Security, Cooptation and Resistance: Peacebuilding-as-Fragmentation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

The Peace Process was overseen by international donors and agencies which supported two positions in contradiction: the Israeli demand for security first and the construction of Palestinian institutions and the socio-economic development within the Oslo framework. The State-building was prioritised. The article outlines how the Palestinian state building process was carried out, with a focus on political economy. The Palestinian economy in fact was born with the following main characteristics: high dependency on Israeli economy and policies justified as security measures (i.e. customs and tax); high dependency on foreign aid; creation of the most open economy in the Arab world, following the notion of liberal peace and the idea that a free market economy would have brought along stability (on this: Richmond and Mitchell 2012). Relevant to notice that the insistence on the promotion of the private sector and on the open market, did not bring economic prosperity, also due to the application of these notions overlooking the settler-colonial context, practices and policies enforced in the territories by Israel. Moreover, the settler-colonial context within which the Palestinian economy is encapsulated is in open contradiction with the notion of free movement of goods and people.