Summary
The transformation of Palestinian civil society under external donor patronage and neoliberalism that, in Hawari’s brief, de-politicized language and constrained what Palestinians could imagine as possible (lines 147, 211).
Details
- In the Overview, the Oslo-era shift “set about a fundamental transformation of Palestinian civil society, which became largely reliant on external donor patronage and bound much of the Palestinian capacity for collective imagination within a very specific political agenda, marginalizing both the refugees and the Palestinian citizens of Israel” (line 147).
- As the third stumbling block to a collective future vision: “The third area is shedding the discourse of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and neoliberalism. Years of NGO-ization and neoliberalism in Palestine have led to a de-politicization of language and have constrained the perceived realms of possibility” (line 211). Hawari cross-references Hazem Jamjoum’s “Reclaiming the Political Dimension” here, with no fuller citation given in the brief.
- The remedy she states: “Revitalizing a local language of liberation and decolonization is essential and a shared lexicon is vital in the collective imagining process.” (line 211)
Related pages
Beyond Failed Frameworks: A Re-Imagined Collective Future, Oslo Accords, Revolutionary consensus