Palestinian NGOs’ Changed Work Dynamics: Before, During, and beyond the Oslo Process

Abstract

Based on data collected from interviews with 41 Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations (PNGOs) this article will show how they endured the dramatic structural changes that occurred with the advent of the Oslo process and consequently have changed the work dynamics of the PNGO sector in a fundamental manner, and thereby negatively affecting the way society at large and in this case, PNGOs work for the gratification of communities. We theorize around the PNGO’s own descriptions which in detail informs how earlier significant voluntary work in territories under Israeli occupation transformed through an NGOization process leading to professionalization and donor dependence of PNGOs.

Key Words:

• Civil Society
• Communities
• International aid
• Palestinian NGOs
• Structural changes

Acknowledgement

This article is linked to and emanates from the Swedish Research Council-funded research project, Understanding the Rationales of Donor-funded Civil Society in Developing Countries: A game theory approach.

Notes

1 Tariq Dana (2015a) The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society: Key Paradigm Shifts, Middle East Critique, 24(2), pp. 191-201; Idem (2015b) The symbiosis between Palestinian ‘Fayyadism’ and Israeli ‘economic peace’: The political economy of capitalist peace in the context of colonialization, Conflict, Security & Development, 15(5), pp. 455-477; and Rema Hammami (2000) Palestinian NGOs since Oslo: From NGO politics to social movements?, Middle East Report, Spring, pp. 16–27, 48.

2 Nichole Tocci, The European Union, Civil Society and Conflict: An analytical framework, in Nichole Tocci, ed., The European Union, Civil Society and Conflict (London: Routledge), pp. 1-27.

3 Mona Atia & Chaterine E. Herrold (2018) Governing Through Patronage: The Rise of NGO and the Fall of Civil Society in Palestine and Morocco, Voluntas, 29, pp. 1044-1064; Sari Hanafi & Linda Tabar (2003) The Intifada and the Aid Industry: The Impact of the New Liberal Agenda on the Palestinian NGOs, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 23(1&2), pp. 205-214; Dana, Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society.

4 Mandy Turner (2006) Building Democracy in Palestine: Liberal Peace Theory and the Election of Hamas, Democratization, 13(5), p. 744.

5 Atia & Herrold, Governing Through Patronage.

6 See also Sari Hanafi (2010) Framing Arab socio-political space: state governmentality, governance and non­institutional protestation, Contemporary Arab Affairs, 3(2), 148-162.

7 Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society.

8 Ibid; and Turner, Building Democracy in Palestine, p. 744; Nigel Parson (2005) The Politics of the Palestinian Authority: From Oslo to Al Aqsa (New York and London: Routledge).

9 One important exception is the study by Mona Atia & Chaterine E. Herrold (2018) Governing Through Patronage.

10 Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society.

11 Sarah Babb (2013) The Washington Consensus as Transnational Policy Paradigm: Its Origins, Trajectory and Likely Successor, Review of International Political Economy, 20(3), pp. 268-297; Dani Rodrik (2006) Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion? Journal of Economic Literature, XLIV, pp. 973-987.

12 Michael Bratton (1989) The politics of government-NGO relations in Africa. In: World Development, 17, pp. 69–587

13 Rodrik, Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion?

14 Nicola Banks, David Hulme & Michael Edward (2015) NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited; Daniel J. Smith (2010) Corruption, NGOs, and Development in Nigeria, Third World Quarterly, 2010, 31(2), pp. 243-258.

15 David Chandler (2015) Resilience and the ‘everyday’: beyond the paradox of ‘liberal peace’, Review of International Studies, 41(1), pp. 27-48; Hanna Leonardsson & Gustav Rudd (2015) The ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding: a literature review of effective and emancipatory local peacebuilding, Third World Quarterly, 36(5), pp. 825-839.

16 Oliver P. Richmond & Jason Franks (2009) Liberal Peace Transitions. Between Statebuilding and Peacebuilding (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press); Tariq Dana (2014) Disconnecting civil society from its historical extension: NGOs and neoliberalism in Palestine. In Saul Takahashi, ed., Human rights, human security, and state security: The Intersection (Santa Barbara/Denver/Oxford: Praeger), pp. 117-138; Jamil Hilal (2015) Rethinking Palestine: Settler-colonialism, neo-liberalism and individualism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Contemporary Arab Affairs, 8 (3), pp. 351–362; Raja Khalidi & Soubji Samour (2011) Neoliberalism as liberation: The statehood program and the remaking of the Palestinian national movement, Journal of Palestine Studies, Winter XL (2), pp. 6–25.

17 Roland Paris (2004) At War’s End. Building Peace After Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

18 See for instance: Michelle Pace & Annika Bergman Rosamond (2018) Political Legitimacy and Celebrity Politicians: Tony Blair as Middle East Envoy 2007–2015, Middle East Critique, 27(4), pp. 383-398; Ian Manners (2018) Theorizing Normative Power in European Union-Israeli/ Palestinian Relations: Focus of this Special Issue, Middle East Critique, 27(4), pp. 321-334; Alaa Tartir (2018) The Limits of Securitized Peace: The EU’s Sponsorship of Palestinian Authoritarianism, Middle East Critique, 27(4), pp. 365-381; Nadia Naser-Najjab (2019) The Oslo People-to-People Program and the Limits of Hegemony, Middle East Critique, 28(4), pp. 425-443; Benoit Challand (2009) Palestinian civil society: Foreign donors and the power to promote and exclude (London; New York : Routledge).

19 Malin Hasselskog & Isabell Schierenbeck (2017) The Ownership Paradox: Continuity and Change, Forum for Development Studies, 44(3), pp. 323-333.

20 Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society; Challand Palestinian Civil Society; Mandy Turner (2011) Creating ‘Partners for Peace’: The Palestinian Authority and the International State building Agenda, Journal of Intervention and State building, 5(1), pp. 1-21; Mandy Turner & Cherine Hussein (2011) Israel-Palestine after Oslo: mapping transformations and alternatives in a time of deepening crisis, Conflict, Security & Development, 15(5), pp. 415-424.

21 Rex Brynen (2000) A Very Political Economy. Peace Building and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza, (Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press).

22 Hammami, Palestinian NGOs since Oslo.

23 Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society, p. 193.

24 Challand, Palestinian Civil Society; Amaney A. Jamal (2007) Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

25 Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society.

26 Markus E. Bouillon (2004) The Peace Business. Money and Power in the Palestine-Israel Conflict (London/New York: I. B. Tauris).

27 Nahla Abdo (2010) Imperialism, the State, and NGOs: Middle Eastern Contexts and Contestations, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 30(2), pp. 238-249; Hanafi & Tabar, The Intifada and the Aid Industry.

28 David Held (1993) Political Theory and the Modern State (Cambridge: Polity Press), p. 6.

29 See also Michael Schulz (2013) Palestinian Civil Society, in Joel Peters and David Newman, eds., The Routledge Handbook of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (London: Routledge), pp. 1-27.

30 Atia & Herrold, Governing Through Patronage.

31 Joseph De Voir & Alaa Tartir (2009) Tracking external donor funding to Palestinian non-governmental organizations in the West Bank and Gaza strip 1999-2008, Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), Jerusalem, Israel, p. 28.

32 Manuel Hassassian (2006) Civil Society and NGOs Building Peace in Palestine,’ in Edy Kaufman, Walid Salem and Juliette Verhoeven, eds., Bridging the Divide. Peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers).

33 Islah Jad (2007). NGOs: Between Buzzwords and Social Movements, Development in Practice, 17(4/5), pp. 622-629.

34 Bouillon, The Peace Business.

35 Hammami, Palestinian NGOs since Oslo.

36 See for instance Gianfrancesco Costantini, Jamal Atamneh, Khaled Ayesh, and Feda Al Husseini (2011) Mapping Study of Civil Society Organizations in the occupied Palestinian territory, Framework Contract Commission 2007, Lot 4, Contract Nr 2010/254278; De Voir & Tartir, Tracking external donor funding.

37 Atia & Herrold, Governing Through Patronage.

38 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 3, 2015.

39 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, November 4, 2015.

40 Ibid.

41 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 8, 2015.

42 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Bethlehem, November 9, 2015.

43 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 12, 2015.

44 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Nablus, November 22, 2015.

45 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 16, 2015.

46 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 26, 2015.

47 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 30, 2015.

48 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, December 3, 2015.

49 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Bethlehem, December 1, 2015.

50 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 15, 2015.

51 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 17, 2015.

52 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Bethlehem, December 2, 2015.

53 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 4, 2015.

54 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 19, 2015.

55 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 3, 2015.

56 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 23, 2015.

57 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 12, 2015.

58 Ibid.

59 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 21, 2015.

60 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 26, 2015.

61 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 28, 2015.

62 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 27, 2015.

63 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Jerusalem, December 3, 2015.

64 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 23, 2015.

65 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November, 21, 2015.

66 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, Nov. 4, 2015.

67 Ibid.

68 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, Nov. 19, 2015.

69 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, Dec. 3, 2015.

70 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 17, 2015.

71 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 25, 2015.

72 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, December 2, 2015.

73 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 26, 2015.

74 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 25, 2015.

75 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 18, 2015.

76 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 23, 2015.

77 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 30, 2015.

78 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 9, 2015.

79 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 14, 2015.

80 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 14, 2015.

81 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 10, 2015.

82 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 11, 2015.

83 Author Schulz interview, PNGO official, Ramallah, November 12, 2015.

84 See further Atia & Herrold, Governing Through Patronage; Dana, The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Society; Idem The symbiosis between Palestinian ‘Fayyadism’; Turner, Creating ‘Partners for Peace’; Abdo, Imperialism, the State, and NGOs; Disconnecting Civil Society from its Historical Extension; Challand, Palestinian Civil Society; and Hammami, Palestinian NGOs since Oslo.

85 For instance, Atia & Herrold, Governing Through Patronage.

86 See for instance Chandler, Resilience and the ‘everyday.’