Neoliberal Developments, National Consciousness, and Political Economies of Resistance in Palestine

Abstract

This essay explores the concept of political economies of resistance in Palestine as an alternative to the anticolonial imaginary articulated by nationalist visions, and the potential for liberation offered by local actors who articulate these political economies of resistance. It considers Frantz Fanon’s vision of national consciousness, its relevance to Palestinian resistance in the context of settler colonialism, and its aid in the articulation of political economies of resistance as a way to imagine otherwise in global politics. The impact of the Oslo peace process is discussed as a signalling of the end of a sort of Palestinian anticolonial utopia, with particular attention to the Palestinian nationalism embodied by leadership such as the Palestinian Authority, and its weddedness to liberal notions of economics and politics. It then considers contemporary Palestinian claims of politics and economies of resistance that are both local and transnational in their articulation, arguing that nationalist commitments to anticolonial utopias foreclose, not only the ability to imagine otherwise in global politics, but also obscure the otherwise already interrupting the histories of colonial modernity.