Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings

Wildeman, Jeremy; Tartir, Alaa

doi:10.1080/13629395.2014.967014

Cited by 32 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The PA strives to exercise territorial control to a greater extent, but its ability is limited primarily by the interventions of Israel and also by power struggles between the Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas (Allen ; Berda ). Meanwhile, the PA, Israel, and foreign donors all seek to exercise elements of ‘extra‐territorial’ power (Alatout : 603): that is, forming and directing populations that live in and travel through the West Bank, influencing norms of thought and behaviour, and shaping the quality of life there (Allen ; De Cesari ; Wildeman & Tartir ).…”

Section: Refusing Amidst Fragmented Sovereigntymentioning

confidence: 99%

Water, power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village

McKee

2019

Royal Anthropological Inst

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This article interprets the meanings and motivations of refusal to pay water bills within a context of fragmented sovereignty. Residents of a village in the occupied Palestinian West Bank call for solutions to water shortages and failed infrastructure, but do so amidst capricious power, where would‐be sovereigns evade accountability. Lacking avenues for direct engagement with authorities, residents speak in generalized ethical terms of their legitimate water claims, and they resort to bill refusal. Setting villagers’ bill refusals within the broader set of interactions between would‐be sovereigns and subjects, this article contributes to anthropological scholarship on refusal by demonstrating how it can be a way of not only dismantling state power, but also summoning a responsible sovereign. Furthermore, it highlights how common dilemmas faced by refusers – dismissal and co‐optation – can be exacerbated by the same evasive accountability against which they protest.

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Section: Refusing Amidst Fragmented Sovereigntymentioning

confidence: 99%

Water, power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village

McKee

2019

Royal Anthropological Inst

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“…In their thorough study of foreign aid and international donors in the Palestinian context, Jeremy Wildeman and AlaaTartir point out that the deeper aims and "normative values" behind this liberal development model under occupation have been concerned with "open markets, economic integration with Israel, regional economic integration, financial liberalization, 'good governance' and support for 'democracy.'" Therefore, the authors go on to conclude that the relationship between aid and development within the current framework is extremely problematic in the Palestinian situation since aid and liberal approaches have failed to "stimulate the peace process" (Wildeman and Tartir 2014). Instead of facilitating Palestinian independence and national rights, Palestinian dependency on foreign assistance has increased under this problematic and ineffective development framework.…”

Section: Civil Society Transformation: From National Resistance To Dementioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Social Structures in the Palestinian Case: From National Resistance to Depoliticization and Liberalization

Alashqar

2018

Social Sciences

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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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“…The interviews aimed to explore the nature of relations (bonds and ties) between NGO recipients and (locally active, bigger) foreign donor organizations by means of qualitative methods. Building on earlier research that mapped local perceptions of foreign aid in Palestine (Paragi 2012a;Said 2005;Springer 2015;Wildeman and Tartir 2014), its core objective was to understand the personal-level feelings and human experiences attached to or stemming from daily interactions between organizations (i.e., between the NGO recipient and the donor organization). Altogether, 22 people were interviewed (9 women and 13 men; 12 people were in the West Bank and were identified as WB1-WB12, and 10 people were in the Gaza Strip and were identified as GS1-GS10).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, investigating perceptions from the recipient perspective has concerned, among other examples, the Rwandan experience of having their "pain stolen" by a Canadian "audience" after the genocide (Razack 2007); the ambiguous effects of an aid project aiming to reduce child labor in the name of corporate social responsibility in Pakistan (Khan, Westwood, and Boje 2011); and the experiences of the local civil society with respect to the realities of "partnership" in Uganda (Contu and Girei 2014). With reference to the Palestinian context, studies have investigated not only recipient perceptions of and experiences with foreign aid in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Said 2005;Wildeman and Alaa 2014;Springer 2015) but even feminist perspectives, particularly by exploring the painful fund-raising experiences of Bedouin women living in Israel (ShalhoubKevorkian et al 2014). Much of this literature has emphasized the triumph of donor priorities over recipient interests by highlighting controversial effects of aid on recipient organizations and beneficiaries.…”

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confidence: 99%

Contemporary Gifts: Solidarity, Compassion, Equality, Sacrifice, and Reciprocity from an NGO Perspective

Paragi¹

2017

Current Anthropology

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This study explores how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the recipient end of the foreign aid relationship perceive partnership and cooperation with donors. Empirical research in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has revealed that relations established by foreign aid resemble archaic gift exchange in the extent to which both foreign aid and gift exchange evoke concepts of solidarity, equality, reciprocity, and related power dynamics. The results of the research indicate that return-gifts exist even in financially unreciprocated foreign aid relations. Recipients return the "contemporary gifts" by providing a special material (documenting and sharing stories of suffering or poverty) to the donor, which leads to the constant circulation of the gift ("aid for pain" and "pain for aid," to put it bluntly). The study draws attention to the complex social and political factors that local NGOs need to navigate to secure contemporary gifts, while it may also strengthen the validity of critical theories concerning the missing rationale behind the official aims of foreign aid.The senses of compassion, pity, and solidarity are different but powerful forces guiding social relations between individuals, organizations, societies, and states. These emotions not only explain political actions (e.g., revolutionary motives; Arendt 1990 [1963]) but also entail benevolent gifts, foreign aid included. Giving, however, is a phenomenon that is too complex to occur without ambiguities and unintended consequences. Inspired by theories on gift, reciprocity, and social exchange (Blau 2003(Blau [1964Emerson 1976;Gouldner 1960;Homans 1961; Mauss 2002Mauss [1925; Sahlins 1972), a huge body of literature has focused on the philosophy of the gift (Derrida 1994(Derrida [1992Hénaff 2010a;Osteen 2002;Pyyhtinen 2014;Schrift 1997), on its role in social and economic relations in general (Bruni and Zamagni 2013; Kolm et al. 2006), and on its role in international relations in particular (Baldwin 1985;Furia 2015;Hattori 2001;Kapoor 2008;Karagiannis 2004;Keohane 1986).Foreign aid reflects, among other values, solidarity and compassion with the less fortunate within the international community.1 It aspires to connect quite distinct worlds: the developed and the developing, the peaceful and the conflictridden, and the democratic and the nondemocratic. Civil society actors (e.g., local and international nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] and grassroots organizations) play a prominent role in this process (Anheier 2014). However, the power of solidarity lies at least as much in exclusion from as in inclusion in relations established by gifts (Komter 2005). As emphasized by McMillan and Chavis (1986:20), "as the force of sense of community drives people closer together, it also seems to be polarizing and separating subgroups of people." Foreign aid, whether financing a macro-level program or a micro-level project implemented by an NGO, is not an exception. Modern gifts or their absence influence the distribution of goods in society and hence influence j...

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Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings

Cited by 32 publications

References 11 publications

Water, power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village

Water, power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village

The Politics of Social Structures in the Palestinian Case: From National Resistance to Depoliticization and Liberalization

Contemporary Gifts: Solidarity, Compassion, Equality, Sacrifice, and Reciprocity from an NGO Perspective

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