Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are bracing for the first general elections to take place in 15 years, while the Palestinian Authority seeks to renew its legitimacy amid shifting regional and global realities.

Who are the leaders and political bodies Palestinians will be voting for? How are these elections affected by regional and global stakeholders? Given Israel’s ongoing military occupation and the deepening fragmentation of Palestinian civil society, can these elections bring about significant change?

In this policy lab, Al-Shabaka policy analysts Diana Buttu and Munir Nuseibah join host Nadim Bawalsa to discuss these questions and more.

Diana Buttu is a lawyer who previously served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team and was part of the team that assisted in the successful litigation of the Wall before the International Court of Justice.

Munir Nuseibah is a human rights lawyer and academic based in Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Palestine. He is an assistant professor at Al-Quds University's faculty of law and the director (and co-founder) of Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic, the first accredited clinical legal education program in the Arab World.

Nadim Bawalsa is Al-Shabaka’s Commissioning Editor. He is a historian of modern Palestine and has written on the emergence of Palestinian diaspora communities across Latin America in the early twentieth century.

About the Policy Lab Program: Al-Shabaka's Policy Lab Program is an online live-stream space where audiences can engage directly with expert analysts from our nearly 200-member network as they craft policies and strategies related to Palestine. The labs are free and open for public participation, inviting viewers to join in on policy discussions.

Note: This discussion will take place in English. Our policy labs are supported through the generosity of donors. They are free to attend, though we accept contributions on a sliding scale upon registration to help sustain the program.

The opinions of individual members of Al-Shabaka’s policy network do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization as a whole.

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