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Palestine Ltd.: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory
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.
- GenresNonfictionEconomics
368 pages, Hardcover
Published July 28, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2017
Great Book! Great Writer!
March 31, 2021
Apparently Israel isn't Marxist enough, but Haddad can work with any country ready to pay good money for his advice.
May 3, 2022
Wow. Toufic is a pure genius and this book is a MUST read! More on it soon! —>
Finally got a chance to finish Palestine Ltd., just in time for the new year. In this eye-opening and important book, Tawfiq Haddad, a friend and fellow SOASian, talks about the international neoliberal peacebuilding and state building efforts the occupied Palestinian Territories has been subjected to since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were backed by Israel and the USA. Tawfik gives ample evidence in his book of how these efforts and the discourse they were based on helped erase the goal of statehood and true freedom from the agenda of those resisting the occupation, while focusing on foreign goals of privatization and consumerism as a way to feign working towards the aforementioned goals. Instead of being created to be a real state for the Palestinians, fighting for and defending their right to self-determination, the PLO was used as a (cheaper alternate) tool to control the West Bank and Gaza through strict security measures which were willingly applied post-Oslo. As Tawfik writes so eloquently, “the colonial dimensions to neoliberal conflict resolution and state building cannot be seen in isolation from larger political and national implications of a divided and weakened Palestinian national movement under continued occupation and de-development.”
This book reminds us to set our priorities straight as fighters for Palestinian liberation, and to forget neoliberal goals of “prosperity”, “privatization” and “economic growth” which are terms used to obfuscate Israel and the West’s control over the Palestinian quest for freedom and statehood. Our dream is to live in a Palestine that provides true freedom, dignity, and the right of self-determination to the Palestinians. We reject policies that help a few domestic and expatriate capitalists and politicians get wealthy at the expense of the rest who get more entrapped, controlled, and neglected.
Thank you for your work, Tawfik. I will definitely be thinking about Palestine Ltd. for a very long time. 🙌🏽
Finally got a chance to finish Palestine Ltd., just in time for the new year. In this eye-opening and important book, Tawfiq Haddad, a friend and fellow SOASian, talks about the international neoliberal peacebuilding and state building efforts the occupied Palestinian Territories has been subjected to since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were backed by Israel and the USA. Tawfik gives ample evidence in his book of how these efforts and the discourse they were based on helped erase the goal of statehood and true freedom from the agenda of those resisting the occupation, while focusing on foreign goals of privatization and consumerism as a way to feign working towards the aforementioned goals. Instead of being created to be a real state for the Palestinians, fighting for and defending their right to self-determination, the PLO was used as a (cheaper alternate) tool to control the West Bank and Gaza through strict security measures which were willingly applied post-Oslo. As Tawfik writes so eloquently, “the colonial dimensions to neoliberal conflict resolution and state building cannot be seen in isolation from larger political and national implications of a divided and weakened Palestinian national movement under continued occupation and de-development.”
This book reminds us to set our priorities straight as fighters for Palestinian liberation, and to forget neoliberal goals of “prosperity”, “privatization” and “economic growth” which are terms used to obfuscate Israel and the West’s control over the Palestinian quest for freedom and statehood. Our dream is to live in a Palestine that provides true freedom, dignity, and the right of self-determination to the Palestinians. We reject policies that help a few domestic and expatriate capitalists and politicians get wealthy at the expense of the rest who get more entrapped, controlled, and neglected.
Thank you for your work, Tawfik. I will definitely be thinking about Palestine Ltd. for a very long time. 🙌🏽
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews