Building a state on shifting sands: An evaluation of the Palestinian National Authority’s policy reforms and performance in the West Bank, 2009-2011 By Kristine Knutter C2013 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Global and International Studies and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ________________________________ Chairperson Associate Professor Eric Hanley ________________________________ Co-Chairperson Professor Richard Lynn Ground ________________________________ Committee Member Associate Professor Ebenezer Obadare Date Defended: January 8, 2013 The Thesis Committee for Kristine Knutter certifies That this is the approved Version of the following thesis: Building a state on shifting sands: An evaluation of the Palestinian National Authority’s policy reforms and performance in the West Bank, 2009-2011 _____________________________ Chairperson Eric Hanley _____________________________ Co-Chairperson Richard Lynn Ground _____________________________ Committee Member Ebenezer Obadari Date Approved: January 8, 2013 ii ABSTRACT Kristine Knutter, M.A. Department of Global and International Studies, January 2013 University of Kansas Since the inception of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in 1994, leadership has struggled in its role to create a safe environment conducive to economic and social prosperity, and to negotiate an end to the Israeli occupation and recognition of an independent State of Palestine. Following a violent Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation from 2000 to 2005, the Palestinian legislature crumbled after there was international fallout with the PA over Hamas winning a majority of the legislature seats. Since 2007, Hamas has ruled in the Gaza Strip largely independent of the PA and a Fatah-dominant Palestinian caretaker government has ruled in the West Bank. There have been substantial differences between the trajectory of their economic, geopolitical, legal and social development. In the West Bank, PA leaders unveiled a series of state and institution building plans anchored in a commitment to security that garnered broad international support. This thesis provides a historical account of the development of the PA institutions and the limits of its authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The primary research aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of the state and institution building plan, Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State, in the West Bank during the 2009-2011 period in regards to the security landscape, judicial system, and economic development in the West Bank, as well as the attempt to end the occupation and solidify recognition as a sovereign Palestinian state. Underlying pressures on state building in Palestine are identified and this thesis presents a strategy for Palestinian leadership so that when it comes to the negotiating table with Israel, it will be as a respected, organized and united body that has enacted all measures possible to guarantee the degree of peace and prosperity that are within their control. While Palestinians’ ultimate aim is statehood recognition and an end to the Israeli occupation, this thesis argues that reforming the Israeli-Palestinian economic framework is a critical first step to advancing Palestinian national interests and state and institution building aims. iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction and History The primary research aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of the state and institution building plan, Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State, in the West Bank during the 2009-2011 period in regards to the security landscape, judicial system, and economic development in the West Bank, as well as the attempt to end the occupation and solidify recognition as a sovereign Palestinian state. Understanding the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is paramount to understanding and analyzing current efforts. An account of the historic developments leading up to the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict is detailed in the thesis. Currently, the West Bank is one of the two territories that make up the contended Palestinian state that have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Upon the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, which in the years prior to the Six-Day War had been controlled by Jordan and Egypt, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and Israelis began moving onto the land and establishing settlements in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Notably, the Government of Israel (GoI) insisted that the West Bank and Gaza Strip were captured in a defensive war and therefore the GoI had legitimate claims to ownership and should not accommodate Palestinians claims to the land. Relative calm prevailed for the first twenty years of the occupation and then unrest between Palestinians and Israelis erupted in 1987 into the first Palestinian uprising against the occupation, known as the First Intifada. A few years into fighting, Israel was willing to cede some control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Palestinians. By 1993, the GoI and representatives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) officially brought the conflict to an end with the signing of the Oslo Accords. The parties agreed to a temporary framework for their relations during an interim period lasting five years, during which time, the sides would agree on important issues such as borders, refugees, Jerusalem, and settlements through bilateral negotiations. The Accords resulted in the creation of an interim Palestinian governing body known as the Palestinian National Authority (PA). The PA assumed some of the responsibilities of a typical governing body in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS), while Israel retained other powers and overarching control over security. One of the key documents produced in the Oslo Accords was the Protocol on Economic Relations (PER), which governed economic relations between the PA and the GoI. iv The development process was slow and complicated, and was further challenged by inept and corrupt Palestinian leaders. Both the GoI and the PA showed a reluctance to implement the terms of the Oslo Accords, which had negative repercussions on the lives of Palestinians in the WBGS. Palestinians grew frustrated with Israeli policies, such as the expansion of settlements and restrictions on Palestinian movement. These frustrations, along with an interim period much longer than expected during which time the PLO and GoI failed to reach a peace agreement, culminated in the Second Intifada in 2000, which had a strong negative impact on Palestinian and Israeli lives and stalled important state building work in Palestine. The Second Intifada came to an official end in 2005, and the PA found a more competent leader in Mahmoud Abbas, who replaced the deceased Yasser Arafat as president. The rise of Mahmoud Abbas ushered in a new type of Palestinian leadership. Abbas set out to reform the PA, to strengthen Palestinian institutions, and to engage diplomatically with Israel to improve living conditions for Palestinians and advance Palestinian goals. However, when the political party Hamas won a majority of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) seats in 2006, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip quickly deteriorated. The international community, especially the United States (U.S.) and GoI, boycotted the election results and cut funding to the PA because the winning political party, Hamas, was designated as a terrorist organization in these countries. A series of contentious events followed, resulting in a sharp divide and armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah and the dissolution of the PLC. In 2007, Abbas appointed the American-trained and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist Salam Fayyad to serve as Prime Minister of a caretaker government in the West Bank, which gained legitimacy and wide international support for its proposed reform agenda, while the majority of the international community increased the intensity of the boycott and sanctions on the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip. Under the leadership of Fayyad and Abbas, the PA set out to implement a state and institution building plan that it believed would help end the Israeli occupation and advance Palestinian national aspirations including widespread recognition of an independent Palestinian state along 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Judiciary Reforms and Performance During the Oslo era, the PA assumed responsibility for legal jurisdiction in areas of its control through the signing of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement on May 4, 1994, and the subsequent v creation of the PLC. The Palestinian judiciary was responsible for interpreting and helping enforce laws and beginning in 2002, it was guided by the Palestinian Basic Law (an interim constitution). The nascent Palestinian judicial system largely performed poorly during the 1990s, being marked by corruption, fixed trials, and a lack of enforcement of court decisions. The PA, through the caretaker government in the West Bank, committed to reforming the justice sector by delivering on promises of an independent and impartial judiciary, which was mandated in the Palestinian Basic Law and reaffirmed in the 2009-2011 Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State plan. The PA advanced many of its broad judiciary goals during the reform years 2009-2011, some of which included promulgating and implementing laws to protect citizens’ fundamental rights