Abstract
Since the end of the second Intifada (2000–2006), the failure to achieve national liberation through negotiations or armed struggle, and the territorial fragmentation resulting from the control mechanisms implemented by the Israeli authorities, led to the emergence of renewed local forms of Palestinian resistance. On the one hand, the mobilization of villagers known as the popular resistance led to the formation of numerous local “protest sites” in the West Bank aiming to defend rights to resources, farmland, freedom of movement and so on. On the other hand, over the past few years, citizens’ engagements in an alternative local economy have developed around what has been called a resistance economy: Iqtisad al-sumud or iqtisad al-muqawam, which has a more pro-active sense than sumud. These ongoing actions and engagements have sometimes been described as a “green Intifada”. They are undertaken by farmers, entrepreneurs and intellectuals, and have mushroomed over the past five years in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), mostly in the West Bank, showing a radical shift in the protest paradigm since their demands are not mainly addressed to institutional political actors, nor at a national political level. This chapter shows how this alternative economy has emerged as particularly necessary in Palestine after the failure of the Oslo Accords and analyses the new political practices at work.
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Notes
- 1.
The notion of sumud suggests the idea of steadfastness and resilience. Its origin is linked to the Palestinians’ sense of attachment and belonging (intima’) to their land, embodied in the iconic figure of the farmer.
- 2.
The term used in more technical contexts for organic agriculture is cadduyyeh.
- 3.
This campaign to boycott Israeli institutions and products was launched in 2005 by a Palestinian NGO. Its aim is to put an end to the occupation and colonization, to achieve absolute equality between Israeli Jews and Arabs and to implement the right of return for refugees. It is an international movement that is supported by independent national committees set up in many different countries. In 2007, the first Palestinian BDS Conference formed a National Committee (BNC).
- 4.
The Oslo process have given rise to new “predatory social classes” that have access to political office and donor revenues.
- 5.
The Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into three different zones. In the A zones, where most of Palestinian cities are and count today for 18 per cent of the territory, Israel delegated to the Palestinian Authority (PA) civil and security control. In the B zones where the majority of the villages are (22 per cent of the territory), the PA is supposedly responsible for public order and the internal security of the Palestinians while Israel is in charge of external security. Lastly, zones C where most of the agricultural lands and the entire road network are located and amount to 60 per cent of the territory, remained under full Israeli control.
- 6.
Interview, Ramallah, 03/12/2015.
- 7.
Discussion, Battir, 15/06/2015.
- 8.
Rozana Association for Architectural Heritage Conservation and Rural Tourism Development, based in Birzeit.
- 9.
Network for Experiential Palestinian Tourism Organizations. Raed Saadeh, the co-founder of these two networks, seeks to develop alternative tourism, mainly focusing on politics and heritage (with the renovation of historic town centres and rural sites from the Ottoman era, when all the archaeological sites are in zone C), eco-tourism, agritourism or food tourism.
- 10.
Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a farmers’ union close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
- 11.
Founded in 1993, Via Campesina resulted from a union between the Coordination Paysanne Européenne (CPE) and associations from different countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. UAWC is a member of Via Campesina.
- 12.
- 13.
Article 78 of the Ottoman Land Code of 1858
- 14.
Adel (which means justice, rectitude, reason), Ma’an and the Arab Agronomists Association (AAA) particularly strive to develop agroecology in Palestine.
- 15.
Including the Hebrew word “tov”, meaning good.
- 16.
- 17.
Nora Lester Murad, interview, Ramallah, 09/11/2015.
- 18.
Interview, Ramallah, 24/11/2015.
- 19.
The Research Center I was working in.
- 20.
Active Citizens. Producing and Consuming in a Resistance Economy Today in Palestine, Round Tables. World Café Session, Ramallah, 28/05/2016.
- 21.
According to the three poles set out in the international definition of sustainable development of the Brundtland report in 1987.
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Latte Abdallah, S. (2022). The Resistance Economy: A Holistic Engagement Against the Occupation in Palestine?. In: Barozet, E., Sainsaulieu, I., Cortesero, R., Mélo, D. (eds) Where Has Social Justice Gone?. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93123-0_19
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