The Evolution and Reform of Palestinian Security Forces 1993–2013

Alaa Tartir

doi:10.5334/sta.gi

Abstract

This article provides a contextual analysis of the evolution and reform processes of Palestinian security forces over the last two decades. It categorises the evolution of security reform processes into three phases: the Oslo Accords phase; the Second Intifada phase; and the Fayyadism phase. The article argues that despite the attempt to reverse the conditions of insecurity through security reform under Fayyadism (the Palestinian Authority’s state-building project between 2007–2013 in the occupied West Bank), fundamental tensions between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and the Palestinian resistance movement have emerged. This tension manifested in authoritarian transformations and trends and therefore the entire security reform project constituted yet another form of institutionalised insecurity, but framed in a state-building and good governance framework. This article concludes that the enhanced functionality of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and the reformed style of governance, resulted in the criminalisation of resistance against the Israeli occupation. In this way, the state-building project during the Fayyadism era directly and indirectly sustained the occupation. Conceptually, the Palestinian case demonstrates the fundamental flaws of conducting a security sector reform in the absence of sovereign authority and local ownership of the reform processes, and while living under a foreign military occupation.

Highlights

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords through to the present, the role of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces has transformed according to the evolution of political developments, conflict dynamics, as well as changes in the composition of Palestinian leadership, its strategies, and security doctrines
It argues that the Oslo Accords and Arafatism (Yasser Arafat’s style of governance) saw an increase in security force personnel but the proliferation was associated with higher levels of insecurity and coupled with high levels of corruption, patronage-based politics and personalised
With the appointment of Fayyad, a new era in the Palestinian polity and style of governance had emerged. Through his West Bank First approach,8 declared a commitment to both a strict reform agenda based on establishing a monopoly of violence by the PA security apparatus and the adoption of a neoliberal post-Washington economic agenda aimed at creating the institutional underpinning for a future Palestinian state (PA 2008, 2010a, b)

Summary

Alaa Tartir*

This article provides a contextual analysis of the evolution and reform processes of Palestinian security forces over the last two decades. The article argues that despite the attempt to reverse the conditions of insecurity through security reform under Fayyadism (the Palestinian Authority’s state-building project between 2007–2013 in the occupied West Bank), fundamental tensions between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and the Palestinian resistance movement have emerged. This article concludes that the enhanced functionality of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and the reformed style of governance, resulted in the criminalisation of resistance against the Israeli occupation. In this way, the state-building project during the Fayyadism era directly and indirectly sustained the occupation. The Palestinian case demonstrates the fundamental flaws of conducting a security sector reform in the absence of sovereign authority and local ownership of the reform processes, and while living under a foreign military occupation

Introduction

Findings

Conclusion