The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies have released the 54-55th double issue (Autumn 2025-Winter 2026) of the quarterly peer-reviewed journal Omran, dedicated to the social sciences. This special issue on “Israeli Settlements in the West Bank,” includes an introduction by guest editors, Raja Khalidi and Ayat Hamdan, in addition to five studies and two reports: “The Timeline, Components, and Governing Structure of Israel’s West Bank Settlement Project” by Walid Habbas and Anmar Rafeedie; “The Cost of Israeli Settlement on the Palestinian People” by Mahmoud Elkhafif, Raja Khalidi and Tareq Sadeq; “Israeli Industrial Zones in the West Bank: Economic Impact Study” by Walid Habbas & Jumana Janazreh; “Pastoral Settlement: Policies to Combat the Latest Models of Settlement and Economic Exploitation” by Jumana Janazreh; “The Impact of Settlement Expansion on Jerusalem Villages: Demographic and Economic Transformations in Biddu, Beit Iksa, Ar-Ram and Kufr Aqab” by Anmar Rafeedie and Malakeh Abdellatif; “The Cost of Closure: Occupation Checkpoints in the North and Central West Bank since 7 October” by Tareq Sadeq and Ahmad Alawneh; and “From Poverty to Exploitation: The Motivations and Consequences of Palestinian Women Working in Israeli Settlements” by Wafaa Albitawi.
The issue also includes an article titled “Localization of Humanitarian Action in Gaza as a Field Imperative, Not an Institutional Choice” by Ghassan Elkahlout, as well as Thaer Deeb’s translation of Mark Granovetter’s “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness”. The Book Reviews section features Khatri Elayachi’s review of The Fundamental Concept and Technology of Artificial Intelligence and its Evolution: From Computational Models to Machine Learning by Ghazza Abderrazzak; alongside Jasim Bani Oraba’s review of Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf: State-Building and National Identity in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE by Alanoud al-Sharekh and Courtney Freer. The issue concludes with five previews of recent publications, prepared by the editorial board.
