The Palestinian liberation struggle confronts a sustained epistemic assault that seeks to erase its history, memory, and legitimacy, compounding the impacts of military occupation and political fragmentation. In response, this paper introduces the Knowledge Encircling Lab (KEL) for the Roots of the Palestinian Cause as a strategic intellectual intervention aimed at transforming the nature of resistance. It argues that the Palestinian movement must evolve from reactive opposition to proactive, knowledge-driven resistance through the systematic generation, curation, and deployment of decolonised knowledge.
The paper conceptualises knowledge encircling as a holistic, participatory, and applied methodology that connects historical, legal, cultural, psychological, and economic dimensions of the struggle. Grounded in the principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and the RADAR framework (Results, Approach, Deployment, Assessment, Review), KEL is designed as a dynamic, cross-disciplinary lab that bridges the gap between theory and praxis. It proposes a structured knowledge ecosystem comprising a Digital Palestinian Knowledge Commons, a Strategic Intelligence Unit, a Sumud Resilience Framework, and decentralised global solidarity networks.
Through a case analysis of Israeli knowledge colonisation in Africa, the paper demonstrates how KEL can be applied to counter misinformation, reclaim narrative sovereignty, and rebuild international solidarity. The study further contends that institutionalising Strategic Knowledge Management (SKM) is essential to weaponising knowledge across diplomatic, legal, economic, and psychological fronts, thereby accelerating the path to liberation.
Ultimately, this paper posits that in an age of information warfare, mastery of knowledge is not optional but imperative for liberation. KEL represents a paradigm shift—from fragmented resistance to an organised, foresighted, and community-centred epistemic movement capable of enduring, advocating, and prevailing in the long struggle for justice and return.