October 12th, 2010 by Anna

Raja Khalidi, a senior economist with the United Nations in Geneva, writes in Ha’aretz that although the Palestinian Authority is working to build institutions in the West Bank, the structures are “unviable and fragile” under current conditions. Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad’s focus on improving security, public services, and transparency are rooted in the logic that “good institutions are necessary and sufficient for statehood.” Khalidi contends, however, that “any state-like institutions that might still emerge are incapable of shepherding the Palestinian economy from its distorted and dependent status under prolonged Israeli occupation.” He cites Nathan Brown of the George Washington University, who recently argued that institution-building efforts in the West Bank have been “more authoritarian than democratic and more cosmetic than transformational,” in Khalidi’s words. Khalidi is critical of the notion that institution-building without sovereignty can lay the foundations for a viable state.

Posted in Palestine, Reform |