Academics in the Council of Ministers: strengthening or decline in the academic role in the Palestinian national project?(*) - Caus - Arab Unity Studies Center

Summary:

This paper discusses the role of the Palestinian academic in the national project of liberation from occupation and self-determination in the post-establishment of the Palestinian Authority, which was based on the 1993 Oslo Accords. The paper focuses in particular on The academic’s relationship with the Palestinian National Authority as the official body carrying the national project, and argues that this role has declined compared to the historical and pioneering role played by the Palestinian academic under the direct occupation in the pre-Oslo Accord stage. Therefore, the paper asks if the Palestinian academic has given up his leadership and resistance role against the Israeli occupation and has become part of the PA, identifying with it, defending it, and aspiring to promotion in its structures, and whether joining the bureaucratic apparatus of the PA has tamed the Palestinian academic, similar to his involvement in the programs of international non-governmental organizations with similar Professional and technical specialization that is not necessarily linked to the national project of resistance, or has the academic proved his “ability to change from within,” as many academics explain why they joined the Palestinian Authority?

keywords: the Palestinian national project, the Palestinian Authority, academics, academic resistance, academic activist, Palestinian self-determination, the Israeli occupation.

Summary

This paper discusses the role of the Palestinian Academics in the national project of self-determination and liberation from the Israeli occupation after 1993, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority based on the Oslo Agreement. Particularly, the paper examines the relationship between academics and the Palestinian Authority as the official entity representing the national project. It argues that this role has declined in comparison with the historical leadership role that Palestinian academics played in the pre-1993 Oslo phase. The paper asks whether Palestinian academics have abandoned their leadership and resistance role against the Israeli occupation, becoming part of the Palestinian authority, identifying with and defending its performance and aspiring to be promoted in its structures. Furthermore, the paper discusses whether joining the bureaucratic apparatus of the authority worked to 'tame' Palestinian academics in a similar way to that with their close involvement in international NGOs that focus on technical specializations, not necessarily in advancing the national project. Finally, the paper asks whether the academics proved their ability to "change from within" as many of them justify why they joined the Palestinian Authority.

Keywords: Palestinian National Project, Palestinian Authority, Academics, resistance, scholar activism, Israeli occupation, Palestinian self-determination.

Academics are seen as representing a major segment of intellectuals in any society, for reasons related to their high level of education and their presence in leadership positions in the educational process in their communities. On the other hand, the relationship of the educated academic with power is sensitive, as it is dialectical, in which some view the intellectual as representing the conscience of society and the owner of the oversight and moral role over power and the voice of those who have no voice, while others see that the stay of the educated academic in ivory towers leads to His isolation from his social and political surroundings, while his immersion in power enables him to bring about the required change from within, which is what society needs, especially when the power is corrupt, unjust, and oppressive to the people. But, at the same time, the entry of the intellectual into power may lead him to transform into becoming a part of this reality, not necessarily that he shares power and its corruption but only because of his inability to bring about change in this environment because he is simply stronger than him, just as he, and this is the most dangerous thing, can be an academic A non-corrupt intellectual can confer a kind of legitimacy on this reality, as he has become a part of it. And since the educated academic takes the position of moral and value watchdog - or so he is supposed to - he must occupy advanced positions in the revolution and the liberation process, as was the case in Palestine when the academic intellectual took his role against the Israeli occupation and its abuse, and was subjected to arrest, house arrest, and deportation.

This study discusses the role of the educated academic in the Palestinian national project, represented by liberation from occupation and self-determination, in the post-establishment stage of the Palestinian Authority, which was based on the Oslo Accords of 1993. The study focuses in particular on the relationship of the educated academic with the Palestinian National Authority as the official body that carries For the national project, she argues that this role has declined compared to the pioneering historical role played by the Palestinian academic under the direct occupation in the pre-Oslo agreement period. So did the educated academic abandon his leadership and resistance role against the Israeli occupation and become part of the PA, identifying with it, defending it, and aspiring to promotion in its structures? Did joining the bureaucratic apparatus of the authority tame the educated academic, similar to his involvement in the programs of international non-governmental organizations with a precise professional and technical specialization that is not necessarily linked to the national project of resistance? Or did the academic prove his “ability to change from within,” as many academics explain why they joined the Palestinian Authority?

Methodologically, this study examined the literature on the subject from secondary sources. The researcher also conducted a series of interviews with Palestinian academics interested in public affairs and the advancement of the national project. In addition, the researcher tracks the representation of Palestinian academics in the eighteen governments of the National Authority, starting with the first government that was formed after the Oslo Accords of 1993, and ending with what was called the “factional government” in 2019, to study the extent of academics’ presence in the Authority and its official institutions, and whether This would contain their political role within Palestinian society. In order to arrive at a specific procedural definition of the Palestinian academic, the study considered him to be a person who holds a doctorate degree from a locally or internationally recognized university and has been teaching at a higher education institution for a period of not less than one year.

First: The Importance of Academics for National Action

The importance of studying the role of academics in public affairs - the advancement of the national project in the Palestinian case - and in the process of social change stems from a set of subjective factors, primarily related to their being producers of knowledge that is A kind of active force in the modern era, and the consequent privileges they possess that make them able to play a distinguished role that contributes to achieving the required change. It enhances their ability to formulate visions for societal challenges, as they are working outside the framework of power and are not under the influence of the dynamics of governance, and the need to reach formulas that preserve their own interests, foremost of which is staying in power. So, they are relatively and theoretically visions free from conflict of interest.

Academics have an important type of power within society represented by their ability to influence societal public opinion and the concomitant influence on pressure on political power in the state. The strength of academics in this field stems from two factors: the first is the social status that they enjoy, which provides them with a certain level of protection from the oppression of the authorities, making them more able to speak out in challenging and criticizing the authority; The second is by virtue of their knowledge production directed to public opinion most of the time. This capacity for public influence helps create a kind of balance in the power relations between the political authority and the forces of civil society, making change more likely.

Academic prestige grants special abilities to its holders as it qualifies them to address the international community and to defend the issues of its societies, at a different level in terms of performance and addressing space than what the political authority offers. It is not a substitute for what the political authority offers, but it is complementary in many respects to what the latter cannot reach. On the Palestinian side, academic figures have made breakthroughs in the international arena in defending the justice of the Palestinian cause, which the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority could not do due to the different specialization of each. Palestinian academics, such as Edward Said, Ibrahim Abu Lughod, Hisham Sharabi, Waleed and Rashid al-Khalidi, and many others, have made significant impacts on the justness of the Palestinian cause in many international arenas, as other official Palestinian leaders had no access to it to argue with it and achieve the desired effect [1].

On the other hand, there is a section of academics who usually refuse to join parties, for reasons inherent in the nature of both partisan and academic work. While the political party expects its members to believe in, adopt, and defend its positions even if the individual is not convinced of them, the academic working in the production of knowledge is expected to adhere to objectivity, search for truth, and be aligned with it alone, regardless of partisanship. The objective academic approach performs an important societal function, especially in times of sharp political polarization, as it works outside it, and the results it reaches can be a meeting ground for those outside this polarization as well. In the case of an organized collective academic work, this would make the academics a third party pressurer working against polarization.

Another important role of academics in public affairs is the ability of the national academy to contribute to improving the national decision-making process by enriching it with information and scientific research. In this regard, Ali al-Jarbawi, a professor of political science at Birzeit University, believes that a major reason for the decline in the level of political performance in the Arab world in general is the large gap between knowledge and political decision [2]. The political decision-making process does not include knowledge production as an integral part of the process itself. Accordingly, academics working in the production of knowledge can contribute to bridging this gap by creating appropriate mechanisms for that, whether by establishing think tanks, direct advice to political decision makers, or issuing policy briefs or even public and non-public seminars. that. In this regard, Al-Jarbawi warns that it is difficult for an academic to influence the decision-making process on his own from outside the authority, as he must work through institutions, political parties, or pressure groups that provide him with the appropriate framework for influence, and he infers this from the Western model, for example. ; Who provided think tanks such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations and many others, which turned into an additional tributary of cognitive influence in political decision-making. Despite this, al-Jarbawi admits that some academics have individually achieved an international status that qualified them to have leverage and influence in political action in their areas of specialization.

Finally, the impact of the academic role in public affairs remains vital, not only on a temporary basis, but on a strategic scale as well. Academics are the ones who supervise the educational process for the youth, who usually play a pivotal role in revolutions and social change movements. University students are in direct contact with their professors, and fall under a systematic influence on their part for several years, and this gives academics an important role in influencing the future leadership of society.

Second: The role of the educated academic in public affairs

Not every academic is an intellectual, and not every intellectual is an academic. However, it is socially expected that the academic performs the tasks of the intellectual, on top of which is the adoption of the issues of his society and bias towards the moral side in the relationship of the state with society. his community. There is also the academic activist who adds a new dimension to this relationship. It identifies with the academic and intellectual in aspects and is distinguished by other aspects. Figure (1) shows the relationship between these definitions, as well as the space in which they intersect, which is the scope of interest of this study.

Figure No. (1)
The relationship between the academic, the intellectual, and the activist

Let us start first with the intellectual, as Antonio Gramsci considers that everyone who works in a field related to the production and dissemination of knowledge is an intellectual (Saeed, 2006: 40). The intellectual has a message and has a vital role in societal public affairs. Theorists differed on the image of this role, and the way in which it is expressed, as there is talk about different types of intellectuals. Julian Benda (1969: 34) considered intellectuals the “conscience of humanity” in his study entitled “The Betrayal of the Intellectuals.” He rejects those intellectuals who live in ivory towers (as some academics do) and who indulge in controversy over obscure issues and are isolated from Others live in their own worlds. True thinkers are closer to being honest with themselves, and they are motivated by lofty principles such as justice and truth, exposing and confronting corruption, and defending the oppressed. They also challenge the defective or brutal authority (Said, 1996). In the same context, Gramsci referred in the prison notebooks to the “organic intellectual” (Gramsci, 1971: 3‑23), which he defined as “that intellectual (partisan or non-partisan) who is able to reveal the unnatural social reality, and that that reality can be changed by the ability To analyze and criticize his culture, and to achieve the cultural hegemony of the oppressed” (Bishara, 2013: 5). Gramsci distinguishes between the traditional intellectual who rises above reality and the general public on the one hand, and the organic intellectual who struggles with his people and bears the concerns of his people and adopts them, thus becoming significant in the process of social change.

Edward Said was particularly affected by Banda and Gramsci's vision of the role of the intellectual in society and his relationship with power, as he believes that "the intellectual plays a specific role in the public life of his society, and his image cannot be reduced to the image of an anonymous professional, that is, a mere competent person belonging to a class He only does his work” (Saeed, 2006: 43-44). The intellectual, according to Edward Said, carries a message and represents a position, or a specific philosophy, which he discloses and defends as a representative of people and issues whose fate is forgotten or ignored and concealed. All human beings have the right to expect decent and appropriate standards and levels of behavior in terms of achieving freedom and justice... and that any violation of these levels and behavioral standards, intentionally or unintentionally, cannot be tolerated, but must be publicized and fought with courage” (Saeed, 2006: 43-44).

Edward Said believed that the intellectual should stay away from power, and not serve in its agencies or work as an advisor to it, as he believes that the intellectual originally belongs to universal principles and represents and defends the oppressed. Saeed tells of himself that he was not interested in consulting in return for the fees offered by governments, "as in this case you do not know how to use or benefit from your ideas in the future." He adds that he always welcomed university lectures and rejected anything else, as he did not stop “accepting to speak on occasions that allow an increase in the political dose in my speech, and I answered – regularly and without hesitation – every invitation I received from Palestinian groups, or from universities in South Africa to visit them.” and anti-apartheid and pro-academic freedom discourse” (Saeed, 2006: 150).

The relationship between the intellectual and the authority, then, took up a large part of the intellectuals’ discussion, including the Arabs, who proposed what became known as “bridging the relationship between the intellectual and the authority.” Intellectuals aimed through this bridging to attempt what they called “change from within,” which allows them to influence power not from the outside or in the form of “Edward Said’s lectures,” but through advice and enlightenment, and sometimes carrying out specific tasks for power while leaving their mark as intellectuals on it, which in their opinion If intellectuals do not do it, other people will do it. Their situation says, “Let us do it in a way that serves the noble and principled causes that we adopt with our thoughts and defend as intellectuals.” Azmi Bishara calls these people what he calls the “reformist intellectual,” as he argues that he can change within specific circumstances related to the nature of the regime, but he questions the ability of this type of intellectual to achieve change in the end. He says, the reformist intellectual is “the one who tries to influence the direction of introducing change through deliberate settlements, and bargains for the sake of changing the regime from within, and not by breaking it through revolution in what is spread among the Arabs under the formula of “bridging the relationship between the intellectual and the authority.” This reformist intellectual succeeds in the case of regimes that deduce the necessity of reform, and adaptation to the movement of history in order to survive without petrification. However, the reformist intellectual reaches a dead end in the system of absolute tyranny” (Bishara, 2013: 16).

The educated academic sometimes finds himself becoming part of the phenomenon of the so-called “technocrats”, which is generally defined as the scientific or technical management of state affairs based on specialization and not the political or intellectual affiliation of its workers. Technocratic governments are usually organized as a solution to political crises that afflict the government, and when political parties are unable to agree with each other on the management of state affairs, then specialized academics and technical experts from international legal and economic institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program and others are summoned to replace political governments in managing state affairs. This is until new elections are held or other political settlements are reached. The countries of the Arab Spring, in particular, witnessed an unprecedented boom in adopting technocratic solutions to overcome their successive political crises.

At the same time, there is the “expert academic” who devotes his time, effort, and interests to the production of specialized artistic knowledge, isolated from public affairs issues or the current political situation. The “expert academic” contrasts with the “activist academic,” who is not only concerned with public affairs and adopting and defending his issues intellectually in what is sometimes known as the public intellectual. Specific issues and mobilize them at different levels to bring about the desired change. The activist academic leads the social action to bring about the required change, and it is not enough to write about it or talk about it in lectures organized by various academic edifices. He moves from thinking to action. The activist academic, according to John Dewey, is the one who “shapes the reality that leads to positive social goals, and does not stand aside in a virtuous subjective environment isolated from reality” (Dewey, 1969‑1991). The activist academic has historically been known as responsible for linking thinking and knowledge with practical action on the ground (Tilley and Taylor, 2014: 55). In this context, Gramsci wrote in The Prison Notebooks, “The method of the new intellectual is no longer confined to linguistic eloquence, but rather active in practical life as an organizer, builder, and persuader” (Gramsci, 1971: 68). What we call here the “activist academic” Gramsci calls the “new intellectual” and defines for him roles related to social action as an organizer and builder that go beyond what is known about the general or organic intellectual, who is content with the critical aspect of power and enlightenment within his society.

Janet Conway explains the role of the academic activist in society when she compares it to the "political scholar", which is another designation for the general or organic intellectual for some. She says, "The political academic is committed to progressive political values ​​and ideas (Conway, 2004). It can be right-wing, populist, conservative, etc. Although the activist academic is also politically committed, it differs from the political academic in that they work as activists with other activists in non-academic spaces. As such, they are not only recognized as academics, but as part of a broader community of thinkers and activists who share a collective vision, purpose, and idea of ​​change as well. Being an active academic, Conway suggests, means being involved in daily work and endless meetings, and it also means appreciating other contributions to the cause (in which you believe)” (Tilley and Taylor, 2014: 55).