As of 2023, Mahmoud Abbas surpasses his democratic mandate as president of the Palestinian Authority by 14 years. And as speculation mounts about his successor, the question of his legacy lingers. In a new Al-Shabaka roundtable, policy analysts Tareq Baconi, Yara Hawari, Alaa Tartir, and Tariq Kenney-Shawa reflect on Abbas’s … Continue reading The Legacy of Mahmoud Abbas
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
Alaa Tartir joins host Yara Hawari to discuss the internationally-funded Palestinian security forces. Together, they assess the forces’ authoritarian role in sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project and criminalizing Palestinian resistance, shedding light on the recent killing of critic and activist Nizar … Continue reading Podcast –Palestinian Securitization vs Liberation with Alaa Tartir
How are intelligence systems structured in countries across Asia and the Middle East—from Russia to India, from Turkey to China and Japan, from Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia? In what ways did decolonization and the Cold War influence their organization? What … Continue reading Palestine – Intelligence Communities and Cultures in Asia and the Middle East Handbook
L’Ue ha lanciato Eupol Copps nel 2006 per sostenere la nascita di uno Stato palestinese indipendente e democratico. Piú di un decennio dopo, l’Ue considera Eupol Copps una delle sue migliori missioni che ha professionalizzato il settore della polizia e … Continue reading La Missione Di Polizia Dell’unione Europea Nei Territori Palestinesi
Outsourcing Repression is a collection of analyses and essays on the roots, manifestations and consequences of the paradigm of security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The book discusses four key themes: the evolution and reform of Palestinian security … Continue reading Outsourcing Repression: Israeli-Palestinian Security Coordination
Three things could help to build an inclusive and participatory political system, which could empower Palestinians in their journey towards self-determination, statehood and meaningful democracy. Firstly, the one-man leadership model should be replaced with a collective form of leadership. The … Continue reading Why Palestinians Must Rethink their Governance
Since the Oslo Accords came into force in 1993, the European Union (EU) and its individual member-states have invested billions of Euros, with a view to establishing the basis for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. As Israel’s colonization of … Continue reading The Limits of Securitized Peace: The EU’s Sponsorship of Palestinian Authoritarianism
On 11 October 2017, I spoke at the Belgrade Security Forum (BSF) to examine the role and consequences of EU police mission in Palestine. Click here to view my 15 minutes presentation (it begins at 2:38:43/-2:54:17). Or here, minute 51.30 until … Continue reading Belgrade Security Forum – The EU Police Mission in the OPT
As Israel’s military occupation reaches its 50th year, Al-Shabaka Program Director Alaa Tartir argues that the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have not protected Palestinians, but have instead contributed to the criminalization of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Tartir analyzes … Continue reading The Palestinian Authority Security Forces: Whose Security?
This talk tackles the consequences of the PA’s security campaigns in both camps from the people’s perspective through a bottom-up ethnographic methodological approach based on sixty in-depth interviews. This talk will conclude by arguing that conducting security reform within a context … Continue reading Securitised Peace: Criminalising Resistance and Entrenching Authoritarianism in Palestine
This article analyses perceptions of the Palestinian Authority’s post-2007 state-building project—popularly known as ‘Fayyadism’—by assessing academic and practitioner literatures on the topic, and by drawing on the findings of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at two sites in the West Bank: Balata … Continue reading Securitised development and Palestinian authoritarianism under Fayyadism
This article provides a contextual analysis of the evolution and reform processes of Palestinian security forces over the last two decades. It categorises the evolution of security reform processes into three phases: the Oslo Accords phase; the Second Intifada phase; … Continue reading The Evolution and Reform of Palestinian Security Forces 1993-2013
To what end do the international donors continue to subsidize an agency that helps to perpetuate the Israeli occupation, fails to meet the needs of Palestinian civilians and violates the very human rights norms they claim to uphold? Co-authored with Sabrien Amrov, … Continue reading Subcontracting Repression in the West Bank and Gaza
The Palestinian Authority’s security sector has grown faster than any other part of the government, potentially putting Palestine on track to a police state. With the unity government moving into Gaza after Israel’s terrible 51-day assault, Al-Shabaka Policy Member Sabrien … Continue reading After Gaza, What Price Palestine’s Security Sector?
Alaa Tartir, Program Director of Al-Shabaka, Engaged Scholar, Global Citizen 