Decolonisation, dignity and development aid: a judicial education experience in Palestine

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
Decolonisation, dignity and development aid: a judicial education experience in Palestine
Abstract
Taking Palestine as the focus of inquiry, and drawing on our experiences as co-directors of Karamah, a judicial education initiative focused on dignity, we reflect on the attributes of colonisation and the possibilities of decolonisation in Palestine through development aid. We conclude that decolonisation is possible even within development aid frameworks. We envision the current colonial condition in Palestine as a multi-faceted, complex and dynamic mesh that tightens and expands its control over the coveted colonial subject but that also contains holes that offer opportunities for resistance or refusal. We turn to Karamah to illustrate how some judges have insisted on a professional identity that merges the concepts of human dignity and self-determination and ultimately rejects the colonial condition inherent in both occupation and development aid. We conclude that in this process of professional identity (re)formation, members of the Palestinian judiciary have helped reveal the demands of decolonisation by demonstrating their commitment to realising human dignity through institutional power, and bringing occupation back into international development discourse.
Publication
Third World Quarterly
Volume
37
Issue
11
Pages
2010-2027
Date
2016-11-01
ISSN
0143-6597
Short Title
Decolonisation, dignity and development aid
Accessed
8/27/23, 1:28 PM
Library Catalog
Taylor and Francis+NEJM
Extra
Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1181521
Citation
Bahdi, R., & Kassis, M. (2016). Decolonisation, dignity and development aid: a judicial education experience in Palestine. Third World Quarterly, 37(11), 2010–2027. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1181521
Author / Editor