Policy Analysis

On the occasion of their visit to the region, 15 members of the Grüne Jugend (Green Youth), the political youth organization of the German Greens, spent two days in Palestine. Heinrich Böll Stiftung Arab Middle East Office Ramallah organized meetings with Palestinian politicians, partner organizations and a tour to the Jordan Valley.

Perspectives - Political Analysis and Commentary from the Middle East is a publication series of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s offices in Beirut and Ramallah provides a platform for analysis and viewpoints of experts from the region. The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude…

A new report by Members of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella organization of more than 80 international aid and development agencies working on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (including the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation) , analyses the EU initiatives in area C of the Westbank. The report concludes that the EU needs to do more to address the problem of area C to improve the lives of Palestinians living there and to coor­dinate systematic action backed by high­level political leadership in order to protect the most vulnerable Pales­tinian communities.

This new study by Nicholas Pelhem, which was co-funded by hbs Ramallah, tries to shed light on the background of the recently destabilized situation in the Sinai. During the rule of Mubarak, especially since the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, Sinai has served as a buffer zone between the players in the region. Ever since the Egyptian Revolution created a security vacuum in the Sinai the situation is changing rapidly. Recent cross border assaults increase tension between Israel and Egypt. Hamas is expanding its own sphere of interest beyond the borders of the besieged Gaza Strip toward the Peninsula. Finally, the indigenous people of the Sinai, organized in around 20 tribes and largely economically and socially excluded for years, struggle for power as well. The study provides an in depth analysis of what is going on in the Sinai.

According to its mission to document, research, analyse and publish on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Institute of Jerusalem Studies (IJS), the local branch of the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS), hosted its yearly conference under the title “Present and Future of ‘Area C’ and the Jordan Valley: Strategies of Confronting Israel’s Colonial Control” on 6-7 July in Ramallah - Al Bireh. The IJS is a long term partner of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (hbs).

From 09 July to 12 July 2012 the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (hbs) Ramallah organised the visit of Tom Koenigs, MP of the party Alliance ‘90/The Greens and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag, and Barbara Meincke, human rights advisor for the Green Party Group.

The Chairman of the Green’s parliamentary group, Jürgen Trittin, and the Green’s parliamentary spokesperson on foreign affairs, Kerstin Müller, visited the Palestinian Territories between March 12 and March 15, 2012. HBS Ramallah organized various meetings with Palestinian officials and civil society representatives.

From February 27 to March 2nd the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Ramallah co-sponsored a delegation of Palestinian experts to Berlin and Brussels to discuss latest developments in the Palestinian reconciliation process