This Week in Palestine- Digital Horizons: Entrepreneurship and Economic Resilience

Issue: 331, February 2026

This rendering of the sunbird, Palestine’s national bird, copyrighted by Paltrade, was chosen to represent high-tech export. 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO see art or read good articles or quotes  IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/331-Feb-2026/ 

Palestine painting by Mohammed Jabr, an artist from Gaza https://thisweekinpalestine.com/mohammed-jabr/

Message from the Editor

The war in Gaza is continuing unabated despite the so-called ceasefire, as tens of Gazans are killed on a daily basis. Yet the world has turned to other hotspots, emerging due to a resurgence of imperialist colonialism – or is it simply gaining greater visibility as it is not confined to more distant areas? And while many of us feel helpless in the wake of events and our inability to end the aggression against Gaza and the West Bank, there is one way in which we can make a difference: through the outsourcing of business services that include software development, business management, finance and accounting, and marketing. When internet and electricity are available, a skilled, resilient, and adaptable workforce of Palestinian young professionals and recent graduates can support businesses abroad. At the same time, their resilience can be strengthened as they are enabled to earn livelihoods for themselves and their families.   

This issue of TWiP highlights organizations that support Palestinian professionals by facilitating online work opportunities. We hope that this exposure will not only create visibility but also encourage greater engagement from abroad in this invaluable resource for our people who, while persevering under great hardship – unimaginable in the case of Gaza – excel in ways that might be unanticipated for many.... READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/message-from-the-editor-331/

Table of Contents

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/table-of-contents-331/

 

From Aid to Agency

Building an Investment Ecosystem for Palestinian Innovation

By Sharareh Noorbaloochi

Humanitarian aid remains indispensable. In moments of acute crisis, it saves lives and preserves dignity. But aid alone cannot rebuild economies, restore agency, or create long-term self-reliance. For that, investment is also essential. Not symbolic investment, and not charity framed as capital, but structured, accountable investment that treats Palestinian founders as builders on equal terms. 

The highest form of solidarity is not donation. It is investment on equal terms, with shared risk, shared upside, and shared accountability. For impact-focused investors and ecosystem enablers, this approach shifts engagement from supporting activity to building durable systems grounded in ownership, incentives, and long-term alignment. 

Why Success Stories Matter
Venture capital follows a power-law dynamic: A small number of successful companies generate the majority of returns. For emerging ecosystems, building even a handful of investable success stories can unlock follow-on capital, talent retention, and long-term economic momentum.

Innovation does not thrive in isolation. It scales when talent, capital, and markets are connected through a functioning investment ecosystem. In deeply fragmented contexts, entrepreneurship can also serve as a unifying force. It creates shared incentives where politics often divides, and measurable value where rhetoric alone cannot. When paired with the right capital structures, innovation becomes a practical tool for rebuilding systems, restoring livelihoods, and creating durable pathways to growth... READ MORE https://thisweekinpalestine.com/from-aid-to-agency/

The Palestinian Diaspora

A Strategic Asset for the Tech Sector

By Feras Nasr

The Palestinian diaspora refers to the large community of Palestinians living outside historic Palestine, forming transnational networks connected to their homeland. Currently, nearly 8 million Palestinians live outside historic Palestine, with the majority residing in the Middle East and around 1 million living in North and South America and the Far East. Despite decades of displacement, the Palestinian diaspora continues to maintain close ties to its homeland and plays a significant role in preserving Palestinian national identity while providing social, cultural, and economic support. 

Know Thy Heritage Diaspora Conference 2025.

Members of the Palestinian diaspora have achieved notable successes across various fields and have been advocates of the Palestinian cause around the world. Names include Edward Said in academia, Rashida Tlaib in politics, Amer Zaher and Mo Amer in arts and culture, and the Hadid family in fashion. As entrepreneurs and business executives, Palestinians have created enormous value with well-known leaders such as Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Elia Nuqul, Farouk Shami, Samer Khoury, Ibrahim Dabdoub, and others who have founded and led multinational enterprises. 

In addition to these well-known figures, the Palestinian diaspora includes countless individuals who provide vital support and solidarity to their homeland... READ MORE https://thisweekinpalestine.com/the-palestinian-diaspora/

 * Know Thy Heritage Leadership Program empowers Palestinian youth in the Diaspora by strengthening their knowledge of their Palestinian identity, culture, history, traditions, as well as their understanding of the Palestinian economic environment, political landscape, social structures and conditions.  https://www.kthps.org/

 

UpScrolled

Born from Resistance, Built for Digital Sovereignty

Courtesy of UpScrolled

We’re living in a world where mainstream social media platforms are actively suppressing voices that aren’t toeing the line. Freedom of speech has become monetized, colonized, and villainized. When an expression of solidarity or critical thinking results in users being shadowbanned, marginalized, or cancelled, the premise of real connection and human engagement turns into empty slogans and hollow promises. 

The throttling of Palestinian voices and the online deletion of the Palestinian struggle has made this undeniable. For over a year, independent journalists documenting Gaza have watched their reach collapse overnight. Accounts that built audiences over years suddenly couldn’t reach their own followers. Posts with verified footage were buried while misinformation circulated freely. They simply made it invisible. 

Founder of UpScrolled, Issam Hijazi, at Web Summit Qatar 2026.

UpScrolled was launched in 2024 by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist, with support from Tech for Palestine. The creation of UpScrolled was an act of resistance and solidarity. If a platform cannot advocate for everyone, then it becomes a mouthpiece for its billionaire founders’ agendas and just another place to gatekeep truth and determine what discourse does or does not have value... READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/upscrolled/

PALESTINE PAINFULLY BEAUTIFUL

By Patricio Hales  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/palestine-painfully-beautiful/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO see art or read good articles or quotes  IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Creating Apartheid Israel ... "A Land Without a People…"

Palestinian Refugees in International Law

By Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg

Foreword by Karen AbuZayd

Second edition, paperback, 560 pages £65.00
Also available in hardback, £150.00

Published by Oxford University Press, 2020

Available from the publisher at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/palestinian-refugees-in-international-law-9780198784050?cc=it&lang=en&, www.amazon.com, and in Jerusalem from the Educational Bookshop.

Review by Rania Hammad

---

In the author’s own words, “Like the book’s first edition, the aim of the new book is to provide a precise understanding of the legal aspects of the Palestinian refugee problem, its genesis and implications, as well as to show the problems that these refugees have faced, and the nature of their vulnerability – over the decades – and to explain how international law can be deployed to redress their situation. It is understood that at present, as in the past, the Palestinian refugee problem has not been one of lack of legal framework, but rather one of instrumentalization and political inaction vis-à-vis protracted non-implementation of the law.”... READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/palestinian-refugees-in-international-law/

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https://thisweekinpalestine.com/a-land-without-a-people/

Al-Nakba

The military Zionist invasion and occupation of Palestine started in April 1948. It was carried out by a Zionist European army of 120,000 trained soldiers, formed into 9 brigades, which carried out 38 military operations to conquer Palestine. In the six weeks that preceded Ben Gurion’s declaration of a Jewish state mid-May 1948, this army attacked and depopulated 220 villages and 11 cities, eventually depopulating and destroying 530 villages and towns.¹¹ During these six weeks, it carried out 22 large massacres – out of the 70 that took place during al-Nakba in 1947 and 1948.¹² At the time, massacres were used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing. Today, they are elevated to genocide.

Through these measures, the Zionist control of Palestinian land increased from 6 percent (owned by Jews at the beginning of the British Mandate) to 78 percent in 1948. Now, Israel occupies all of Palestine as well as areas in neighboring Arab countries.

Map 1 shows where the Palestinians who became refugees lived before the Nakba, how they were expelled, and where they now live. Based on these facts, who is the aggressor and invader, and who has the right of self-defense?

Today, there are 9 million Palestinian refugees.¹⁴ Their homes are occupied by Israelis. Not a single Israeli occupant of their homes has a legal title deed of the property on which they sit. Ninety-four percent of the land in Israel is Palestinian property. Not one acre of this occupied land was obtained by means that would be considered legal under any article in international law.

For 77 years, the Palestinians have never stopped demanding their Right to Return home.

A Land Without a People…

By Salman Abu Sitta

 

& more from This Week in Palestine

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/324-May-2025/

Issue: 324, May 2025

Palestinian Refugees I

And We Love Life as Much as We Can, artwork by the Palestinian artist Wadeei Khaled.

 https://thisweekinpalestine.com/325-June-2025/

Issue: 325, June 2025

Palestinian Refugees II

A convoy of trucks carries refugees and their belongings from Gaza to Hebron. © 1949 UN Archive. Photographer unknown.

Born on August 15, 1983 in Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza, Hend Joudat Jouda completed her undergraduate studies at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, majoring in information technology. Hend writes poetry, stories, and songs. She worked as editor in chief of 28 Cultural Magazine for three years. She has published three books in Arabic; Someone Always Leaves (2013), No Sugar in the City (2017), and The Finger That Managed to Survive (2024). Hend has also published a book in Japanese titled In Time of War (2025), and a book in French and Arabic titled A Poet in Time of War (2025).

 

Poems by Hend Joudat Jouda

By Hend Joudat Jouda

What Does It Mean to Be a Poet in Times of War?

It means apologizing …

extensively apologizing

to the burnt trees

to the nest-less birds

to the crushed homes

to the long cracks along the streets

to the pale faced children before and after death

to the faces of every sad or murdered mother

What does it mean to be safe... READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/poems-by-hend-joudat-jouda/

This Week In Palestine [actually every week in Palestine] Exceptional Women: Hanan Daoud Mikhail Ashrawi Daughter of Palestine By Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison

Hanan Daoud Mikhail Ashrawi

Daughter of Palestine

By Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison

As a child, I watched my mother precisely, yet effortlessly line her beautiful almond-shaped brown eyes in the mornings. The earthy colors of her make-up palette and the color-tone of the room were comforting in their familiarity. The various shades of green and beige on the bedcovers, the hints of red and orange on the book covers by her bed and sometimes in the clothes she meticulously hangs the night before. The beautiful wood closet doors and brass-colored hardware from the 1960s still feel timeless and homey.

The cream-brown instant coffee that was always placed within the perfect reach of her right hand, would always be followed by the much darker umber of Arabic coffee; the scent adding to the palette of the senses. She always looked focused yet graceful in her application. One line or two, then she checks each eye in the mirror before purposefully moving on to the next step in her routine. The yellow in the palette always came from her notepad that she kept to the side of her dresser, where she wrote down thoughts for a speech she had to give that day or notes for a paper she was working on (or both).  I was later told by my father that that is Mama’s space when she takes time for herself to get her thoughts together for the day.

The phone rings almost constantly, then as now; calls from fellow activists and colleagues discussing strategy, from the press requesting a statement or an interview, or from family or friends wanting to stop by or to discuss plans for family lunch on Sunday. The news, in both Arabic and English, is always on interchangeably, and sometimes simultaneously!

With students.

Her public impromptu speeches, interviews, and writing display her linguistic mastery of both Arabic and English. It was always apparent that she has a deep passion for literature and the arts.... READ MORE https://thisweekinpalestine.com/hanan-daoud-mikhail-ashrawi/

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https://thisweekinpalestine.com/twip-cover-322/ 

Issue: 322, March 2025

Exceptional Palestinian Women

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/table-of-contents-322/

Under the title Voices of Resilience, the 4th edition of Ramallah Art Fair (RAF) highlights contributions from young Palestinian artists working across diverse mediums, narrating the resilience of the Palestinian people amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Shadow (2024) by Malik Abu Salameh.

 

Ramallah Art Fair 2024

Voices of Resilience

December 7, 2024 to January 18, 2025

Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah

Under the title Voices of Resilience, the 4th edition of Ramallah Art Fair (RAF) highlights contributions from young Palestinian artists working across diverse mediums, narrating the resilience of the Palestinian people amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.  THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE   https://thisweekinpalestine.com/ramallah-art-fair-2024/

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

This Week in Palestine December 2024: The War of the Narratives by Sani P. Meo

"... TWiP was initially intended to be a guide for tourists and pilgrims, offering them information on where to go and what to do while visiting the Holy Land. That was back in late 1998 and 1999. By the year 2000, TWiP had started to emerge as a voice for Palestine, promoting it in the best way possible, advocating for its rights and cause, and bringing out the best in Palestine.

The history of This Week in Palestine was published in an article in the June 2022 issue themed “Palestinian Archives” – in my opinion, one of the most powerful editions. The article, “TWiP: An Inadvertent Archive,” offers an in-depth exploration of the wonderful journey of This Week in Palestine that has included every single human emotion one can imagine.

However harsh this year has been on the Palestinian people, it has also been an excellent one for This Week in Palestine, at least from the standpoint of popularity and credibility. During the past year there has been a surge of around 350 percent in TWiP’s readership, which is understandable because of the grace of Gaza and the fact that people around the world want to know more about Palestine. Thanks to the young generation who by using social media have brought the question of Palestine to the international stage. It’s worth noting that this keen interest in Palestine, translated through millions of pro-Palestine posts on various social platforms, has come with a price. It has irked mainstream media and sent it on a frantic journey to debunk the Palestinian narrative. As TWiP turns 26, the war between the Palestinian narrative or story and that of the Zionists is reaching a peak.

In her article “Working with the British Media on Gaza,” published in the May 2024 issue of TWiP, Leila Sansour lists a few tactics that the Western political establishments use against the Palestinian narrative: “…from the willful choice of always starting history on October 7 and disregarding all the voices that have painstakingly pointed out the flaws in this approach, to denying Palestinians the right to comment on just about anything that concerns their plight.”..... "  READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/twip-turns-26/ 

TWiP Turns 26

The War of the Narratives

By Sani P. Meo

Sani Meo is co-founder of the English-language print and online magazine This Week in Palestine and has been its publisher since TWiP’s inception in December 1998. Since January 2007, he has also been the publisher of the Arabic online magazine Filistin Ashabab, which targets Palestinian youth.

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Palestinian Refugees and International Law

Palestine: The Litmus Test of Our Shared Humanity

The Betrayal of International Law

Israel’s UNRWA Ban

The Campus, the Courts, and Chickpeas

Christmas Is Palestine

Follow the Star

Despite Our Justified Skepticism

December 2024 issue of This Week in Palestine https://thisweekinpalestine.com/320-dec-2024/