This article examines the role of Palestinian civil society organizations in resistance struggles against Israeli military occupation in the 1970s and 1980s. The research focuses on the civil society transformation and shift from national resistance in the politically motivated framework of Israeli-Palestinian conflict of the 1970s and 1980s to internal and depoliticized processes in the 1990s. The overall purpose of this study is to provide knowledge about the role of civil society organizations in Gaza and the West Bank in the Palestinian national struggle and promote a deeper understanding of the changing role of Palestinian civil society following the Oslo peace process in the 1990s. The research methods are based on a supportive and integrated combination of theory and field research including interviews with civil society and academic representatives. The main findings and conclusions suggest that the transformation of Palestinian nationalist and secular grassroots organizations and the shift towards depoliticization and liberalization in the 1990s is the result of the Oslo peace process and the subsequent creation of a Palestinian "liberal civil society" in response to the requirements of international donors and their liberalization agenda.

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This entry provides a critical review of civil society's relationship with peacebuilding. It assesses both aspects concerning the negative and positive contributions of civil society to peacebuilding and conflict-torn societies. Drawing on extensive research and supporting examples, the analysis suggests clearly that civil society actors and organizations have the power to support peacebuilding processes. However, as this study also indicates, civil society players can play a negative role by contributing to conflict and undermining peacebuilding prospects. In addition, this entry ends with key observations at the practice and research level in the area of civil society peacebuilding. These key observations highlight significant issues, including (a) the lack of agreed civil society concepts and the contradictory frameworks of civil society resistance and liberal civil society; (b) the contention of peacebuilding definitions in theory and practice; (c) the increasing policy recognition of the important role of civil society local actors in conflict and peacebuilding processes; (d) the growing dilemmas in engaging with conflict situations and armed groups by civil society organizations; and (e) the centrality of the negative and positive roles of civil society in understanding the relationship between civil society and peacebuilding. This entry proposes a serious consideration of these policy and research observations within the broader context of conceptualizing and improving the practice of civil society peacebuilding.

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