The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank

"What is the meaning of the state in Occupied Palestine? Pace and Sen trace this crucial question in their fascinating and innovative book, detailing how the Palestinian Authority and other actors engage in performances of statehood. A must-read for anyone wanting to untangle the seeming paradox of the stateless state of Palestine." Sophie Richter-Devroe, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

"The book brilliantly examines the crucial aporia into which the Palestinian struggle for national liberation has ended up: the inhibition of the establishment of a Palestinian state as a result of the very theatrical statehood machinery performed by the Palestinian Authority with the support of the international community. Reconstructing the post-Oslo attempts to create the new unachievable sovereign entity and carefully navigating the conflictual political emotions of the key characters in this tragedy, Pace and Sen offer a thoughtful and provocative gaze on one of the most complex cases of self-determination in contemporary history." Nicola Perugini, The University of Edinburgh

"This book is a significant contribution to the study of Palestinian politics and the struggle for freedom and human rights. It is a meticulous dismantling of the 'state building' myth that has long been promoted by the Palestinian Authority and its backers among the 'donor' countries.
Michelle Pace and Somdeep Sen offer a rare evaluation of a subject that has long been unjustifiably ignored or hastily grouped under ostensibly more urgent contexts concerning Israeli ‘security’ and American foreign policy. The authors have provided a concise analysis of the Palestinian reality under the PA, one which is grounded in exhaustive research, backed by ethnographic evidence. It convincingly explains why various political actors, Palestinians and others, collude to promote the farce that the PA is in the process of achieving an independent Palestinian state. The writers diligently address the question of why such political theatrics were allowed to carry on for nearly a quarter of a century, and why sustaining this charade is most harmful to the true aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Candid, concise and comprehensible, this book is a vital contribution to the study of the Palestinian-Israeli subject. It is also an essential contribution to the study of state building within the framework of human rights and international politics.
While keeping the Israeli, regional and international contexts in mind, Pace and Sen have successfully helped unshackle the study of Palestinian politics and the ongoing struggle for freedom from its compulsory marginalization.
The writers make a compelling case of how the Palestinian Authority exists to serve the interests of Israel and its allies, while hindering the struggle for Palestinian rights and freedom. This book is an essential read." Ramzy Baroud, author, The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story

"Pace and Sen depart from the premise that the “imagined state” is a means of subversion that works against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. [...] Using theatre as a metaphor for the duplicity determining the absence of Palestinian statehood, Pace and Sen point out inconsistencies in the Oslo Accords which are overlooked, notably the fact that there is no explicit reference to a Palestinian state as a result of negotiations. The text, the authors note, uses the term “interim self-governance”, which impedes independence and curtails the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle." Extract from a review by Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor

"What this study can do is help establish a baseline for studying the performance of statecraft in that dynamic specifically. Moreover, future studies that build on this work can clearly articulate why assessing the PA in this way helps us understand the development or demise of the PA as a project. ... the book is an important one for those who study the Palestinian cause and/or the Palestinian Authority as a quasi-state. It is also useful to scholars interested in the impact of repression, beyond the material consequences of physical violence, and makes use of an interesting analytical lens which may be applied to other cases of quasi-stateness." — Dana El Kurd, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar, Mediterranean Politics, 2020

"This book offers a critical reflection on the theory of the state altogether. This approach helpfully decenters the state from our political imagination allowing us to see other political subjectivities, for example through the performances and rituals that challenge the state’s—even the “fuzzy” state’s—claim to sovereignty." — Timothy Seidel, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, United States, Middle East Policy, 2020