117: The Palestinian insider who thinks Hamas is losing, with Samer Sinijlawi

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Longtime Fatah activist Samer Sinijlawi spent five years in prison during the First Intifada and then rose up the Fatah ranks. He eventually came to lead Palestinian outreach to Israelis. Sinijlawi was one of the rare Palestinian activists to explicitly condemn the October 7 massacre. He even visited Israeli victims. In the wake of the Gaza war, he now calls for a new and deep dialogue with Israelis — and is convinced Palestinian society can move on from the regimes of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas. For example, in recent local elections -- including in Gaza -- opposition and technocratic lists that Sinijlawi helped advance sidelined both radical Islamist forces and Abbas's faction within Fatah. Is a new Palestinian political reality taking shape in the wake of the Gaza war?

This episode was sponsored by an individual who asked to remain anonymous, but asked us to share this message: Beit Issie Shapiro is Israel’s leading innovator in the field of disabilities, developing lifechanging services and solutions for children and adults with disabilities, including injured soldiers, as well as their families. Each year, they impact over half a million people in Israel and around the world through direct services, sharing knowledge, and training professionals. For more than 45 years, they’ve been creating solutions where none existed, opening doors for individuals and helping build a more inclusive society for all. You can learn more at https://beitissie.org.il/eng.

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to a new episode of Ask Haviv Anything. This is going to be a very interesting one. We have Samil Sintjali here, a Palestinian political activist, chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund. He has a BA in Business Administration from Birzait, a master's in conflict resolution
0:21.6	from the Hebrew University. And he's a man who sat in prison for five years during the first
0:27.6	intifada, and after his release was elected, head of the Fatah youth, long-time Fatah activist,
0:33.5	head of international and Israeli relations on the Fatah Supreme Committee. We're going to get into some of the really interesting things that Samir has to say about this
0:43.3	particular moment. His op-heads have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, LaFiguero, Toronto Star,
0:50.0	The Atlantic, and in Israeli papers in Hebrew, like Israelayom. Before we get into it, I want to tell
0:55.7	you this episode was sponsored by an individual who asked to remain anonymous, but asked me to
1:00.8	share this message. Beit Isi Shapiro is Israel's leading innovator in the field of disabilities,
1:08.8	developing life-changing services and solutions for children and
1:12.4	adults with disabilities, including injured soldiers and their families. Each year, they impact
1:18.9	over half a million people in Israel and around the world through direct services, sharing
1:23.6	knowledge, training professionals. For more than 45 years, they've been creating
1:27.9	solutions where none existed, opening doors for individuals and helping build a more
1:32.9	inclusive society for all. You can learn more at baitisi.org.org.i-l. That's b-e-s-s-s-s-s-I-E.
1:43.2	And if you add a slash-en-G at the-E dot org.I-L.
1:45.0	And if you add a slash E-N-G at the end, you'll get the English website.
1:49.0	We're going to put that link in the show notes.
1:50.9	Thank you to the sponsor.
1:52.5	It is an absolutely marvelous cause.
1:55.1	Beatizzi Shapiro is well-known among Israelis.
1:57.3	I also would like everyone to join our Patreon and subscribe to our Substack. If you like
2:02.8	what we do here, if you're interested in asking the questions that guide the topics that we
	...

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