International Policy Symposium - A New Palestinian Political Economy: Surviving Israeli Occupation, Settler Colonialism, and Ethnic Cleansing

Tuesday 15 April, 1300-1500 (Ramallah and webinar)

The report “Political Economy of Palestinian Nationhood, Independence, and Development in the Wake of War”, recently published by MAS, constitutes a landmark appraisal of the roots and fallout of the Israeli war on Gaza since 2023. Its authors, composed of a team of scholars of Palestinian development and state building, argue that we are now in a new era. What Palestinians, Israelis, and the international community do next is crucial for peace and justice between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area designated by the United Nations in 1947 as the home of two, Arab and Jewish, nation-states.

The Report’s eight Chapters contend that:

• The origins of the war since October 7 can mainly be traced to Israel’s longstanding policies of asymmetric containment, apartheid, and accelerated dispossession of Palestinians. 
• Israel’s war has been taken for adjudication by the International Court of Justice as genocidal, and has caused incalculable human, economic, social, and environmental devastation.
• Palestinians are a nation denied rightful independence. An endless “peace process” did not offer a way out of an ever-expanding Israeli settler colonialism.
• A new brand of messianic and exclusivist Zionism is underpinning Israel’s aggressive strategy of ethnic cleansing and annihilation of any possibility of Palestinian statehood.
• The Palestinian people need a unified rights-based narrative to address the world and a socio-economic strategy that enhances their ability to survive in confronting these new challenges.

This Symposium will bring together contributors to the Report and other experts in an interactive discussion to comment on the implications of the analysis and issues raised, discuss prospects and chart possible outcomes in the coming year for achieving Palestinian survival, rights and development. The event will be broadcast by webinar from MAS premises in Ramallah; simultaneous interpretation will allow for multilingual interaction.

Publication, Exclusive Summary and Key Messeges