ABSTRACT
When the Oslo ‘peace process’ was made public in 1994, it was presented to the world as a series of negotiations that would work towards bringing an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that had begun some 27 years before. Yet, at the time of writing – 22 years later – this ‘peace process’ has been an evident failure (Massad 2014). Yet this lack of progress cannot be understood as a product of international neglect of the issue. Rather, the promise of creating a Palestinian state – as a means to end the conflict – has been one of the most often iterated goals of numerous political leaders. Moreover, the Palestinian case has also become something of a model for ‘statebuilding’ exercises elsewhere, as discussed in a wide range of literature produced by international organisations. So why, then, did it fail?
