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The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: The Theatrics of Woeful Statecraft
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank explores the manner in which the Palestinian Authority’s performative acts affect and shape the lives and subjective identities of those in its vicinity in the occupied West Bank. The nature of Palestinians’ statelessness has to contend with the rituals of statecraft that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its Palestinian functionaries engage in. These rituals are also economically maintained by an international donor community and are vehemently challenged by Palestinian activists, antagonistic to the prevalence of the statist agenda in Palestine. Conceptually, the understanding of the PA’s ‘theater of statecraft’ is inspired by Judith Butler’s conception of performativity as one that encompasses several repetitive and ritual performative acts. The authors explore what they refer to as the ‘fuzzy state' (personified in the form and conduct of the PA) looks like for those living it, from the vantage point of PA institutions, NGOs, international representative offices, and activists. Methodologically, the book adopts an ethnographic approach, by way of interviews and observations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank makes an important and long-due intervention by integrating performance studies and politics to suggest an understanding of the theatrics of woeful statecraft in Palestine. The book is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in the study of the state, International Relations and Politics, Palestine Studies, and the Middle East.
100 pages, Hardcover
Published January 10, 2019
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December 6, 2023
Slim book from two academics arguing that the Palestinian Authority performs a "theater of statecraft" that ultimately undermines Palestinians' national aspirations.
International stakeholders' and NGOs' political and economic investments in the so-called mechanisms of state-building in the territories fail at their stated task of setting up the institutional and bureaucratic structure for a forthcoming Palestinian state. Instead, they create a hegemony of a particular form of marketable human rights work that -- in its assessment of humanitarian problems as problems of development rather than the fruit of occupation and the ensuing politics of resource management and allocation -- often works against political activism or engagement. Pace argues that these organizations "perform their part" of producing an illusion of a technocratic state mostly to achieve their true unstated goal: to project a certain image of themselves to their own audiences. The end result is a situation where internationals continue to prop up the State of Palestine and the ineffectual norms of its performance even while entirely unconvinced in its efficacy or ability to bring about a true state.
Similarly, the aid dependent civil society sector in Palestine feeds a particular elite that find it risky to take on more politicized projects (particularly those that focus on the PA's abuses of power). These civil society employees produce seemingly positive projects that, in their myopic focus, distract efforts and resources from ending the occupation or producing an accountable Palestinian government. Even civil protestors that condemn the PA's abuses still unwittingly become actors in the theatrics of the state, which uses their opposition as an opportunity to manifest the dominance of the statist narrative and its monopoly over the right to use violence irrespective of the likelihood of the state's forthcoming arrival.
Pace analyzes this through the lens of Judith Butler's conception of performativity, which she conceived of as not just a singular performative act but rather one that encompasses several repetitive and ritual performative acts. Butler related this to gender, which she argued should not be understood as the outcome of a stable identity but rather as something that's generated and constituted through multiple stylized performative acts. How does that relate to the PA? Pace argues that the genuine process of Palestinian state-building was derailed during the interim period following the signing of the Oslo Accords, which she views as allowing Israel to continue the occupation without paying its costs. Instead, it is now the continual maintenance of the theater of the PA's statecraft -- as performed through various stylized repetitive acts that ostensibly look and smell like a state -- and as opposed to the true actual functions of a state -- that allow it to exist as an entity reminiscent of a state. Stakeholders interviewed by Pace seem to vacillate between pride in their performance and anxiety about the futility of that performance. Naturally, of course, the facade of progress hinders actual liberation, and the focus on political negotiations (especially where unlikely to reach compromise) helps Israel deflect critiques based on its lack of accountability for its responsibilities (as an occupying power) for the rights and treatment of Palestinians.
Rating: 4/4. Really smart theoretical take that introduced me to a lot of new details about the current PA. Short but somewhat repetitive. FWIW, strong leftist bias that views Israel as a settler-colonial state without reservation or nuance.
International stakeholders' and NGOs' political and economic investments in the so-called mechanisms of state-building in the territories fail at their stated task of setting up the institutional and bureaucratic structure for a forthcoming Palestinian state. Instead, they create a hegemony of a particular form of marketable human rights work that -- in its assessment of humanitarian problems as problems of development rather than the fruit of occupation and the ensuing politics of resource management and allocation -- often works against political activism or engagement. Pace argues that these organizations "perform their part" of producing an illusion of a technocratic state mostly to achieve their true unstated goal: to project a certain image of themselves to their own audiences. The end result is a situation where internationals continue to prop up the State of Palestine and the ineffectual norms of its performance even while entirely unconvinced in its efficacy or ability to bring about a true state.
Similarly, the aid dependent civil society sector in Palestine feeds a particular elite that find it risky to take on more politicized projects (particularly those that focus on the PA's abuses of power). These civil society employees produce seemingly positive projects that, in their myopic focus, distract efforts and resources from ending the occupation or producing an accountable Palestinian government. Even civil protestors that condemn the PA's abuses still unwittingly become actors in the theatrics of the state, which uses their opposition as an opportunity to manifest the dominance of the statist narrative and its monopoly over the right to use violence irrespective of the likelihood of the state's forthcoming arrival.
Pace analyzes this through the lens of Judith Butler's conception of performativity, which she conceived of as not just a singular performative act but rather one that encompasses several repetitive and ritual performative acts. Butler related this to gender, which she argued should not be understood as the outcome of a stable identity but rather as something that's generated and constituted through multiple stylized performative acts. How does that relate to the PA? Pace argues that the genuine process of Palestinian state-building was derailed during the interim period following the signing of the Oslo Accords, which she views as allowing Israel to continue the occupation without paying its costs. Instead, it is now the continual maintenance of the theater of the PA's statecraft -- as performed through various stylized repetitive acts that ostensibly look and smell like a state -- and as opposed to the true actual functions of a state -- that allow it to exist as an entity reminiscent of a state. Stakeholders interviewed by Pace seem to vacillate between pride in their performance and anxiety about the futility of that performance. Naturally, of course, the facade of progress hinders actual liberation, and the focus on political negotiations (especially where unlikely to reach compromise) helps Israel deflect critiques based on its lack of accountability for its responsibilities (as an occupying power) for the rights and treatment of Palestinians.
Rating: 4/4. Really smart theoretical take that introduced me to a lot of new details about the current PA. Short but somewhat repetitive. FWIW, strong leftist bias that views Israel as a settler-colonial state without reservation or nuance.
Displaying 1 of 1 review