Criminalizing Resistance The Cases of Balata and Jenin Refugee Camps

The Palestinian Authority (PA) adopted donor-driven security sector reform (SSR) as the linchpin to its post-2007 state-building project. As SSR proceeded, the occupied West Bank became a securitized space and the theater for PA security campaigns whose ostensible purpose was to establish law and or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Palestine studies Vol. 46; no. 2 (182); pp. 7 - 22
Main Author TARTIR, ALAA
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berkeley UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS FOR THE INSTITUTE FOR PALESTINE STUDIES 01.12.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Collaboration
Crime
Ethnography
Law
National security
Occupations
Palestinian people
Political power
Reforms
Refugee camps
Refugees
Resistance
Security
Stability
Palestinian territory
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Summary:The Palestinian Authority (PA) adopted donor-driven security sector reform (SSR) as the linchpin to its post-2007 state-building project. As SSR proceeded, the occupied West Bank became a securitized space and the theater for PA security campaigns whose ostensible purpose was to establish law and order. This article tackles the consequences of the PA’s security campaigns in Balata and Jenin refugee camps from the people’s perspective through a bottom-up ethnographic methodological approach. These voices from below problematize and examine the security campaigns, illustrating how and why resistance against Israel has been criminalized. The article concludes by arguing that conducting security reform to ensure stability within the context of colonial occupation and without addressing the imbalances of power can only ever have two outcomes: “better” collaboration with the occupying power and a violation of Palestinians’ security and national rights by their own security forces.
ISSN:0377-919X
1533-8614
DOI:10.1525/jps.2017.46.2.7