States and regimes tend to focus more on physical and military security than human security and non-traditional threats. Many governments justify increased armament spending based on the possibility of military threats and external invasion. While the possibility of conventional military … Continue reading The Securitization of Everyday Life: Where are the People?
Why, how, and by whom is development denied in Palestine? Why have over US $ 45 billion in international aid since the 1993 Oslo Accords failed to alter the existing skewed and distorted political and economic frameworks, but instead entrenched … Continue reading Political Economy of Palestine: Critical Perspectives
What are the structural shifts needed for the emergence of an emancipatory people-led development strategy for Palestinians? How can donor aid and funding be restructured by Palestinians themselves to bring about a solidarity- (not charity-) based funding landscape? And what … Continue reading Liberation Will Not Be Funded: Alternatives to Donor Dependence
Political economy is concerned with institutions, relations of power, and social conflict and struggle. A key task of political economy is to historicize and (re)politicize economics, as politics and economics are deeply inter-related and reside in (and emerge from) particular … Continue reading Political Economy Of Development In Palestine: A Critical Perspective
When you have more than 70 development professionals from over 30 countries in the same virtual class for two and a half weeks, it’s all too good an opportunity to discuss with them the repercussions of Covid-19 on their professional practices. The views of … Continue reading A Transformation in Development Practices? A Discussion with Professionals
Since the Oslo I Accord was signed in 1993, more than $40bn has been spent by international donors as foreign aid for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. As long-time analysts, we have … Continue reading It’s Time to Rethink the Structure of Palestinian Aid
Lara Friedman, president of FMEP, in conversation with Inès Abdel Razek, the Advocacy Director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, Zayne Abudaka, an economist and private sector development specialist, and Dr. Alaa Tartir, Researcher and Academic Coordinator at the … Continue reading Webinar – Is it Time to Reform International Aid to Palestine?
This talk tackles the consequences of the PA’s security campaigns in both camps from the people’s perspective through a bottom-up ethnographic methodological approach based on sixty in-depth interviews. This talk will conclude by arguing that conducting security reform within a context … Continue reading Securitised Peace: Criminalising Resistance and Entrenching Authoritarianism in Palestine
Médecins Sans Frontières est arrivée dans les territoires occupés à la fin des années 80. les équipes de font face à une série de dilemmes : comment atténuer les conséquences de l’occupation sur les Palestiniens sans avoir le sentiment de … Continue reading Débat Avec Médecins Sans Frontières – Les Humanitaires, Complices De L’occupation ?
This article analyses perceptions of the Palestinian Authority’s post-2007 state-building project—popularly known as ‘Fayyadism’—by assessing academic and practitioner literatures on the topic, and by drawing on the findings of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at two sites in the West Bank: Balata … Continue reading Securitised development and Palestinian authoritarianism under Fayyadism
Since 1993 the international community has invested more than $24 billion in ‘peace and development’ in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). That aid was meant originally to support the Oslo Peace Process through economic development. However, neither peace nor development … Continue reading Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings
Have the ‘good intentions’ of the international community and institutions such as the World Bank hindered progress in countries and territories vulnerable to instability and violence? The case of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) suggests a resounding ‘yes’. Published at … Continue reading Can fragility in Countries be Addressed Outside of Politics?
This paper-based thesis consists of five interlinked chapters/articles that explore dimensions of both the style of governance and the state-building endeavour in the West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, primarily between 2007 and 2013. This governance and state-building project … Continue reading Criminalising Resistance, Entrenching Neoliberalism: The Fayyadist Paradigm in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank
Since 1993 the international community has invested more than $24 billion in ‘peace and development’ in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). That aid was meant originally to support the Oslo Peace Process through economic development. However, neither peace nor development … Continue reading Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings
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 … Continue reading From Food Security to Food Sovereignty without a State: The Case of Palestine
Was bedeutet ausländische militärische Besatzung und Siedlerkolonialismus für eine Wirtschaft? Wie kann die wirtschaftliche Überlegenheit der Kolonialmacht über die Kolonisierten veranschaulicht werden? Ist es unter der Bedingung krasser territorialer und politischer Zersplitterung möglich, die getrennten Wirtschaften von „Bantustans“ zu einer … Continue reading Almosen anstatt Selbstbestimmung
EU policy makers must be puzzled by the conventional wisdom of the aid-development industry and state-building venture that has created and entrenched the following pattern: “the US decides, the World Bank leads, the EU pays, the UN feeds, and Israel … Continue reading Re-Inventing European Aid to Palestine
Five Rules of Thumb: The EU has to reform it politics, before it reforms aid; The EU has to be a player NOT a payer in the peace process; The EU intervention has to be reformed regardless of Kerry’s failure … Continue reading The EU As Payer Not Player: Subsidising Occupation?
In the post-Arafat era, dramatic changes took place in the Palestinian polity and system of governance. These transformations have created a new style of governance and state-building in the West Bank which can be called, Fayyadism. This home-grown even though it is externally … Continue reading Failing Aid: Towards a Viable Resistance Economy Model
John Kerry has called his plan ‘a new model for development’. Tony Blair has claimed it is unique in history. However, I am afraid that the plan (and the whole development industry in the occupied territories) will remain like teenage … Continue reading Kerry’s Billions: US Economic Plans for Palestine Place Investment Over Freedom
Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority two decades ago after signing the Oslo Peace Accords, the nascent Palestinian governing body adopted a neoliberal economic agenda and aimed to transform Palestine into Singapore according to the official narrative. The adoption … Continue reading Wanted Alternative: Challenging Oslo Economic Neo-liberalism and Advancing Resistance Economy
Alaa Tartir, Program Director of Al-Shabaka, Engaged Scholar, Global Citizen 