Palestinian state formation, political rent, and education policy: Development and the construction of identity

This thesis examines the role of education in building a new Palestinian state, and especially on the role and function of the education system in the process of state formation. Since education frames a people's identity, the nature of the education system affects how Palestinians relate to their state. Education serves three primary functions. First, it gives the Palestinian Authority (PA), a state in formation, the opportunity to develop its institutional capacity to allocate resources and values to the people. Second, education contributes to economic development by upgrading the skill levels of the population. Third, and most important, through education the PA transforms the parameters of identity to serve the requirements of state-building and the peace process. International assistance to the PA affects all of these processes through the disbursal of political rent, whose primary function is to bolster the How does the Palestinian educational system, with its multiple external influences, respond to and shape the transitional post-1994 condition? Who are the principal actors and organizations that shaped the priorities which became state policy? In view of significant external influences, how does the Ministry of Education (MOE) prioritize the objectives and goals of Palestinian education, and develop policies to implement these goals?; MOE produced textbooks define a citizen as one who lives in a defined territory which is ruled by a single authority. By territorializing the definition of citizenship, refugees are thus excluded. In fact, the texts rarely mention refugees, and more importantly refugee camps and diaspora Palestinians are absent from the photographs and illustrations in the texts. The texts mute resistance. By doing so, what is not included is quite revealing. Yasser Arafat is introduced only in his capacity as the head of the Palestinian Authority. His resistance related affiliations, as head of Fateh and the PLO, are excluded. The texts thus de-emphasize the history of resistance, and instead state-building functions are amplified.