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Neoliberalism and the Contradictions of the Palestinian Authority’s State-building Programme

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Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy

Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

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Abstract

When the modern Palestinian national liberation movement emerged in the mid-1960s, its primary aim was to liberate ‘the land and the people’ (‘tahrir al ard wal insan’) from Zionist settler colonialism. Today, with colonization proceeding relentlessly and with Palestinians still dispersed around the world — half of them refugees and mostly deprived of national, civil and human rights — this aim sounds like an embarrassing echo of a distant past.1 That the strategy of armed resistance has failed to deliver any of its goals is arguably clear. Likewise, liberating a fraction of historic Palestine by diplomacy has failed, as proven by the futile negotiations since the Oslo peace process began. By 2011, 20 years after the Madrid Peace Conference, the Palestinian leadership had neither a popular, nor a viable strategy to end Israel’s occupation. Instead, it is faced with an unprecedented legitimacy crisis and internecine political divisions. Amidst this crisis, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has embraced a new strategy to achieve statehood as outlined in its 2009 programme entitled Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State. Enjoying growing international endorsement and professed domestic support, the programme seeks to garner international recognition for a state based on the PA’s progress in neoliberal institution building and good governance.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Raja Khalidi
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  2. Sobhi Samour
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kenyon Institute (Council for British Research in the Levant), East Jerusalem, Israel

    Mandy Turner (Director) (Director)

  2. University of Oxford, UK

    Omar Shweiki (Researcher) (Researcher)

Copyright information

© 2014 Raja Khalidi and Sobhi Samour

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Khalidi, R., Samour, S. (2014). Neoliberalism and the Contradictions of the Palestinian Authority’s State-building Programme. In: Turner, M., Shweiki, O. (eds) Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137448750_10

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