The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies, organized the Fourth Annual Palestine Forum between 24-26 January 2026.
Ayat Hamdan, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and Chair of the Annual Palestine Forum Committee, emphasized in her opening remarks that this edition is being held in an exceptionally complex international and regional context. More than two years have passed since the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and the escalation of its violence in the West Bank. She noted that the programme includes 83 peer-reviewed academic papers distributed across 23 parallel panels. She also pointed out that the ongoing Israeli escalation has, for the second consecutive year, prevented a number of researchers from the West Bank from attending and participating in the forum.
In his own opening remarks, Majdi Maliki, Director General of the Institute for Palestine Studies, stressed the importance of scholarly engagement with the Palestinian narrative. He lauded the success of the Forum thus far in providing a space for communication, dialogue, and interaction, and in strengthening a sense of individual and collective responsibility among researchers. He noted the unprecedented challenges facing the Palestinian cause in light of the continued devastation in Gaza and ever escalating aggression in the West Bank, and the persistence of Israeli colonial policies that impose new facts on the ground and on international law, explicitly obstructing the establishment of a Palestinian state. Maliki also addressed the realities of life under occupation, including the destruction of health, educational, and civil infrastructures, and policies aimed at suffocating Palestinians through the seizure of tax revenues. He outlined the Institute for Palestine Studies’ role in knowledge documentation since the onset of the genocide through the launch of specialized digital platforms, extensive production of research and policy papers, and the opening of opportunities for youth training and research. He concluded by affirming that the continuation of the Forum is a message of steadfastness, and that research in this context is not merely an academic duty, but a moral duty and an act of hope and resistance in a time when truth itself is under attack.
The first set of sessions was held across three parallel tracks. The first, titled “International Law and Palestine”, was chaired by Aicha Elbasri. Nicola Perugini presented his paper, “Between Resistance and Genocide: Palestinian National Liberation and Israel's Annihilation at the Limits of International Law”; Abdelhamid Siyam presented “The ICC and the Palestine Question”; and Hamid Belrhit and Asmae El Alaoui jointly contributed, “Annexation Policies in Light of the Evolutive Interpretation of International Law Rules: The Sanctity of the Principle and the Responsibility of Third States”.
The second track, titled “Palestine in the International Context”, was chaired by Adham Saouli. Razan Shawamreh presented her paper, “Disconnected Realities: China's Perception-Creation Strategy and Palestinian Narratives of Liberation”; Houriya Ben Ali presented “From Denouncing the Crime to Criminalizing Condemnation: How Official Moral Discourse Is Used to Enforce Silence on Genocide”; and Rovshan Mammadli discussed, in his paper “Navigating (In)Solidarity: South Caucasus States' Positions on Palestine during the Gaza Genocide”.
The third track, titled “The Genocide in Gaza in Western Media”, was chaired by Lamis Andoni. Amena ElAshkar presented her paper, “Breaking News, Breaking Frame: Chaotic Visuality and the Image War on Gaza”; Diana Buttu and Nidal Rafa presented their joint paper “How (Not) to Cover a Genocide: Experiences from Journalists in Palestine Reporting on Israel's Genocide in Gaza”; and Djamil Kerrouche presented his paper, “Framing the Human Cost: Emotional Narratives in Coverage of the Gaza Prisoner Exchange by The New York Times, The Guardian, and Fox News”.
The first track in the second set of sessions was titled “Milestones in Palestinian History: From the 19th Century to the Nakba”, was chaired by Issam Nassar. Munir Fakher Eldin presented his paper, “Ottoman "Historical Capital" and Land Law in Palestine: The Struggle over the Legacy of Sultan Abdülhamid II, 1909–1914”; Mohannad Abusarah participated remotely with his paper, “Ottoman Palestine through Traditionalist Regional Networks in the Hamidian Era”; Yanis Arab contributed a paper titled “The Algerians of Palestine: Vectors of the Palestinian Nakba Narrative to French Consular Representations in Palestine”; and Mahmoud Muhareb presented a case study on “The Contact between Israel and Akram Al-Hourani, Adib Al-Shishakli, and Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer”.
The second track, “International Organizations and the Genocide in Gaza”, was chaired by Ghada al-Madbouh. Adel Ruished presented his paper, “Regulating and Phasing out UNRWA in Occupied Palestine through Exception”; Heba Mohamed contributed an analytical study titled “The United Nations between Collapse and Reform amid the War on Gaza and Escalating Global Conflicts”; Rinda Saleh examined “Humanitarian Organizations Discourse amid Genocide: Gaza 2023”; and Pietro Stefanini presented “Annihilation through Aid: Airdrops, Maritime Piers, and Privatized Relief as Tools of Genocide in Gaza”.
The third track, titled “Palestine and Global Solidarity”, was chaired by Majdi Maliki. Muzna Shihabi presented a paper entitled “Lines in the Sand: How Palestine Rewrites the French Political Landscape”; Fanny Christou presented “Reimagining Resistance and Contesting Silence Beyond Borders: Palestinian Diaspora Mobilization and Solidarity Movements in Sweden Post-7 October 2023”; Muhannad Ayyash contributed his paper, “Palestinian-Indigenous Solidarities in Canada: Situating the Palestinian Cause as a Global Decolonial Struggle in Praxis”; and Marie Kortam rounded off the panel with “The Transnational Student Movement for Justice in Gaza”.
The sessions were followed by a public symposium titled “US Policy toward Palestine: Domestic and International Implications”. Khalil Jahshan moderated the panel and also presented his paper, “Trump, MAGA, and the Palestine Question: The Pursuit of US Hegemony in the Region”. He was followed by Tamara Kharroub, who presented “Palestine and the Democratic Party Crisis: Drivers and Impacts of Shifts in US Public Opinion and Discourse”; then Yousef Munayyer, with his paper “Paradigm Shift: The Groundwork for a New American Politics around Palestine Hanna Alshaikh: Palestine and the Reshaping of the US Institutional Order”.
In parallel with the first and second sets of forum sessions, Hikama Journal and the Conflict and Humanitarian Studies Center, organized the first workshop, “Reconstruction Policies in Gaza and the Centrality of Palestinian Survival”. It began with an opening session featuring Ghassan Elkahlout, Abdel-Fattah Mady, Nour Allah Munawar. This was followed by the first session, titled “Reconstruction Policies in Gaza and the Centrality of Palestinian Survival”, chaired by Marwa Farag. Contributions included a remote paper Talal Abu Rokbeh, titled “Reconstruction Policies in Gaza: Toward a Comprehensive Approach Linking Urban Planning with the Rebuilding of the State and the Local Community”; a paper by Yosef Jabarin, “Planning a Postwar Order: Israeli and US Think Tanks, Reconstruction, and the Politics of Sovereignty in Gaza”; and a paper by Mandy Turner, “Colonial Administration, Counterinsurgency Pacification, and Disaster Capitalism in Trump's ‘Day After’ Plans for Palestine”.
A roundtable titled “Gaza after the Ceasefire: The Humanitarian Reality and the Limits of Recovery” was also held as part of the workshop, chaired by Mohammed Alsousi. It discussed the current humanitarian challenges in the Gaza Strip and the prospects for recovery in light of the devastation left by genocidal war. The workshop opened in-depth discussions linking academic analysis with field experience, in parallel with the Forum’s concurrent sessions on the repercussions of the war and post-genocide policies.
The first day concluded with a public lecture delivered by Azmi Bishara, General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, titled “The Palestinian National Project in the Current International/Arab Context”. In his lecture, Bishara offered an in-depth critical review of the trajectory of the Palestinian national project, emphasizing that it cannot be reduced to a political programme or a single mode of struggle, but necessarily encompasses the organizational structures and social bases capable of claiming and representing national legitimacy. Bishara devoted particular attention to the ongoing genocide on the Gaza Strip and the repercussions of the Al-Aqsa Flood, which he described as a political and historical earthquake, hailing a new phase not only in Palestine, but in the entire region. He warned against attempts to dissolve the Palestinian national project and international attempts to reframe the cause as a humanitarian or administrative issue rather than a struggle for national liberation from a settler-colonial regime. In this context, he stressed the necessity of reformulating the Palestinian national project around the struggle against the apartheid system imposed by Israel over the entirety of historic Palestine. Bishara concluded by stressing that the central challenge now lies in building a comprehensive national liberation project that unites Palestinian forces and institutions both inside and outside Palestine and commits to a political goal. Without this, any constructive debate will risk devolving into political power struggles prior to liberation, which can only reproduce the destructive dynamic that led us to the situation in which we have found ourselves since the Oslo Accords.
Azmi Bishara, General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, concluded the first day with a lecture titled “The Palestinian National Project in the Current International/Arab Context” (click here for full text of the lecture). During the lecture, Bishara noted the common tendency to conflate the national project with the political programme, warning that the definition of the national project remains incomplete if it stops at the programme and does not include the programme’s organizational structures and social bases. He detailed the unique nature of Palestinian liberation, discussed the place of armed struggle, the impact of the “Land for Peace” process on the Palestinian national project, and the scenarios following Al-Aqsa Flood. He concluded by stressing the importance of a comprehensive national liberation project that unites Palestinian forces and institutions both inside and outside Palestine.
The second day began with three parallel tracks in the third session. The first, “Research Trends and Sources in Palestine Studies”, was moderated by Rami Rayess. Mahmoud Al-Qaysi presented “Transformations in Palestinian Studies in Japan: From the October 1973 Shock to the Gaza Nakba of 2023”; Fadi Zaraket presented a joint paper with Hadi Hamoud, Chadi Abou Chakra, and Ayat Hamdan, titled “Shifts in Research Interests and Discourse on Palestine: A Cross-Document Study ; Mai Tbaileh presented “Documentation as an Urgent Imperative: The Efforts of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Documenting the Genocide in Gaza”, and Hanna Alshaikh presented “Introducing ‘Palestine Explained’: A Digital Platform by the Arab Center Washington DC Track”.
The second track, “Palestinian Refugees and Diaspora”, was moderated by Tarek Hamoud. Dima Alsajdeya presented “The Palestinian Political Map in Lebanon: Unpacking Palestinian Divisions through Politics in Ein el-Hilweh Refugee Camp”; Sanaa Hammoudi presented “Palestinians in Lebanon and the Isolation of the Camp: Between Retreat and Marginalization”; Bilal Salayme presented “Securitizing the Camp: How the Assad Regime Securitized and Governed the Palestinian Camps during the Syrian Revolution” and Mothana Almasri and Omar Abdin jointly contributed “Diaspora, Labour, and Transit: A Study of Palestinian Diaspora Livelihoods in Türkiye”.
The third track, “Sumud and Resistance”, was moderated by Ahmed Hussein. Emile Badarin presented “Sumud in the Face of Settler-Colonial Genocide in Gaza”; Remotely, Lama Ghosheh presented “Reproduction of Liberation: Reading Gilboa”; Eman Alasah presented “Pessoptimist Politics: The Logic and Limits of Palestinian Anticolonial Pragmatism”; and Husam Abusalem presented “Profaning Dignity: Exploring the Political Disparity of the Concept through Palestine”.
The first track in the fourth session, “Post-7 October Transformations in Israel” was organized in cooperation with Mada al-Carmel – The Arab Center for Applied Social Research, and moderated by Maram Masarwi. Mtanes Shihahdeh presented “The Repercussions of the War on Gaza on the Israeli Economy: The Return of the Economy Security Link”; Areen Hawari and Himmat Zoubi jointly presented “Israel and Palestinians inside the Green Line: The Dialectics of Resolution and Strategic Manoeuvring Post-7 October”; and Fadi Nahhas presented “Reshaping the Regional Security Landscape: Israeli Pre-emptive Prevention as Post-Gaza Doctrine”.
The second track, “From Madrid to Bogotá: Europe, Latin America, and the Future of the Palestine Question”, was organized in cooperation with The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies-CEARC was moderated by Haizam Amirah. Fernandez Moisés Garduño presented “Latin America and the Palestine Question: Convergences and Divergences in the Context of the Genocide in Gaza”; Isaías Barreñada presented “Spain and the Palestine Question: What Has Changed?” and Sonia Boulos presented “Gaza as a Revealer: EU Law, Legal Subalternity, and the Making of a Palestinian Exception”.
The third track “Western Universities and Knowledge Production on Palestine” was moderated by Ibrahim Fraihat. Shaira Vadasaria and Nicola Perugini presented “Balfour University: Race, Imperial Education, and the Declaration on Palestine”; Remotely, Amanda Najib presented her paper, “Towards a Palestinian Critical Race Theory: Foundational Tenets and Student Movements amidst Settler Colonialism” and Eman Abboud, also remotely, presented “Limitations to Ethical Research in an Unethical World: A Case Study on Palestine”.
The first track in the fifth session, “A Second Year of Scholasticide: On the Meaning of Education in the Time of Genocide” was organized in cooperation with Manhajiyyat, moderated by Samia Bishara. Ahmad Ashour presented “The Aftermath of the Genocide: Deconstructing Institutional Discourse and Re-Centring the Palestinian Actor”; Malik Al Rimawi presented “Assault and Hybridity in Palestinian Education: The Decline of the School or Its Reproduction?”; Asmaa Mustafa, Mohammad Shubeir, Khitam Abu Alrub, Nada Al Ashqar presented remotely “Teachers' Voices: Between Survival and Resistance”; and Riyam Kafri Abulaban presented “The Future of Palestinian Education: From Documentation to Reclaiming Meaning”.
The second track, “Reshaping Palestinian Economy: The Impact of Foreign Aid” was moderated by Ayhab Saad. Amro Wawi presented “Foreign Aid and Its Impact on Sustainability and Governance in the West Bank's Water Sector”; Tareq Radi, presented remotely “The Financialization of Vulnerability: Solar Energy in Gaza and the Benefits Gap”; Yanis Iqbal presented “Economy as Fetish: Gaza and the Ideology of Global Capitalism”; and Rawan Natsheh presented “Weaponized Aid: Feminist and Decolonial Reflections on the Use of Aid as a Tool of War in Gaza”
The third track, “Tools of Genocide: AI and Digital Erasure”, was moderated by Hani Awad. Adhila Abdul Hameed presented “Precarious Memory: Palestinian Lives, Digital Erasure, and the Post-7 October Struggle for Resistance”; Karim Barakat presented “AI and War in the Global South: The Case of Gaza”; Taghreed Al Soumairy presented “Mechanisms of Distortion and the Manipulation of Palestinian Collective Memory in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”; and Ghadeer Awwad presented a joint paper with Murad Idris and Kentaro Toyama, titled “Digital Annihilation in Gaza after 7 October: Internet Blackouts as Epistemic Violence”.
In parallel with the forum sessions, the workshop “Toward Palestinian Frameworks for Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip” continued for a second day. The second session, “Reconstruction Policies in Gaza between Exclusion and Domination: The Role of NGOs and Local Actors”, was moderated by Moosa Elayah. Mohammed Alsousi and Kareem Okasha presented “Actors, Not Beneficiaries: The Role of Palestinian Women in Leading Community Institutions and Post-War Reconstruction in Gaza”; Remotely, Ali Abdel-Wahab presented “Reconstruction as an Economy of Domination: A Parallel Policy for Recovery from Disaster Capitalism in Gaza; and Rawan Natsheh presented “Reconstructing Gaza Without Palestinians: Civic Space, INGOs, and the Politics of Exclusion”. The session was followed by a second roundtable, “Governance: Who Runs Gaza?”, chaired by Tamer Qarmout.
The third workshop session, “Policies for Rebuilding the Human Being and the Role of Education in Gaza”, was moderated by Abdou Moussa El-Bermawy. Tahani Aldahdouh, Nazmi Al-Masri, Maria Grazia Imperiale and Giovanna Fassetta presented “Palestinian Academic Institutional Resilience: A Case Study of the Islamic University of Gaza”; Yousuf Daas and Sameh Hallaq presented “Education and Economic Isolation: The Gaza Blockade's Role in Shaping Returns to Education in Palestine”; and Abdalhadi Alijla presented “Rebuilding the Human: Social Cohesion as a Priority in Gaza”.
The sessions were followed by an evening symposium on Global Solidarity Movements moderated by Leila Seurat. Osama Abu Irshaid presented “The Palestine Solidarity Movement in the United States: Concept, Backgrounds, Challenges, and Future”; Saif Abukeshek presented “Europe and Palestine: From Popular Solidarity to Tangible Action – The Spanish Model and the Global Sumud Flotilla”; Stephanie Elías Musalem presented “Latin America and Palestine: Contradictions, Challenges and Opportunities” and Pablo Abufom presented “The Fabric of Solidarity: Class, Identity, and Palestinian Solidarity in Modern Chile”
The fourth Annual Palestine Forum concluded Monday 26 January 2026, in Doha. Organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies, the Forum featured research sessions, workshops, and a symposium focused on rebuilding the Palestinian national project, reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, and political and strategic transformations in the “day after” phase. The Forum was attended by hundreds of researchers and participants from around the world.
The third day began with a sixth session of three parallel tracks. The first, “Collective Memory between the Nakba and the Genocide”, was moderated by Ayham Al-Sahli. Tamara Taher presented remotely “Temporalities of Liberation: Existing and Resisting against the Grain of the Zionist Temporality of Catastrophe”; Zainab Sabra presented “Testimonial Credibility: Reclaiming the Narrative”; and Adam Anabosi presented “Reconstructing the Palestinian Family after the Nakba: Between Radio Broadcasting and the Prohibition of Family Reunification”.
The second track, “Genocide, Settler Colonialism and Apartheid”, was moderated by Tariq Dana. Mohamed Dhia Hammami presented “The Network Structure of Israeli Elites: Institutional Centrality and Strategic Vulnerability”; Kholoud Al-Ajarma presented “Surviving Surveillance Systems in Palestine: Academic Freedom under Settler-Colonialism”; and Waleed Habbas presented “Genocide and Holocaust Studies in Israel: How and Why the Genocide in Gaza Is Excluded Epistemologically”.
The third track “Israeli Security Doctrine and Regional Expansion” was moderated by Harith Hassan. Abdulrahman Al-Kuwari presented “The Evolution of Israeli Military Doctrine after Al-Aqsa Flood: Between Continuity and Adaptation”; Nizar Ayoub presented “Israel's Strategy and Expansionist Policy in Post-Assad Syria”; and Bader Alibrahim “Al-Aqsa Flood and the Limits of Revolution against Borders: An Analysis of the Support Fronts' Trajectories”
The first track of the seventh session “Palestine and Arab Solidarity” was moderated by Mouin Al Taher. Raghad Habash presented “Effectiveness of Protest Networks for the Palestinian Cause in Jordan since 7 October: al-Tajammu' al-Shababi al-Urduni li-Da'm al-Muqawama”; Youssef Day presented “The Palestinian Cause in the New Protest Discourse in Morocco: A Study of Ultras Movements”; and Belaid Jelih presented “Normalization and Anti-Normalization in Morocco”.
The second track “Resistance through Poetry, Literature and Cinema”, moderated by Haider Saeed. Maha Zeyadeh presented “The Representation of the Colonial Experience in Prison Literature: A Spatial Reading of A Mask the Color of the Sky by Basem Khandakji”; Akram Alashqar presented “Resonance beyond Voice: The Significance of Silence in Palestinian Revolutionary Cinematic Expression as a Tool of Resistance”; Tayseer Abu Odeh presented “The Politics of Death and Mourning in Modern Palestinian Poetry: The Paradox of Poetry in the Age of Genocide”
The third track “Mental Health under Genocide and Settler Colonialism” was moderated by Charles Harb. Dana Al-Azzeh and Ferdoos Alissa presented “Bridges to Recovery: Gazans' Perceptions of Mental Health and Mental Health Services”; Belal Odeh presented “Mental Health in Jerusalem: Structural Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Digital Mental Health Services” Einas Odeh Haj presented “The Experience of Palestinian Psychotherapists inside the Green Line from the Perspective of Liberation Psychology”.
The first of the session eight tracks, “Jerusalem: Between History and the Colonial Present”, was moderated by Mahmoud Muhareb. Omar Abed Rabo presented “Scholars and Landmarks: How to Read the History of Jerusalem in the 10th-11th Centuries AD”; Mansour Nasasra presented “Jerusalem and Its Connectedness with Arab Capitals: 1948-1967”; Khalil Toufakji presented “Escalation of Settlement Activity in Jerusalem amid the Genocidal War”; and Hanan Amr presented “Al-Quds and al-Khalil: A Forensic Architectural Analysis of the Fragmentation of Sacred Spaces”.
The second track “The Dynamics of the Palestinian Economy and Society after 7 October” was organized in cooperation with the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and moderated by Tamer Qarmout. Raheeq Hurani presented “Coping Mechanisms for Households in Gaza after 7 October 2023: The Case for Building an Alternative Telecommunications Network”; Islam Rabee presented “Assessing West Bank Labour Market Performance during the War on the Gaza Strip: Through the Second Quarter 2025”; Sabri Ya'aqbeh presented “Systematic Demographic Destruction and Labour Market Dynamics in the Gaza Strip since October 2023”; and Anmar Rafeedie and Ismat Quzmar jointly presented “Solidarity Economy in Palestine: Towards a Resilient Model That Promotes Economic Independence”
The final workshop session, “Food Sovereignty and Livelihoods in Gaza: Local Alternatives for Reconstruction”, was moderated by Ihab Maharmeh. Omar Abdelghaffar and Zeina Jallad presented “The Day After: Fantasizing Modern Transitions and the Neoliberal War Economy in Post-Conflict Gaza”; Siham Matallah presented “Gaza's Reconstruction Conundrum: Entrenched in a Perpetual Vicious Cycle. Ahmed Abu Hanie and Halima Abu Haneya presented “Policies to Enhance Food Security in Gaza after the War: Integrating Hydroponic Agriculture and Biogas”. The remainder of the workshop was devoted to two roundtables: “Whose security? Towards Palestinian protection”, chaired by Mai Abu Moghli and “Reconstruction: From Extraction to Recovery”, chaired by Lara Khattab.
The Forum concluded with a final symposium session, “The Future of the Palestinian National Project”, moderated by Ayat Hamdan. Leila Farsakh presented “The Future of the Palestinian National Movement Beyond the Palestinian State Project”; Hani AlMasri presented “Breaking the Palestinian Impasse: Decisive Choices at a Critical Moment”; Ahmad Azam presented “The Future of the Palestinian National Project: Reshaping the Political and Social Structures”; and Tarek Hamoud presented “Hamas after the ‘Day After’”. As a whole, the symposium emphasized the need to rebuild the Palestinian national project on liberationist and democratic foundations, independent of external dictates.
Annual Palestine Forum
