Writings of Abdaljawad Omar

Abdaljawad Omar (Abboud Hamayel) is a Palestinian writer and Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University. His work explores the intersections of political thought, resistance, and settler colonialism, with a particular focus on the intellectual and affective histories of resistance. He writes extensively in Arabic and in English Abboud has contributed to Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, and Ebb Magazine among other outlets.

Omar holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from Birzeit University where he focused on the formations of Palestinian resistance in the Great Intifadas, 1987-2015. Omar has a forthcoming book titled “Freeing Palestine: The Making of the Palestinian Resistance,” due out in 2025.

Aside from all his writings and interviews below, you can follow more of his academic writing on Academia.edu or read some of his other writings over on Aboud Hamayel blogspot.

Thanks to The Electronic Intifada and Millennials Are Killing Capitalism for always having great content! You can support Electronic Intifada here and join the Millennials Are Killing Capitalism’s Patreon here).

Academic articles

• Abdaljawad Omar; Bleeding Forms: Beyond the Intifada. Critical Times 2024

Arabic writings

• (2024) كيف يقتل العَلَم الفلسطيني المحتل جسدياً ورمزياً؟ (How the occupied Palestinian flag is physically and symbolically killed?)
• (2024) الشغل الصحّ مقال BYعبد الجواد عمر (The Right Work)
• (2023)رهان المقاومة: نشأة الفضاءات السيادية الكاتب/ة: عبد الجواد عمر (Resistance Bet: The Origin of Sovereign Spaces)
• (2023) وحدة الساحات: عن الحدود التي تخترقها المقاومة, (The unity of the squares: about the limits that the resistance penetrates), Abdul-Jawad Omar
• (October 25, 2022) من جنين إلى نابلس: انبعاث المقاومة المنظمة (From Jenin to Nablus: The Resurgence of Organized Resistance), Abdul-Jawad Omar
• (September 28, 2017) نمر الجمل: العامل الفلسطيني مقاتلاً (Nimr al-Gamal: The Palestinian worker is a fighter), Abdul-Jawad Omar
• (October 3, 2017) حرب البراغيث: هزيمة أمريكا في فيتنام (Flea War: America’s Defeat in Vietnam), Abdul-Jawad Omar

More from Abdul-Jawad Omar.

Non-Fiction writings

• Omar, A. (2025, September 23). The Homely and the Beast. Communis Press.
  • Spanish translation
• Omar, A. (2025, September 13). Water without name. Communis Press.
  • Spanish translation
• Omar, A. (2025, September 9). Death has died in Gaza. Communis Press.
  • Spanish translation
• Omar, A. (2025, September 8). The Anxiety of Liberation. SALVAGE.
• Omar, A. (2025, July 23). “How are you?” in Ramallah—and why hatred may be the last form of love we have left. DEBARTIS.
• Omar, A. (2024, December). Bassem Saad interviews Abdaljawad Omar. Runway Journal, Issue 48: Groundswell, guest Edited by Maya Hodge. Established in 2002, Runway Journal is an open-access digital publishing platform that commissions, cultivates and preserves experimental practices. 
• Omar, A. (2024, September 2). Shock without awe: Zionism and its horror. Radical Philosophy.
• al-Botmeh, S., Farraj, B., Nimer, F., & Omar, A. (2024, March 29). The West Bank: Settler colonial spillover of the Gaza genocide. Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.
• Omar, A. (2023, December 15). Crosshairs. Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal.
• Omar A. (2023, November 27); Can the Palestinian Mourn?. Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal.

Interviews

• Liguori, Pasquale. “The Grammar of Resistance: Rethinking Palestine Beyond Pity and Fear.” MONTHLY REVIEW – AN INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST MAGAZINE. September 1, 2025. You can purchase a copy.
• Angel, Arielle. “Resistance Through a Realist Lens” Palestinian writer Abdaljawad Omar discusses the left’s relationship to Hamas and armed resistance. Jewish Currents. November 5, 2024.
• From Gaza to Beirut: Abdaljawad Omar on the ripple effects of Israel’s attack on Lebanon, Mondoweiss. September 27, 2024.
• Abdaljawad Omar: Resistance vs Terrorism, a Matter of Definitions, Palestine Uncensored. June 24, 2024.
• The ‘Hamas question’ and the Left with Abdaljawad Omar, Mondoweiss. June 10, 2024.
• An Incurable Disease Called Hope’: an interview with Abdaljawad Omar. Article within Material, Issue #2 (2024). This is a great Marxist-Leninist-Maoist journal for contending schools of revolutionary thought. You can purchase a copy here.
• “Turning Grief Into Defiance” Abdaljawad Omar on Resistance & Possibility in Palestine, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism (2023)
• ‘An unyielding will to continue’: An Interview with Abdaljawad Omar on October 7th and the Palestinian Resistance, Ebb Magazine (2023); you can purchase a copy here.

Political analysis – Electronic Intifada & Mondoweiss

• Omar, A. (2025, September 18). Israel moves to embrace its isolation. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, August 8). The war without end in Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, June 25). Zohran Mamdani’s victory marks the end of Israel’s central place in U.S. politics. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, June 24). The ceasefire with Iran reveals the limits of Israel’s power — and its dependence on the U.S. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, June 14). Israel started a war with Iran, but it doesn’t know how it ends. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, June 9). Israel’s gangsters in Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, May 30). The ‘chaos’ of aid distribution in Gaza is not a system failure. The system is designed to fail. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, May 23). Extermination as negotiation: Understanding Israel’s strategy in Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, April 18). Palestinian elites threw a huge party for the opening of a megamall in Ramallah — as bombs ripped through Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, February 6). Trump’s Plan: Ethnic cleansing as fascist ambition. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, January 24). Palestinian joy is a direct challenge to those who would rule over us. And it cannot be contained. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2025, January 17). Gaza ceasefire reveals Israel’s fragility, and the transformative power of resistance. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, December 24). The Politics of Betrayal: Jenin, Abbas, and the hellscape of Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, December 10). The fall of Assad and the ‘Axis of Resistance’? Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, November 27). Ceasefire in Lebanon, and the future of resistance to Israel. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, November 25). The ICC warrants: Palestinian skepticism and the glimpse of justice. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, October 21). It was only their machines: on Yahya Sinwar’s last stand. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, October 3). Israel’s forever war and what comes next. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, September 4). Testing the boundaries for ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, July 31). The real reason Israel is assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and why it won’t stop the resistance. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2024, May 31). The question of Hamas and the left. Mondoweiss. SPANISH VERSION on Vientro Sur. (2024, June 5).
• Omar, A. (2023, November 29).‘Army and Arabs’: truth, play, and illusions in the West Bank. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2023, November 8). Hopeful pathologies in the war for Palestine: a reply to Adam Shatz. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2023, November 3). Could the war in Palestine potentially undermine the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership? Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2023, October 23). Gaza is showing the rest of Palestine the truth of struggle. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2023, October 14). Biden’s rhetoric is reigniting the Question of Palestine. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2023, October 13). How and why Israel’s disinformation campaign is enabling its massacre in Gaza. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2022, July 6). Jenin: the fight over the capacity to resist. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2022, November 16). A decade of a hesitant “We”: A homage to friendship. Mondoweiss.
• Omar, A. (2022, October 26). The politics of slow unbinding. The Electronic Intifada.  
• Omar A. (2022, October 18). The desire for international legitimacy has limited the Palestinian imagination. Mondoweiss.
• Omar A. (2021, July 21). How the Palestinian Authority manages dissent. The Electronic Intifada.

Millennials Art Killing Capitalism Live! – Videos

• Palestine & the Cry Arrested with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!
• The Occupation of Time: Israel’s Plan to Militarily Control Gaza with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!
• Potential Gaza Ceasefire, Palestine Action, & the Meaning of Glastonbury & Zohran Mamdani. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!
• Israel Starts a War with Iran, Israel’s Gang in Gaza, & Aid as a Weapon of War with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!
• Israel’s Strategy of Extermination as Negotiation in Gaza with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!
• We Were Never Part of Their Future: Shameless Power & War as Symptom of Failure with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, April 2025
• The Tufan of Return: Ceasefire & the Disentanglement of Catastrophe & Defeat with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, January 30, 2025
• Palestine & the Politics of Betrayal with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, January 13, 2025
• Palestine, Heroism, and the Post-Heroic Genocidal Machine With Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, October 31, 2024
• US Empire, Israeli Settler Colonialism & “Reconfiguring” the Region? – Fathi Nimer & Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, October 11, 2024
• The Perpetual War: The Israeli Wager on Time with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, September 12, 2024
• 10 months & 100 years Resisting Genocide in Palestine with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, July 28, 2024
• The Question of Hamas and the Left with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, June 10, 2024
• The War on Palestinians Continues with Abdaljawad Omar. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, May 9, 2024
• A Deformed Colonialism? with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, March 24, 2024
• The Gaza War 140 Days In with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, February 26, 2024
• Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the West Bank with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, January 31, 2024
• The Making of Palestinian Resistance with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, January 11, 2024
• The Sniper’s Gaze with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, December 19, 2023
• Resistance and Hope in Palestine with Abdaljawad Omar, Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!, November 21, 2023

Electronic Intifada – videos (Abdaljawad Omar is also a contributor on Electronic Intifada where he gives great analysis)

• Breaking news and analysis on day 418 of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2024)
• Breaking news and analysis on day 285 of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2024)
• How the arc of history bends towards a free Palestine, with Abdaljawad Omar | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• Breaking news and analysis on day 173 of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2024)
• Podcast episode 85: Zionism, Germany, and the politics of debt with Abdaljawad Omar, the Electronic Intifada (2023)
• Breaking news and analysis on day 69 of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• How Israel weaponizes Palestinian masculinity, with Abdaljawad Omar | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• Israel is lying about the number of its casualties in Gaza, with Jon Elmer and Abdaljawad Omar | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• Is Israel’s strategy to flood tunnels feasible? With Jon Elmer and Abdaljawad Omar | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• A look inside Jenin’s guerrilla resistance tactics with Abdaljawad Omar & Jon Elmer | EI Podcast (2023)
• Has the Palestinian Authority pacified resistance in the occupied West Bank? With Abdaljawad Omar | The Electronic Intifada Podcast (2023)
• New generation of resistance does not fear Israel, with Abdaljawad Omar | EI Podcast (2023)

Other video interviews & talks

• Birzeit University Lecturer in Ramallah on Israel’s Expanding War in the West Bank. Drop Site News. July 2025.
• Gangs and the New Aid Regime in Gaza w/ Abdaljawad Omar. Adnan Husain. July 2025.
• Pop songs and viral chants: How anti-Palestinian abuse was normalised in Israel | The Listening Post. Al Jazeera English. July 2025.
• “An even worse collaboration than the one before” w/ Abdaljawad Omar. Makdisi Street. June 2025.
• Abdaljawad Omar and Ajay Parasram outline postcolonial paths to peace via Palestinian liberation. Pretty Heady Stuff Podcast. February 24, 2025.
• The Day After “Phase 1“: What Comes Next for Gaza, Hamas, Israel, and the Future of Palestinian Liberation? Jeremy Scahill speaks to Palestinian analyst Abdaljawad Omar. Drop Site. February 20, 2025.
• The Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Struggle, the Axis of Resistance and the Fragile Ceasefire Deals – Teetering on the Brink of a ‘New Middle East’: A Conversation with Abdaljawad Omar. Palestine Justice Movement. February 19, 2025.
• Gaza Ceasefire Challenges & Future Scenarios in Palestine. Yara Hawari, Abdaljawad Omar. Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. Feb 14, 2025
• Assessing the Aftermath: Gaza, the Ceasefire, and Beyond, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. February 6, 2025.
• عبد الجواد حمايل – هبة بلا تنظيم: الفعل المقاوم كحدث عارض (Protest without Organization: The Resistance Act as an Incident). Muwatin Institute – Birzeit University. 2021 (?) Video with English translation voiceover.
  • The day on which the martyr Muhammad Abu Khdeir was burnt alive was a defining moment, not only because it turned into the beginning of the war that showed the depth of the change and development of the resistance structure in the coastal plain of Gaza, but because the events that took place in 2014 are a long prelude to what will happen in the following year. That is, at the end of the ninth month of 2015, when events continued and intensified so that the resistance act turned into an intense state that quickly acquired the rank of “the uprising” referring to the intensity and new forms of the resistance actions. The uprising did not turn into a massive intifada that included wide groups and layers of the Palestinian society. It did not fail to achieve its political statement rejecting defeat and its political forms; a statement studded with the blood of martyrs, which we can discern from the successive commandments that circled the space of the uprising and its succession of events, and practices that took the form of direct actions from zero distance. The paper seeks to show the relationship between the form of social and political blocs after the demise of the second Intifada, the role of the new production relations in accelerating the process of social atomization, and what this social atomization produced from the transformation of the act of resistance from an organized form linked to various political organizations to an Individual or atomic form. This form takes a social dimension, but it is social at the level of need for the production of the act, and not on a political level that is linked to thinking about the relationship between the act and its political outcomes. In this regard, there are three elements of analysis: the first is related to the form and nature of the political economy in Palestine after the second Intifada, and in particular the penetration and expansion of the Palestinian bureaucracy, with what it means of a utilitarian economic relationship between the bureaucrat and bureaucracy, and between the ruling elites, their social and political vision and their commodification of political impotence, i.e. producing political impotence as a commodity, especially concerning the funders and the colonizer. Second, the paper discusses the economic relationship associated with the inflation of consumption and its class diversity in an effort to give the growing class polarization tangible physical forms that are linked to the locations, patterns and identities formed in the consumption processes. The third element of the analysis will discuss the dynamics of trust as a social concept that plays an important role in the possibility of the emergence of an anti-colonial political bloc and the role of cooperation, censorship and punishment in the disintegration of the social concept of trust, and thus in creating an additional barrier to the rise of political blocs capable of organized action in the Palestinian context. The paper will also address the dynamics of action in its relationship with colonial structures and address the role of fantasy in the production and continuity of the act of resistance; the relationship between this continuity and the incubators of love and trust that appeared through friends and relatives doing joint or successive actions; attempts to suppress the uprising through multiple strategies that evoked arrest and abuse of the resisting body; targeting the homes of the perpetrators as a social price for their acts; and coercion through the creation of a social discourse around security on social media and opening the doors of work permits directed at specific social groups, this aimed at creating a form of Palestinianness and movement control systems. In short, the uprising of individual acts expressed the ability of the resistance actions to appear despite the complex array of obstacles, but its form was symptomatic. The social and political changes have accelerated as a result of containing the strength of the resistance movement in the West Bank after the second Intifada. The acceleration of social atomization through a set of policies, the physical and moral elimination of the resistance movement made it possible for the emergence of a political – class alliance (the neoliberal social movement) based on the commodification of impotence.
• هل تتحمل المقاومة مسؤولية الكارثة في غزة؟ بودكاست جديد مع عبد الجواد حمايل – Shorfat Palestine. November 19, 2024
• The Politics of Resistance with Abdaljawad Omar | Kalam Podcast. November 1, 2024.
• A Century of Ruptures: The History and Practices of Palestinian Resistances, with Abdaljawad Omar | Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers’ Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Caucus. October 11, 2024
• On Martyrdom and Life: Conversation with Palestinian writer Abdaljawad Omar | Palestine Committee Zurich and Kollektiv Doykait. July 7, 2024.
• Palestinian Resistance and the Path to Liberation | People’s Conference for Palestine. May 25, 2024.
• The Martyrdom of Walid Daqqa w/ Rana Barakat and Abdaljawad Omar. The East is a Podcast, May 2024
• Abboud Hamayel interrogates the perpetual state of war Israel imposes on Palestinians, Pretty Heady Stuff podcast, March 17, 2024
• جنون المستعمرة – بودكاست الكرمل مع الباحث عبد الجواد عمر
  الكرمل – AlCarmel (2023)
• A Time of Build-Up: Knowledge-Production Initiatives for Palestine… A Roundtable on the Occasion of the Launch of Maktabat Sabil, September 25, 2023.

Last updated: September 30, 2025