Rana Al Zagha

The Politics and Society Institute has published a new policy paper entitled “Jordan and the Gradual Annexation of the West Bank: Threat Assessment and Policy Options” The paper draws on the findings of a specialized roundtable organized by the Institute, which examined the trajectory of the gradual annexation of the West Bank and its potential implications for Jordan, Palestine, and…

Introduction The current war in the Middle East is unfolding within an intense regional context in which the ability to predict the trajectories of the conflict and its political and military outcomes has significantly diminished. Since October 7, the region has entered a new phase in which the war has expanded and assumed a multi-front character that is no longer…

The tools used to target and kill Palestinians are no longer confined to direct killing or field violence; they now also extend to legal and institutional structures that work to reorganize and manage repression within spaces of detention. Places where prisoners are held can thus be read as part of a broader structure for managing control and punishment and for…

In the context of the current regional war, internal measures in Jerusalem are being transformed into part of a broader politicization of emergency. As Buzan, Waever, and de Wilde argue, securitization is the process through which an issue is moved beyond the ordinary rules of political practice by presenting it as an existential threat that justifies recourse to exceptional[1] measures.…

Ramadan is approaching amid escalating challenges imposed by the Israeli police inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Police and administrative measures are intensifying in ways that are no longer read as temporary security steps, but rather as accumulated tools producing a new status quo. In this context, the slogan “custodianship does not mean sovereignty” is not advanced merely as a legal…

In recent months, debate inside Israel has intensified over the future of exemptions granted to the Haredi community, amid demographic and sociological transformations that render the old arrangement increasingly untenable. This debate is not confined to the question of conscription or the distribution of economic burdens; rather, it reflects a deeper crisis in the structure of Israel’s social contract, which…

The draft bill recently introduced in the U.S. Congress marks a pivotal moment in the trajectory of Israeli control over Jerusalem. For the first time, this trajectory shifts from the realm of on-the-ground policies and administrative measures to the level of binding U.S. legislation, effectively granting Israel an extraterritorial legal shield to consolidate its religious sovereignty over al-Aqsa Mosque. This…

The roots of the Israeli right are essential to understanding the political and ideological configuration of the State of Israel and its contemporary trajectory. Although the Zionist project emerged with multiple wings and currents, the right-wing current formed early around a vision that combined militant nationalism and reliance on force to impose a new reality in Palestine. With the rise…

Israel is accelerating its reshaping of Jerusalem’s reality through an integrated urban-security approach, targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque as the center of transformation. In recent times, Jerusalem has witnessed a marked escalation in Israeli policies aimed at reshaping its geographical and religious landscape. Public provocations are being carried out within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in cooperation with the Israeli police. These provocations…

While we see the escalation of Israeli raids in Syria, as well as talk of diplomatic channels between Damascus and Tel Aviv, certain discussions about Israel’s relations with the new Syrian regime are gaining traction in Israeli research centres; the report discusses the view on Syrian Israeli relations as well as views and predictions being discussed about Syria. Key points:…