Palestine and America’s ‘Global War on Terror’: A History 2000-2008 Jeannette Greven Department of History and Classical Studies McGill University Montreal Final Submission - 11 December 2018 © Jeannette Greven A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 Acknowledgements This thesis is the product of many years of research and relationships between Montreal and Palestine, and I am thankful for the assistance of a number of people in this process. First and foremost, my primary adviser, Professor Laila Parsons in the McGill Department of History, has been endlessly generous with her time, providing rigorous guidance and feedback both during my comprehensive exams and at every stage of the thesis. I am immensely grateful for Laila’s help in navigating academia and Palestine alike, and teaching me to be a much better writer. Also in the Department of History, Professor Lorenz Lüthi provided thoughtful editorial comments and support throughout the thesis, and I am thankful for his insights in contextualizing my project in the broader sweep of diplomatic history. Professor Rex Brynen provided the initial spark for this project, by suggesting I examine the Palestine Papers in full, and offered feedback on early chapters of this thesis. Professor Malek Abisaab directed me toward several valuable sources in my reading. I was financially supported by the McGill Department of History and Classical Studies, and especially the Peter Cundill Fellowship and several Arts Travel Grants. I thank Mitali Das for her help deciphering all things McGill, and her patience. Among the wonderful McGill librarians, I am particularly indebted to Louis Houle and Anaïs Salamon. Friends at McGill and beyond supported me throughout the doctorate, reading and commenting on sections of this thesis – in particular, big thanks to Vincenza Mazzeo, Alex Ketchum, Rebecca Robinson, Leen Barghouti, Nadir Khan, Maxine Dannatt, and Matt Wyman-McCarthy. Outside of McGill, I benefitted from helpful conversations with scholars and researchers who pointed me in the right direction in my own research. In locating my initial sources, Micol Seigel, Andy Clarno, Rhys Machold, and Sabrien Amrov lent a helping hand. Later, Sahar Francis, Lisa Bhungalia, and Mandy Turner all helped me think through obstacles in Palestine. Also in Palestine, I cannot thank enough all the people who have made Nablus my second home. Ameed, Alaa, Hammam, Omar, Abood, and Islam all clued me in time and time again over coffee and argileh. Professor Abdel Sattar Kassem and Um Mohammed, Professor Asem Khalil, and Professor Tariq Dana graciously helped me navigate sensitivities and questions I encountered. I thank Nashwa and Hisham, as well as Mahmoud, for their insights and company (and feeding me!) Ihab Ghafri played a key role in enriching my understanding of Nablus’s recent history. At the Nablus Municipal Archives – a hidden gem – I was lucky to have the friendly assistance of Loutfiyya and her kind assistants. My real and adopted families have been my biggest supporters. Patrick Nolan obligingly proofread this entire thesis, and Anas Ambri checked my transliterations throughout. Thank you to my parents, Liz and Michael, and to Michelle, Nick, Liam, and Kyle for listening, reading, and visiting. Finally, all my thanks to everyone at dar Khilfeh – Abu Karam, Um Karam, and the whole family – for making me your sister, khalto, and friend. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my historian grandfather, Alan T. Nolan. He would have liked it. 2 Contents Key Terms 4 Abstract - Résumé 5 Introduction 7 Historiography 10 Sources and Methodology 18 Organization 23 Historical Background 25 Balancing Cold War Imperatives 25 The ‘Peace Process’: Key Aspects of the Oslo Accords 40 Chapter 1 A Time of Unilateralism: The Second Intifada and the Global War on Terror 50 Ending the Intifada: US-Led Interventions 51 The Post-9/11 Era 65 The Rise of the Global War on Terror Framework 74 The Roadmap for Peace 85 Unilateralism Prevails 94 Chapter 2 The Roadmap and the ‘Freedom Agenda’ in Palestine 101 The Gaza Disengagement: Facilitating Violation 102 The Push for Palestinian Political Pluralism 112 Securitization of Aid 119 Movement, Access, and Disengagement 128 Chapter 3 A Bridge Too Far: Democratization and Its Aftermath 137 The Politics of Democracy Promotion 138 The End of the Freedom Agenda 155 The American Anti-Democratic Turn 160 Regime Change Returns 175 Chapter 4 Security Coordination and the ‘Global War on Terror’ 188 Situating the United States Security Coordinator 190 Stabilizing Palestine: Israeli Policy in American Hands 199 The Politics of Security Sector Reform 212 Nablus, Annapolis, and Paris: Staying Power for the PA 218 Securitized Stability 229 Chapter 5 The Jenin Initiative and the Counterinsurgency of Technical Assistance 237 A Security-Development Microcosm 240 Jenin Revived 254 Proxy Surveillance and the Flexibility of Security Threats 263 Democratic Reforms Against Democracy 269 Confronting the Occupation, Duplicating Repression 274 Conclusion Palestine and America’s ‘Global War on Terror’ 281 Reform Forever 283 List of Works Cited 292 3 Key Terms AMA Agreement on Movement and Access COGAT Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories CPA Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq) DoD Department of Defense – Pentagon (US) DFID Department for International Development EUBAM-Rafah EU Border Assistance Mission to Rafah Crossing EUPOL-COPPS EU Police and Rule of Law Mission GIS General Intelligence Services (Palestinian) GWOT ‘global war on terror’ IDF Israel Defense Forces NAD/NSU Negotiations Affairs Department/Support Unit NSA National Security Advisor NSC National Security Council NSF National Security Forces (Palestinian) NUG National Unity Government PG Presidential Guards (Palestinian) PA Palestinian National Authority PFLP Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PLC Palestinian Legislative Council PLO Palestine Liberation Organization PNC Palestinian National Council PSO Preventative Security Organization (Palestinian) PRDP Palestinian Reform and Development Plan Quartet US, United Nations, Russia, European Union Shin Bet Israeli Security Agency (Shabak) SSR security sector reform UNSCR UN Security Council Resolution USAID US Agency for International Development USSC US Security Coordinator 4 Abstract This thesis, “Palestine and America’s ‘Global War on Terror’: A History 2000-2008” is a contemporary political history of American foreign policy in Palestine. It examines the transformation of US interventions in the Palestinian Authority after the attacks of September 11, 2001. This thesis shows how Washington’s diplomatic and defense interventions broke with preceding decades of engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, transforming to treat the Palestinian struggle for national liberation as a front in the ‘global war on terror.’ Drawing upon leaked negotiations documents and personal papers as well as original interviews with US and Palestinian security personnel, this thesis charts the effects of US-sponsored technical assistance programs on the day-to-day lives of Palestinians. It argues that US engagement with the Palestinians since 9/11 has increasingly been shaped by policies applied in other sites of the ‘global war on terror,’ collapsing the Palestinians first into the ‘freedom agenda’ and then into a counterterror-driven program of securitization. In the course of securitizing the Palestinian Authority (PA), the US-Israeli strategic convergence during the ‘global war on terror’ took on new meaning. Through assistance designed to build the PA’s capacity, the US reproduced a counterinsurgency policy it lifted from other sites of the ‘global war on terror,’ managing the stabilization of the West Bank through the PA, which increasingly became a proxy for Israel. In particular, Washington’s representatives directed a program of security sector reform within the PA that conformed to priorities handed down from Israel. A case study of the West Bank city of Jenin in this thesis highlights how in creating a capable counterterror partner, American requirements and monitoring incentivized the PA to stifle dissent. These American controls in the heart of the PA continued even as it became evident that the PA’s increased capacity would not result in American pressure on Israel to come to a political compromise. Through a detailed narrative history of how US interventions at the policy level unfolded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, this thesis shows the ways in which the US realigned its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to match the ‘global war on terror,’ and how that realignment effected Palestinians lives and Palestinian futures. Résumé Cette thèse, “Palestine et la guerre américaine globale contre le terrorisme: une histoire 2000- 2008” est une analyse de l’histoire contemporaine de la politique étrangère des États-Unis en Palestine. Elle examine la transformation de l’intervention américaine au sein de l'Autorité nationale palestinienne après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001. Cette thèse montre comment les interventions diplomatiques et militaires de Washington ont rompu avec des décennies d’interprétation du conflit israélo-palestinien, transformant ainsi le traitement de la lutte palestinienne comme cause de libération nationale en un autre front dans la ‘guerre contre le terrorisme.’ S’appuyant sur les documents divulgués depuis les négociations,