Powering the Divided City: European involvement in renewable electricity projects in East Jerusalem as a Peacebuilding Strategy

Why do foreign aid providers invest in large-scale electricity projects in nationally disputed urban territories (“divided cities”), and how do the rival sides of the city perceive such projects? While there are multiple motivations for a third-party to assist in developing modern infrastructure in active urban conflict zones, literature on foreign aid tends to frame such programs as attempts to either strengthen the authority of the host government over the area (e.g. UN aid to Lebanon, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo), or promote integration between former warring parties (e.g. EU aid for East-Berlin, Mitrovica, Belfast). In this paper we focus on foreign-backed energy projects that seek to weaken, rather than strengthen, the host government's control over a disputed urban area as a peacebuilding strategy. Through the case of East-Jerusalem, we examine how and why does the European Union invest in solar electricity projects to strengthen the energy independence and cultural autonomy of the city’s Palestinian neighborhoods by taking them “off the Israeli grid”, thus preserving a possibility for a future division of the city, and why local Israeli authorities accept their involvement despite perceiving them as hostile to their long-term national goals. To explain this puzzle, we focus on the constant discrepancies created between the day-to-day energy needs of the residents in a “divided city” and the broader national goals of the sovereign that controls it. We argue that in the context of nationally divided cities, the municipal and state levels of authority to set the city’s governance often clash with the national goals of the residents who refuse to expect their authority, creating incoherence in policy. This leads to a slow and drawn-out process to approve infrastructure projects designed to improve municipal services and the quality of life for the city’s residents, raising the risk for civil disobedience that may “spill-out” to the rest of the city. This process opens space for foreign actors to intervene in meaningful arenas and offer immediate and convenient solutions both for city’s officials and its embattled residents by serving as a “buffer” between them. In doing so, these actors can shape the political status-quo of the city through electricity infrastructure. To advance its argument, this paper examines the involvement of several European Union bodies in the development of East-Jerusalem’s solar electricity infrastructure in the past decade. Through Israeli government and municipal protocols, combined with two dozen interviews with EU representatives and ambassadors, municipal officials in Jerusalem, and Palestinian energy consumers, we flesh-out the puzzle of how third-parties utilize electricity projects to promote national goals in ongoing urban conflict areas.