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Are Palestinians Building a State?

(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Nathan J. Brown - The international community's admiration for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his efforts to rebuild the West Bank obscures a dangerous regression in democracy and human rights. PA security services continue to act outside the law under the guise of cracking down on Hamas. To the extent that Fayyadism is building institutions, it is unmistakably doing so in an authoritarian context. There is no way Fayyad's cabinet could have been created or sustained in a more democratic environment. While Fayyad's cabinet has managed to make a few existing institutions more effective and less corrupt, there has been regression in other governing bodies. Ironically, there was more institution-building and civil society development under Yasser Arafat than there has been since the West Bank-Gaza split in 2007. The writer is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
2010-07-06 08:23:25
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