This paper will, in a first part, retrace the evolutions of the Palestinian agricultural sector since the end of the 1970’s. We will then try and identify the main actors and debates in the Palestinian context. The last part will disentangle the links between agriculture, national struggle and collective mobilization. We will argue that the Palestinian agricultural sector and all the associated structural deficiencies have been mainly shaped by external actors, including the occupying force mainly since 1967. While the first ersatz of a national authority was put in place, it also failed in mobilizing resources and strategies to put agriculture at the heart of a Palestinian state. In fact, just the contrary.

Co-authored with Caroline Abu Sa’da, Paper presented at “Developing Agriculture, Cultivating Sovereignty? A cross-study of agricultural development and political mobilizations in the Arab Middle-East (1940–2014)”, Dr. Caroline Abu-Sada and Prof. Benoît Challand, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 6-8 November 2014. Click here for additional information.