Dialogue in Palestine: The People-to-People Diplomacy Programme and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Description

Since 1993, various international donors have poured money into a People-to-People (P2P) diplomacy programme in Palestine. This grassroots initiative - still funded by prominent external donors today - seeks to foster public engagement through contact and therefore remove deeply embedded barriers. This book examines the limited nature of this 'contact' and explains why the P2P framework, which was ostensibly concerned with the promotion of peace, ultimately served to reinforce conflict and power relations. The book is based on the author's own experience of the solidarity activities during the First Intifada and her first-hand involvement as a coordinator of the P2P projects implemented during the 1990s. It provides a much-needed critical account of the internationally-sponsored peace process and develops new theoretical analyses of settler colonialism.

Dr Nadia Naser-Najjab is a research fellow in Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. Previously she was a visiting scholar in The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University and also taught at Birzeit University. She has published in journals such as the Middle East Journal and Contemporary Arab Affairs.

Nasser-Najjab writes with clarity, and the book makes for accessible and detailed reading which emphasises how decolonisation, not donor funding, should provide a platform for grassroots contact between Palestinians and Israelis. * Middle East Monitor *