The State of Palestine: A critical analysis

The Palestinian national movement reached a dead end and came close to disintegration at the beginningof the present century. This critical analysis of internal Palestinian politics in the West Bank traces the re-emergence of the Palestinian Authority's established elite in the aftermath of the failed unity government and examines the main security and economic agendas pursued by them during that period. Based on extensive field research interviews and participant observation undertaken across several sites in Nablus and the surrounding area, it provides a bottom-up#x9D; interpretation of the Palestinian Authority's agenda and challenges the popular interpretation that its governance represents the only realistic path to Palestinian independence. As the first major account of the Palestinian Authority's political agenda since the collapse of the unity government this book offers a unique explanation for the failure to bring a Palestinian state into being and challenges assumptions within the existing literature by addressing the apparent incoherence between mainstream debates on Palestine and the reality of conditions there. This book is a key addition to students and scholars interested in Politics, Middle-Eastern Studies, and International Relations.

Cover -- Half Title -- Endorsement -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- Background to this discussion -- Data collection -- The city of Nablus -- Villages in Area 'C' -- Balata Camp -- Findings -- Overview of the chapters -- A note on methodology -- Notes -- 2 The 'state' and Palestine -- Statebuilding, not stateformation -- Peacebuilding and liberalism -- After the Cold War -- Good governance and security -- The Palestinian context -- The Oslo process in Palestine -- Class structure -- The PA -- Economic torpor -- Influence from outside -- The impact of foreign aid -- Neoliberalism in Palestine -- Impact on the security apparatus -- The alignment of forces -- War of position -- 3 The fragmentation of Palestine -- Zionism's promise unfulfilled -- Israel and globalisation -- The First Intifada -- Occupation policy -- The Palestinian backdrop to negotiations -- Uprising -- Divisions -- The Oslo process -- The birth of a bully -- The Palestinian elites -- The faÃade of peace dividends -- Crony capitalism -- Globalisation of the mid-.level elites -- Notes -- 4 Making plans -- The Second Intifada: four forms of coercion -- Spatial violence -- Kinetic violence -- Systemic violence -- Political violence -- Palestinian responses to the violence -- Disengagement -- Prison -- Rebranding the occupation in the West Bank -- Statebuilding -- 'Statebuilding' strategy -- Foreign agenda -- The envelope -- Notes -- 5 Palestinian authoritarianism -- Contradictory views on security and policing in Palestine -- Background on PA security services -- Culture and context of Palestine's security forces -- The schism and background on Hamas' rise -- Suppressing Nablus -- The meaning of the violence -- Notes -- 6 The 'State of Palestine'