'Safe Israel and Peaceful Democratic Palestine': Discourses and Policies of Dutch Post-Oslo Development Aid in Palestine

This research seeks to contribute to the academic debate on the politics of development aid in the context of violent conflict. It focuses on the Netherlands as a political and development actor in the post-Oslo context in Palestine, and attempts to understand and situate Dutch bilateral development aid policies in that specific context. It examines the convergence of Dutch foreign and development aid policies and investigates the historical and geopolitical dynamics underlying the specific policy choices. An in-depth examination of interrelated pol-icy discourses illuminates the politics of identity representations in constructing and legitimizing the policies of and discourses around Dutch development aid to Palestine. Analysing these discourses and Dutch framing of the concepts of "conflict", "peace", and “security”- and the interrelation between them in the Palestinian context- allows for an understanding of Dutch framing of Palestinian development needs and how that informs the specific policy choices. The study concludes that Dutch development policies in Palestine and policy discourses are specific political choices. It argues that this approach -- acting for "peace" and "stability"-- fails to address the individual and collective injustices of the Israeli occupation, and the resulting violence and insecurities confronting Palestinian men and women. Consequently, it poses the question whether and to what extent such policy choices meet Palestinian development needs, or serve Palestinian security and social justice agendas under Israeli colonial occupation.