Aid and Development in Palestine: Anything, but Linear Relationship, Can Aid Contribute to Development

The paper argues that Palestinians must move away from the current context toward a paradigm that understands development as means to realizing rights, freedoms, and self-determination. It is essential to move beyond the technocratic and apolitical understanding of the development process toward recognizing the power asymmetry and colonial dominance. A genuine bottom-up participatory citizen-centric development model should be prioritized. The status quo serves to normalize and maintain the Israeli occupation by ignoring the political roots of Palestinian poverty.  A new Palestinian agenda for a resistance economy can be informed by indigenous and international experiences. The economic vision must be to reinforce self-sustainability and socioeconomic and cultural resistance above artificial economic growth. The PA should demand accountability from donors and even tax their operations and pursue more effective lobbying tactics.