The theme of the 2004 Human Development Report was “empowerment”. Ten years later, the same theme has been chosen again, with a view to taking stock of developments on the path to Palestinian empowerment since that time, and taking into account the continued pertinence of this theme in the Palestinian context.

At its core, empowerment is about the concept of power, which, while subjective, does manifest itself politically, economically, and socio-culturally. The Palestinian context is different from that of most states. For, apart from the formidable challenges which any meaningful empowerment agenda elsewhere in the world has to contend with, the task is rendered virtually impossible in Palestine, where the Israeli occupation inherently presents a dominant force for disempowerment – both directly, given its oppressive nature and by retarding and vastly complicating any national effort aimed at attaining however modest a degree of empowerment that can be attained in spite of the occupation.