Policy Analysis

The new American president Donald Trump has moved into the White House and immediately started implementing his program. For the Middle East his first announcements and acts don’t spell hope. Palestinians fear that the new administration will side with the Israeli extreme right and that they will be further marginalized. We have asked the prominent Palestinian writer Nour Odeh to give us her view on the new president and what it means for Palestine.

70 high ranking participants have attended the opening of the Paris Conference on Peace in the Middle East, initiated by French president Francois Hollande. It aims to restart the peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians based on the two-state solution. Israel has declined to participate in the meeting. The Palestinians, who were expected to be present, have postponed their participation to a later stage. What are the Palestinian expectations from the conference in Paris? Sami Abdel-Shafi, who writes from the besieged and marginalized Gaza strip, gives his opinion.

Nur Arafeh from our partner Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, has prepared a policy brief on the collapse of the economy in East Jerusalem. Her study’s focus is on the tourism sector and the markets in the old city of Jerusalem. Starting with a chronological and comparative analysis of the decline in these two sectors Nur Arafeh continues to offer a comprehensive account of already existing civil society strategies to encourage Palestinians to remain resilient against the growing restrictions. Furthermore, she stresses the need to develop a common approach on envisioning the kind of Jerusalem Palestinians would want to promote and live in.     

Muwatin is holding its 22nd Annual Conference on Friday 30/9/2016 and Saturday 1/10/2016 at Birzeit University, titled 'The Complex Challenges Facing Palestinian Universities: Is there a Way Out?', and funded by hbs.

Which Jerusalem? – This question was raised in a Böll Debate on July 12 2016 in the Meeting Room of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Ramallah. The discussion was based on a policy brief presentend by the excellent young expert Ms. Nur Arafeh, Policy fellow of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. In her paper she had researched “Israel’s Little Known Master Plans for Jerusalem”, which aim to develop the city exclusively for the Jewish people and to further marginalize the Palestinian population.

Two years after the last devastating war on Gaza, the situation in the impoverished strip remains grim and hopeless. Gaza’s population of almost 2 million predominantly young people is still suffering the ramifications of this war. Moreover ten years of blockade have left them in destitution. Lack of clean drinking water, recurring and daily electricity cuts, delays in reconstruction and a decade-long isolation from the world has brought the population to the brink of despair. The Association of International Development Agencies in Jerusalem is therefore calling on world leaders to press for an immediate lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Hbs Palestine and Jordan is part of the AIDA network. Please find below a short video on the plight of Gazans, the AIDA press release and the link to a petition, calling for the end of the siege on Gaza.

NGOs are currently facing growing problems worldwide - and not only in non-democratic states. Governments increasingly target NGOs that work in the field of Human Rights, Justice, Democracy and Social and Environmental Rights. Barbara Unmuessig, president of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, explores in her landmark article the shrinking space for NGOS, which to some degree, threatens to affect our work in Palestine too.

Dead Sea cosmetics, Jordan valley dates and peppers from the northern Westbank – these Israeli products sell well in Europe. But as they are produced in illegal settlements in the occupied Westbank the EU has decided to put a label on them. Consumers can now decide whether they want to buy them or not. Critics suggest that this could impair Palestinian workers earning a living in Israeli settlements. Palestinian researcher Nur Arafeh, a partner of Heinrich-Boell-Foundation in Ramallah, disputes this thesis. Her article was first published on Le Monde Diplomatique.

By Thimna Bunte: In March 2015 the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation joined support for a speaking tour during the week of the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign Since 1994, the formerly flourishing Shuhada Street in Hebron’s historic centre is turned increasingly into a ghost street. It became a symbol for Israel’s policy of Human Rights violations and segregation in the occupied Palestinian territories. In this situation, Youth Against Settlements (YAS) advocates in nonviolent ways for Human Rights and equality in Hebron. One of the cornerstones of their work consists of the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign that takes place each year in February. Abed Salayma, activist of Youth Against Settlements, and Mufid Sharabati, resident of Shuhada Street, traveled to Germany this February in order to carry out a Speaking Tour (or, as the group calls it, a “SpeAction tour” as it involves some elements other than speaking as well). They talked about the Human Rights situation in Hebron, their approach of nonviolent resistance and what people in Germany can do to support their cause.

While many in Israel were hoping for Netanyahu's electoral defeat, Palestinians were more reserved. They now expect the international community to exert more pressure on Israel..