Power and Clanism in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (original) (raw)

2014, Chapter 3 in 'Informal Power in the Greater Middle East: Hidden Geographies' by Edited by Anceschi, L., Gervasio G., Teti A.

Power cannot ever be entirely monopolized by one social institution, not even, by the state; this assumption is especially relevant in the Palestinian context, where the exercise of sovereignty is limited by both the Israeli occupation and the competing forces of the domestic political landscape. The localization of informal power in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)1 – rather than the observation of central and formal institutions – provides the focus for this chapter. Special attention will be given to the interaction between traditions and clanism in the Palestinian political landscape. Whilst the importance of informal power has been described by numerous Palestinian authors, a consensus on the definition of local political informality is yet to be reached: ‘factionalism’ (Hassassian 1990), ‘elitism’ (Sabella 1999), ‘localism’ (Tamari 1999), ‘neopatrimoniality’ (Jamal, A. 2005) and ‘tribalism’ (Kassem 2009) are only a few of the many labels used to capture the essence of Palestinian informal power. However, it might be worth noting that these categories reveal different aspects of a single phenomenon – that of traditional local power structures based on clan/family ties. The first section of this chapter examines the traditional structure of power in Palestinian society, with the aim of sketching the interactive patterns connecting traditions and clanism in Palestine’s historical continuum. The second part focuses on the post-Oslo era and considers the relationship between formal and informal power during the establishment of the new Palestinian ‘state’. Finally, the third section will centre on the influence of clanism on contemporary political struggles – focusing on the separation of Palestinian power over two governments, one in the Gaza strip and the other in the West Bank. Family ties and clanism have continued to play a pivotal role in the oPt, where they have traditionally represented a critically important source of power. Ultimately, this chapter is designed to discuss the connection between the clanist mindset of the population and the authoritarian attitudes of the current leaderships. This authoritarian practice, to a very significant extent, might be seen as a counter-trend in the Middle East region, where informal powers – both traditional local/tribal groups and elements of the new urban civil society – have been the protagonists of the Arab Spring. Analysing sociopolitical changes in the oPt, ultimately, might contribute to providing a more complex picture of the current Middle Eastern political reality.