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Disparate Realities: Civil Society NGOs and the Gradual Establishment of Mobility and Resource Segregation in the Occupied West Bank, 1993-2021

Research Project
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01.08.2021
 - 31.07.2025

This PhD project seeks to recount the gradual establishment of mobility and resource segregation in the occupied West Bank in the aftermath of the Oslo Accords from the perspective of civil society NGOs. Against the backdrop of routinized segregation under the Oslo interim regime and the limited statehood of the Palestinian Authority (PA), civil society NGOs have taken up an important role as surrogate service providers for those at the margins of segregation. The project's guiding research question aims to elaborate how NGOs in the West Bank navigate the field of tension between the declared rules of the Oslo interim regime and the incrementally established regime of mobility and resource segregation. Using a double-layered inductive approach, the project combines a top-down policy analysis of segregation in the post-Oslo West Bank with a bottom-up ethnography of three to five NGOs whose cases are emblematic of the broader dynamics at play. The project consists of three stages: First, a comprehensive top-down examination of the policies and processes that brought about the current dynamics of segregation since the early-to-mid 90s; Second, ethnographic research on selected civil society NGOs during three research stay of five months each; Third, recounting the top-down examination of stage one through the ethnographic 'microcosms' of stage two, yielding a compelling history of segregation in the post-Oslo era from the distinct vantage point of civil society NGOs. This project should produce meaningful insights for the study of segregation and the role of civil society NGOs in the occupied West Bank, as well as for Israel-Palestine and conflict studies more broadly.

Members (2)

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Maurus Reinkowski

Principal Investigator
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Moritz Haegi

Principal Investigator