BETWEEN THE LOCAL , THE GLOBAL , AND THE AID ECONOMY IN PALESTINE
in Palestine — the ESNCM among them — was enabled by an economic development package , or “ peace dividend ,” that followed the 1993 Oslo Accords and consequent expectations for a sovereign Palestinian state and Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation . 3 This package was created to support the buildup of Palestinian civic society and state institutions viewed by Western donors as indispensable for a modern state , and to promote “ peace building ” with Israel . Leading donors were the European Community and the European Union , followed by the United States ( Hamdan , 2011 )— a policy the U . S . maintained until Trump ’ s presidency . 4 Cultural production , understood as instilling humanistic values , pluralism , and a democratic ethos , has been awarded an important place in this equation .
In many ways , the aims and discourses of the NGO-based economy in Palestine bear resemblance to Western interventions in other “ post-conflict ” societies — for example , the post-Yugoslavia Balkans — combining Western conceptualizations of “ democracy ,” “ development ,” and “ pluralism ” with a neoliberal order ( Devic , 2006 ; Sampson , 2002 ). Palestine , however , provides a unique situation , as here the aid economy continues to operate on assumptions that do not consider post-Oslo realities in which neither peace nor sovereignty are on the horizon . Aid interventions aimed at creating conditions conducive to peace and independence are occurring as conflict , occupation , colonization , and Palestinian state building are all happening simultaneously . In this context , Palestinian cultural organizations are forced to navigate between a number of contradictory logics : “ development towards peace ” ( and sovereignty ) and the conflict on the ground ; the so-called depoliticized frameworks of the aid economy and the entwined ethics of nation-building and cultural resistance ; and foreign donors ’ alignment with Israel , alongside the growing role of cultural institutions in global advocacy for the Palestinian cause .
This article is based on fieldwork conducted in Palestine-Israel in 2011 – 2012 , during which I “ followed the conflict ” by “ following the music ” to study the politics of music making in the post-Oslo era . 5 At the ESNCM , I worked as a volunteer , spent time with personnel and students , documented events , and joined the rehearsal camps that preceded major productions . The article investigates the complex interplay between the aid economy and cultural production in Palestine , demonstrating how music making produces models and projections of Palestinian modernity in a context of occupation , globalization , and the influx of aid . I focus on how these dynamics are negotiated , lived , and performed at the ESNCM , as the organization positions itself in local and global arenas of signification and in networked circulations of culture , power , and politics . While most analyses of the aid economy foreground its neocolonial bent and debilitating sociopolitical and economic effects on Palestinian society and its struggle for liberation , I argue that cultural policy is not solely the purview of foreign interests , but also the outcome of ( diversely articulated ) local needs , ideologies , and projections . My focus on institutional cultural production reveals a dynamic process in which both the accommodation of foreign interests and the assertion of Palestinian agency work ( and do not work ), in tandem .
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