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.
Memory, Genocide, and Regional Security
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”
Palestine in the Arab Context and Mental Health
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”.
History, Economic Dynamics, and Cultural Resistance
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”
Toward Palestinian Frameworks for Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip
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 Future of the Palestinian National Project
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.
