Security development and the Palestinian Authority: an examination of the ‘Canadian factor’

Abstract

The Palestinian Authority has become a major recipient of development assistance with a primary area of focus on the development of security capacities. As a case study in the securitisation of aid, this article demonstrates how Canadian development aid has been almost exclusively aimed towards areas of security enhancements. Detailing what Canadian security development actors call ‘the Canadian factor’, the article argues that the securitisation of aid is a mobilisation of security expertise to advance the strategic interests of major donors. In detailing the donors as beneficiaries of aid, the article describes how the ‘success story’ of development aid in Palestine is a reflection of how security aid functions to advance the interests of donors as opposed to populations under the recipient authorities.

Keywords:

• Humanitarian
• aid
• assistance
• international relations
• Israel

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the participants in this study. He would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for the constructive and thoughtful comments, as well as the editors for their assistance in improving the analytical and theoretical contributions. Colleagues Madalena Santos, David Murakami-Wood, Marcus Taylor and Elia Zuriek have also provided encouragement and assistance with earlier drafts of the article.

Notes

1. Ibrahim and Beaudet, ‘Effective Aid’. Also: Falk, Report of the Special Rapporteur; Korn, ‘The Gettoization’; Weizman, Hollow Land.

2. Bouris, ‘The European Union’s Role’.

3. See Del Biondo et al., ‘Security and Development’; Jackson, ‘Introduction: Security and Development’.

4. Wilkinson, ‘The Securitization of Development’, 32. Also: Abrahamsen, ‘Blair’s Africa’; Howell and Lind, ‘Changing Donor Policy’; Hyndman, ‘Acts of Aid’.

5. Howell and Lind, ‘Changing Donor Policy’; Bigo, ‘The (In) Securitization Practices’.

6. See Egnell, ‘The Organised Hypocrisy’.

7. Chandler, ‘The Uncritical Critique’; Hills, ‘Policing, Good-Enough Governance’.

8. Barnett and Zürcher, ‘The Peacebuilder’s Contract’; Bouris ‘The European Union’s Role’; Hills, ‘Lost in Translation’; Springer, ‘Assessing Donor-Driven Reforms’.

9. Egnell ‘The Organised Hypocrisy’.

10. Ibrahim and Beaudet, ‘Effective Aid’. Also: Bouris ‘The European Union’s Role’; Leech, ‘Who Owns “the Spring”’; Springer ‘Assessing Donor-Driven Reforms’.

11. Leech, ‘Who Owns “the Spring”’; also Bouris and Reigeluth, ‘Introducing the Rule of Law’.

12. Ibrahim and Beaudet, ‘Effective Aid’, 491–492; also Bouris, ‘The European Union’s Role’.

13. Sayigh, ‘Inducing a Failed State’. See also: Bröning, The Politics of Change; Youngs and Michou, Assessing Democracy Assistance.

14. Interview 2, Ottawa, 2014.

15. Hilal, ‘The Polarization’.

16. CIDA, ATI request 2010-330, 330.

17. Interview 4, Ottawa, 2014.

18. Youngs and Michou, Assessing Democracy Assistance.

19. DFATD, ATI request 2011-959, 109. See also Hyndman, ‘Acts of Aid’.

20. CIDA, ATI request 2010-338, 11.

21. CIDA, ATI request 2010-338, 12. EUPOL COPPS is the European Union Co-ordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support.

22. PCO, ATI request 2010-558, 2.

23. DoJ, ATI request 2010-1638, 10.

24. DoJ, ATI request 2012-2148, 2.

25. CIDA, ATI request 2010-330, 267.

26. Interview 4, Ottawa, 2014.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. CIDA, ATI request 2012-532, 83.

32. CIDA, ATI request 2010-330, 62.

33. RCMP, ATI request 2011-805.

34. Byrne, ‘Building a Police State’.

35. Macaulay, ‘Modes of Prison Administration’, 368.

36. Ian Cobain, ‘CIA Working with Palestinian Security Agents’. The Guardian, 17 December 2009.

37. Davis, ‘Undermining the Rule of Law’.

38. RCMP, ATI request 2011-805, 239.

39. CIDA, ATI request 2012-532, 328.

40. RCMP, ATI request 2012-3277, 322.

41. RCMP, ATI request 2012–3277, 25; RCMP, ATI request 2011-805, 148.

42. RCMP, ATI request 2011–805, 132.

43. Zanotti, U.S. Security Assistance.

44. Amnesty International, ‘Shut Up’; Leech ‘Who Owns “the Spring”’.

45. Bayley, ‘Police Reform’.

46. Allen, The Rise and Fall, 114.

47. Interview 11, Ottawa, 2014.

48. Ibrahim and Beaudet, ‘Effective Aid’; Bouris, ‘The European Union’s Role’.

49. DND, ATI request 2012-866, 3.

50. Rose, ‘The Gaza Bombshell’. Also: Amnesty International, ‘Shut Up’; Leech ‘Who Owns “the Spring”’).

51. Thrall, ‘Our Man in Palestine’.

52. GOA, Report to the Committee.

53. Bouris, ‘The European Union’s Role’, 382.

54. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 6.

55. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 23.

56. CIDA, ATI request 2012-532, 327.

57. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 41.

58. Quoted in CIDA, ATI request 2012-532, 31.

59. Comaroff and Comaroff, ‘Law and Disorder’.

60. CIDA, ATI request 2012-532, 31.

61. DND, ATI request 2013-1963.

62. DND, ATI request 2013-1292, 2-3.

63. Ibid.

64. DND, ATI request 2012-547, 20.

65. DFATD, ATI request 2011-959, 110.

66. DND, ATI request 2013-1963, 49.

67. Ibid.

68. Thrall, ‘Our Man in Palestine’.

69. DND, ATI request 2012-547, 4 (emphasis added).

70. Ibrahim and Beaudet, ‘Effective Aid’.

71. Ibid., 483.

72. Interview 4, Ottawa, 2014.

73. CIDA, ATI request 2010-330, 548.

74. CBSA, ATI request 2010-4262, 3.

75. RCMP, ATI request 2012-3277, 321.

76. DFATD, ATI request 2011-2067, 19.

77. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 41.

78. Ibid.

79. CIDA, ATI request 2010-338, 19-24.

80. Ibid.

81. CIDA, ATI request 2010-338, 25.

82. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 28.

83. DND, ATI request 2011-501, 4.

84. Hills, ‘Security as a Selective Project’, 80.

85. Amnesty International, ‘Shut Up’; Youngs and Michou, Assessing Democracy Assistance.

86. Youngs and Michou, Assessing Democracy Assistance, 3. See also: Bouris and Reigeluth, ‘Introducing the Rule of Law’; Leech, ‘Who Owns “the Spring”’.

87. See Chandler, Empire in Denial.

88. Hansen and Marsh, ‘Normative Power’, 283; also Perkins and Neumayer, ‘The Organized Hypocrisy’.

89. DFATD, ATI request 2011-2067, 19.

90. DND, ATI request 2010-1284, 45.

91. DND, ATI request 2012-866, 4.

92. DND, ATI request 2012-866, 26.

93. DND, ATI request 2012-866, 28. CEFCOM stands for Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.

94. DND, ATI request 2013-1963, 50.

95. ICG, Squaring the Circle, 16.

96. Ferguson, The Anti-politics Machine.

97. Egnell and Haldén, ‘Contextualising International State-building’, 431.

98. Chandler, ‘The Uncritical Critique’, 148.

99. Perkins and Neumayer, ‘The Organized Hypocrisy’, 250.

100. Bouris, ‘The European Union’s Role’.

101. See Allen, The Rise and Fall.

102. Youngs and Michou, Assessing Democracy Assistance, 11.

103. Høigilt, ‘Palestinian Spring’.