Description
The Myth of Palestinian Development – Political Aid and Sustainable Deceit is an experiential analysis about the development of Palestine. It analyses the concepts of ‘development,’ ‘economic aid,’ ‘political aid,’ and ‘empowerment,’ as they pertain to the Palestinian situation for the last 17 years and examines – based on the personal experience of the author (at the Welfare Association and the European Commission) developmental interventions during the pre- and post-Oslo Accords eras, tackling issues such as the ambiguity of decisions and rationales for specific interventions, the contradiction between declared objectives and actual results, the poor streamlining in decision-making, the illogical and wasteful allocations of funds, the questionable capacity of potential partners to implement projects, the shallow and sloppy shorthand analysis of the situation on the ground, the frequent utilization of subjective criteria and personal preferences in determining the eligibility of an idea or a partner for potential funding, and, on the whole, the questionable technical capacity of ‘aid-technocrats.’ The study concludes with specific policy implications for Palestinian decision-makers, institutions and ordinary people, based on a reflection of what happened, or did not happen, and how to break the cycle of un-development and move forward.
