ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of international stakeholders, who fund and legitimize the theatrical manner in which the Palestinian Authority (PA) performs its statehood in the occupied West Bank. At the outset, this chapter contextualizes the conduct of the international community by outlining the historical trajectory of international stakeholders’ involvement in the institutions and maintenance of the theater of state-building in the occupied Palestinian territories. Further, we demonstrate that international stakeholders, while deeply involved in furbishing the script that informs the theatrical performance of statecraft by the PA, are also cognizant of (and lament) the reality that these processes will most likely not result in a Palestinian state. We conclude that international stakeholders insistently perform their role as funders of the PA’s statehood because it allows them to cultivate a specific identity vis-à-vis their desired role in the Israeli–Palestinian ‘conflict.’
