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed the Palestinian legislative elections, some observers thought that there would be fierce electoral competition that could lead to political change. Others argued that elections are the only way to achieve national unity and end … Continue reading A New Approach to Elections in Palestine
Regardless of the PLO’s current semidormant status, it is still the body closest to Palestinian communities at home and in the diaspora. The only way out of the current political dead end is for Palestinians to revive and build their … Continue reading Why Palestinians Need to Reclaim the PLO
How can the PLO maintain accountability as both a national liberation movement and governing body? How might Hamas and Islamic Jihad be integrated after decades of exclusion? What models of Palestinian youth leadership can be further developed? Al-Shabaka analysts address … Continue reading Reclaiming The PLO, Re-Engaging Youth
Without paradigm shifts and coordinated actions on the ground, however, including the (forced) realization on the part of Fatah and Hamas leaders that the phantom authority for which they have fought so dearly has been a key obstacle, none of … Continue reading Intra-Palestinian Reconciliation: Time for Accountability
Alaa Tartir, Program Director of Al-Shabaka, Engaged Scholar, Global Citizen 