Building Arafat's Police: The Politics of International Police Assistance in the Palestinian Territories After the Oslo Agreement

Building Arafat's Police examines the role of international donors in creating and reforming the Palestinian police and security forces. The book brings a unique insight into the problems of providing aid to police forces created by a national liberation organization in a war torn society, and also offers a detailed account of a much neglected research topic, namely police reform efforts in the Middle East peace process. The book demonstrates how the donor officials struggled to overcome ingrained unwillingness at home against the use of aid funds for police reform purposes, while at the same time maneuvering uneasily between Israeli obstructionism and security concerns, rivalries between Palestinian police generals, as well as a lack of Palestinian preparedness for the technical and practical aspects of police reform.