A Police Force Without a State: A History of the Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank and Gaza

Dr Brynjar Lia is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Kjeller, Norway. He was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University in 2001-2. Lia is the author of Building Arafat's Police: The Politics of International Police Assistance in the Palestinian Territories after the Oslo Agreement (Ithaca Press, 2005) and The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-42 (Ithaca, 1998).

This book traces the evolution of the Palestinian police and security forces, beginning with its historical antecedents in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories, and the formation of formal police organizations after the Oslo Accords until the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000. The history of the Palestinian police revolves around the fundamental question of how a national police force can be created and operated without the framework of an independent state. Offering a far more detailed and accurate account of the Palestinian police history, this study also provides unique insight into the problems and dilemmas of policing by non-state actors in war torn societies. The study traces the establishment and expansion of the Palestinian police and security forces with a focus on PLO efforts at recruiting, training, and expanding the force, its political context, institutional development, and dilemmas of 'non-state' policing in the context of the political-military conflict

Introduction; Part I: The PLO Guarding the Revolution: Palestinian Self-Policing and Vigilantism Before Oslo The Road to Oslo and its Palestinian Police Formula "The Hawks are the Real Palestinian Police": The Inside PLO's Police Preparations Arab Brothers: The Politics of Police Training and Recruitment in Exile Symbols of Liberation: The Politics of Palestinian Police Deployment; Part II: Policing Palestine The Post-Oslo Order and Implications for Palestinian Policing A Multitude of Security Forces, Agencies and Branches In the Midst of Informers, Avengers and Death Squads Illegal Weapons, Paramilitary Groups and 'Terrorists'; Part III: The Donor Community Donor Diplomacy and the Politics of Police Aid after Oslo "We Began From Zero": A Never-Ending Equipment and Accommodation Crisis In Search of Donor Mechanisms for Recurrent Police Costs The Politics and Technicalities of Police Funding Shifting Priorities, Dwindling Leadership: Police Aid Coordination in Gaza A Missed Opportunity? The Failure of the Police Observer Negotiations A Marriage in Trouble? Donor-Palestinian Cooperation in Police Training "Our Job is to Kill Hamas and Islamic Jihad": The Politics of Anti-Terrorism Aid Summary and Concluding Remarks