International Assistance to the Palestinians after Oslo


Book Description

Why has the West disbursed vertiginous sums of money to the Palestinians after Oslo? What have been donors’ motivations and above all the political consequences of the funds spent? Based on original academic research and first hand evidence, this book examines the interface between diplomacy and international assistance during the Oslo years and the intifada. By exploring the politics of international aid to the Palestinians between the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the death of President Arafat (1994-2004), Anne Le More reveals the reasons why foreign aid was not more beneficial, uncovering a context where funds from the international community was poured into the occupied Palestinian territory as a substitute for its lack of real diplomatic engagement. This book also highlights the perverse effects such huge amounts of money has had on the Palestinian population and territory, on Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, and not least on the conflict itself, particularly the prospect of its resolution along a two-state paradigm. International Assistance to the Palestinians after Oslo gives a unique narrative chronology that makes this complex story easy to understand. These features make this book a classic read for both scholars and practitioners, with lessons to be learned beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict




Political Economy of Palestine


Book Description

This book explores the political economy of Palestine through critical, interdisciplinary, and decolonial perspectives, underscoring that an approach to economics that does not consider the political—a de-politicized economics—is inadequate to understanding the situation in occupied Palestine. A critical interdisciplinary approach to political economy challenges prevailing neoliberal logics and structures that reproduce racial capitalism, and explores how the political economy of occupied Palestine is shaped by processes of accumulation by exploitation and dispossession from both Israel and global business, as well as from Palestinian elites. A decolonial approach to Palestinian political economy foregrounds struggles against neoliberal and settler colonial policies and institutions, and aids in the de-fragmentation of Palestinian life, land, and political economy that the Oslo Accords perpetuated, but whose histories of de-development over all of Palestine can be traced back for over a century. The chapters in this book offer an in-depth contextualization of the Palestinian political economy, analyze the political economy of integration, fragmentation, and inequality, and explore and problematize multiple sectors and themes of political economy in the absence of sovereignty.




Delivering Aid Without Government


Book Description

In a fragile and conflict-ridden context such as the Gaza Strip, where the de facto Hamas government faces isolation and lacks international recognition, the provision of aid and development schemes challenges donors and CSOs delivering services to Palestinians. This volume examines how international donors influenced the reconstruction and recovery policy agenda as well as its implementation. Moreover, as a result of the no-contact policy, recovery and reconstruction schemes were delivered with limited involvement from the de facto Hamas government, raising questions about the efficacy of the “governance without government” concept. This book examines the dynamics and the impact of international donors’ financing of Civil Society Organizations that were involved in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. It expands on the existing analysis of transnational aid actors’ influence found in the public policy literature while contributing to our understanding of the concrete, and more specific, impact of international donors’ financing on the livelihoods of the Palestinian people.




Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground


Book Description

This volume reviews the lessons that can be drawn from external funding for the Israeli-Palestinian peace and reconstruction process over the last decade. What are the implications —for Palestinians, Israelis, and international actors —of this experience in light of plans for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip? What are the realistic possibilities for a viable Palestinian state? What are the responsibilities, opportunities, and constraints for external actors?A major aspect of the last decade has been the three-way relationship between aid, diplomacy, and "facts on the ground" during one of the most difficult and frustrating periods in the history of the Middle East. This book offers analyses of the relationship between aid and diplomacy over this period and in particular the role that external assistance has played — and could now play —in supporting peace strategies.Aimed at senior policymakers, diplomats, donors, and academics involved in the peace and reconstruction process in the West Bank and Gaza, Aid, Diplomacy, and Facts on the Ground will also provide lessons for those involved in similar processes in other regions. Contributors include Yossi Alpher (Bitter Lemons), Geoffrey Aronson (Foundation for Middle East Peace), Christian Berger (External Relations Directorate General, EC), Rex Brynen (McGill University), Claude Bruderlein (Harvard University), Larry Garber (former USAID Mission Director, Jerusalem), Eyad El Sarraj (Gaza Community and Mental Health Hospital), Jeff Halper (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), Mustaq Khan (SOAS), Karma Nabulsi (Nuffield College, Oxford University), Harish Parvathaneni (UNRWA, Gaza), Nigel Roberts (World Bank, Jerusalem), Sarah Roy (Harvard University), Nader Said (Birzeit University), David Shearer (OCHA, Jerusalem), and Jimmy Weinblatt (Ben Gurion University).




Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords


Book Description

This work gives an internal perspective on Palestinian politics viewing political patterns from the Palestinian point of view rather than through the Arab-Israeli conflict. It presents the meaning of state-building and self-reliance as Palestinians have understood them between 1993 and 2002.




Palestine Ltd.


Book Description

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been the subject of extensive international peacebuilding and statebuilding efforts coordinated by Western donor states and international finance institutions. Despite their failure to yield peace or Palestinian statehood, the role of these organisations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is generally overlooked owing to their depiction as tertiary actors engaged in technical missions. In Palestine Ltd., Toufic Haddad explores how neoliberal frameworks have shaped and informed the common understandings of international, Israeli and Palestinian interactions throughout the Oslo peace process. Drawing upon more than 20 years of policy literature, field-based interviews and recently declassified or leaked documents, he details how these frameworks have led to struggles over influencing Palestinian political and economic behaviour, and attempts to mould the class character of Palestinian society and its leadership. A dystopian vision of Palestine emerges as the by-product of this complex asymmetrical interaction, where nationalism, neo-colonialism and `disaster capitalism' both intersect and diverge. This book is essential for students and scholars interested in Middle East Studies, Arab-Israeli politics and international development.




The Palestinian Economy and the Oslo Process


Book Description

The foundations for a viable, self-sustaining Palestinian economy have not emerged since the start of the Oslo peace process. Economic conditions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have deteriorated markedly, leaving the Palestinian economy weaker now than it was in 1967 when measured against the advances made by other states in the region.The reasons for Palestinian economic decline are many but turn on one key issue: Israeli closure policy. Closure restricts the movement of labor and goods and distorts rational economic activity. Now a permanent feature of the local economy, closure has resulted in the physical and economic separation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and their separation from Israel, high unemployment, permanent unemployment for a growing segment of the labor force, a doubling of poverty levels, increasing child labor, constrained trade relations, and a growing need for relief and social assistance among Palestinians. Closure has devastated Palestinian economic growth and reform and has made it increasingly difficult for people to meet their basic needs. If closure continues to be enforced, the economic and political changes promised by the Oslo agreements and now so desperately needed in the West Bank and Gaza will not be possible




U. S. Security Assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA)


Book Description

Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Background and Overview: Oslo-Era Security Assistance; Backslides and Delays in Reform: 2000-2007; USSC/INL Mission: 2007-2010; Future Prospects; (3) PA Security Org.; (4) How U.S. Efforts are Coordinated: U.S. Training Assistance to PA Forces: Forces Being Trained; Trainee Recruitment and Vetting; Substance of Training; U.S. Equipment and Facilities Assistance; (5) Deployment of U.S.-Sponsored, JIPTC-Trained PA Forces: Jenin, Hebron, Qalqilya, and Other Key Areas; During the Gaza Conflict; Assessing the Impact of U.S. Assistance; (6) Criminal Justice Sector Reform: The ¿Jenin Pilot Program¿ and Other U.S. and Internat. Efforts; (7) The Road Ahead: Challenges and Obstacles; (8) Options for Congress







U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians


Book Description

Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Overview and Recent Developments; (3) Types of U.S. Bilateral Aid to the Palestinians: Project Assistance Through USAID; Types of Funding Programs; Vetting Require. and Procedures; Direct Assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA); U.S. Security Assistance to the PA; (4) U.S. Contributions to UNRWA; (5) The $900 Million U.S. Pledge; Hamas¿s Role in a ¿Unity Gov¿t.; International Pledges and the Gaza Reconstruction Effort; (6) Proposed FY 2010 Appropriations; (7) Factors in Determining Future Aid: Effectiveness of U.S. Assistance in Strengthening the PA in the West Bank; Economic Development and International Donor Assistance; Hamas and a ¿Unity Gov¿t.¿?; Questions Regarding a Two-State Solution. Charts and tables.