ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) and its member states shoulder a significant part of the aid devoted to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). They do so according to a development aid model that is driven intellectually by the World Bank, under US political oversight. This article locates European aid in the World Bank-led approach and analyses its shortcomings. It starts with an overview of how such an approach came to characterize economic development in the Oslo Peace Process. It highlights its fundamental ambiguities when it comes to analysing the occupation and settlements. It then focuses on the issue of settlement-building and de-development in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) that punctuates the failure of the aid model. It concludes by analysing current thinking in aid effectiveness and how it could be adopted as an alternative approach by the Europeans.
