State Building as Peacebuilding: EU’s Support for Palestinian Institution-Building

Over the past two decades, statebuilding has developed into becoming an integral part and a specific approach of peacebuilding by the international community, including by the EU. The EU’s support for Palestinian institution-building has been a prime example of this development but, so far, neither peace nor a Palestinian state has emerged. A seemingly growing number of critics have instead begun to claim that the EU is enabling Israel’s occupation rather than contributing to a genuine peace process and a future Palestinian state. This paper probes whether this really is the case by looking at the achievements and failures of Palestinian institution-building and the role of the EU in the processes. The main conclusion is that while the PA, supported by the EU and the rest of the international community has acted illiberally and to some extent enabled the occupation, it is hard to see how the occupation can otherwise come to an end if there are no Palestinian institutions, no security sector reforms, no rule of law and no applications of good governance in the West Bank; all of which require cooperation with Israel and the occupation at this stage.