Institute of Palestine Studies, in cooperation with the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center and The Education Bookshop
Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory
Public Lecture with author Toufic Haddad
Where: Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah.
When: 18:00, August 1, 2017
This public lecture is an opportunity to explore the research and findings of Palestine Ltd.: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory (I.B. Tauris, 2016), with author Toufic Haddad.
Palestine Ltd. is the first book in the SOAS Palestine Studies series, published between the Centre for Palestine Studies at the School for Oriental and African Studies, London, and IB Tauris publishing house.
It is based on extensive research Haddad conducted on the political economy of the OPT under international peacebuilding and statebuilding interventions from 1993 to 2013.
Drawing upon more than 20 years of policy literature, field-based interviews and recently declassified or leaked documents, Haddad details how neoliberal frameworks have shaped and informed the common understandings of international, Israeli and Palestinian interactions throughout the Oslo peace process. These frameworks have led to struggles over influencing Palestinian political and economic behaviour, and attempts to mould the class character of Palestinian society and its leadership. A dystopian vision of Palestine emerges as the by-product of this complex asymmetrical interaction, where nationalism, neo-colonialism and ‘disaster capitalism’ both intersect and diverge.
Toufic Haddad holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London. He is co-author of Between the Lines: Israel, the Palestinians and the US War on Terror (2007) and has worked as a journalist, editor and researcher in the OPT since 1997.
Haddad will lecture for 45 minutes, followed by questions. This is the Ramallah premier of Palestine Ltd. with books available for sale from The Education Bookshop, East Jerusalem.
This is truly an exceptional study of the Oslo process and Western donor intervention therein. Meticulously and rigorously researched, Toufic Haddad’s book represents an invaluable contribution to a literature that still requires the kind of critical scrutiny and analysis that Haddad provides. While the book carefully examines and exposes the role of the West in Palestine’s debility -- a role that was deliberate and considered -- none of Oslo’s protagonists are spared. Palestine Ltd is compelling and should be required reading by anyone seeking to understand what the Oslo process was really about and why it has proved so disastrous for Palestinians.
Dr. Sara Roy
Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Harvard University
A crisply written, painstakingly researched study that puts Palestine in much-needed global economic context, laying out the harrowing consequences of market fundamentalism and disaster capitalism in particular. Amid growing worldwide rejection of neoliberalism, this terrific and timely book will be a key resource for anyone fighting for justice in the region.
Naomi Klein
Author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine
“brilliant and incisive”
Prof. Oliver Richmond,
Professor of International Relations, Peace & Conflict Studies
University of Manchester
