Palestine: How western aid enables Israel’s colonialism
ince the Oslo I Accord was signed in 1993, international donors have expended more than $50bn in foreign aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). That funding has been channelled through a western development model that was designed, at least on the surface, to foster Palestinian economic and institutional development.
The western architects of that model had hoped that if they could "catch the Palestinians up" to Israel developmentally then peace could take hold once two liberal democratic Israeli and Palestinian states existed next to each other in the Levant.
But the model explicitly ignored the colonial nature of Israel's rule - the inherent devastation caused by rapacious colonial structures of control - and put the onus of peace-building on the backs of the Palestinians, requiring them to change to meet nebulous standards of development defined by Israel's closest western allies before peace would be allowed to take hold.
Yet, the funding was accepted in goodwill by the Palestinians who put their faith in the Oslo Peace Process to lead them to freedom while using donor funding as an opportunity to establish their own institutions after decades of direct Israeli rule. The Palestinians' ultimate aim was to establish their own state and be free once the US-sponsored Oslo process passed through a "transitional period" that was not to exceed five years, concluding as early as 1999.
That aid was key to the (colonial) logic of the western model, used as a tool to reform (read: civilise) the Palestinians and support them through a transitional period of Israeli rule, to reach a point where they could sustain themselves independently in peace next to Israel.
No closer to freedom
Though the funding was used to establish a semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA) and limited Palestinian institutions of self-rule, like in health and education, neither Oslo aid nor the Oslo process brought Palestinians any closer to freedom and self-determination.
It never allowed them to build an economy to support them in their struggle against the occupying power that is colonising and removing them from the majority of their remaining land (roughly 22 percent of historic Palestine).
