An-Najah Staff

This thesis aimed to address the Palestinian civil society organizations, to highlight their role in promoting the concep of citizenship in Palestine, and to identify their role in promotion of this concept. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher investigated the roots and the origins of the civil society through the study of its history and development and the most important intellectual interactions that influenced it and contributed to its development, the review of the main theories that have contributed to the development of the civil society, and the enquiry of the concept of citizenship. Therefore, the researcher studied the most important intellectual foundations of the civil society and analyzed the concept as well as the growth of the Palestinian civil society organizations in Palestine and their role in the promotion of the concept of citizenship. Despite the shortcomings in certain aspects of the Palestinian civil society organizations, they played important role in establishing the values of citizenship in society although they have gone through several stages of development. In addition, the role of these organizations has depended on internal data because they have contributed to strengthening the determination of the Palestinians and have maintained the system through the provision of various services to the Palestinians. Therefore, the Palestinian civil society organizations have gone through an exceptional situation that has been different from other organizations in other countries. That situation resulted from the Israeli occupation authorities and their procedures that aimed at the alienation of the Palestinians from their land and causes as well as the culturally and socially marginalization. As a result, the civil society organizations have existed before the political state as a national movement to struggle against the attempts of the Israeli occupation to obliterate the Palestinian identity. Therefore, they had to adapt to this unique situation through a set of tools that have matched each phase. Furthermore, at certain stages in the Palestinian history, they have become an important part of the struggle from the British mandate until the Israeli occupation and so they have played a vital role at both national and political levels. Later, they have played a major role in the development aspect in various political, economic and social fields. However, the inauguration of the PNA as a political entity imposed new implications on the nature of their work and thus there have been many organizations which contributed to the promotion of the civic education in a way that have aligned with the global changes which have had repercussions on the Palestinian community as well as the worldwide advocacy to promote the values of democracy and human rights. This status has led to an increase in the number of the Palestinian active organizations which have mainly promoted the human rights and has also led to the problems in the nature of the relationship between them and the PNA. Moreover, the subject of funding has been the most important problem that has affected these organizations, their objectives and vision. In fact, the financiers have always tried to control them in a way that aligned with their objectives. Besides, these organizations have suffered from many institutional difficulties in their work. For example, they have clearly failed to develop a national strategy and vision that have reflected the needs of the Palestinian society, which contributed to their incompetence as well as the loss of their credibility in the Palestinian society. The researcher followed the descriptive analytical approach, which is based on case description and the analysis of its various aspects, along with the interviews that added extra scientific and realistic dimensions to the study. Therefore, the study was divided into four chertes as follows: Chapter I: this section included the study requirements, study plan, the objectives of the study, the methodology of the study, the most important broad points of the study. Chapter II: this section included the study’s theoretical framework, which included the definition of civil society and its phases which affected its development, the definition of the civil society organizations and in their characteristics and components, the definition of citizenship through the interpretation of the most important intellectual foundations, the most important principles of the concept and the most important values that it promoted. Chapter III: this section addressed the establishment and formation of civil society organizations in Palestine, the phases that influenced their development, the interpretation of circumstances and factors that influenced the nature of their work, and their role in the Palestinian territories. Chapter IV: this section included the role of the civil society organizations in the promotion of the concept of citizenship, the most important activities and programs of these organizations, their influence on individual and society, the internal and external constraints that hindered their work, visions and objectives, the development of the civil society organizations to promote the concept of citizenship, the findings of the study, and the most important recommendations. The study found out that the civil society organizations have played an important role in the promotion of the concept of citizenship in Palestine. However, this role has not lived up to the required level because of many obstacles and shortcomings in their work, including: their inability to develop a comprehensive national strategy for their activities and programs which reflected the actual needs of the community as well as the absence of sustainability and continuity in their work. The conditional finance has been a particularly significant obstruction against the promotion of the concept of citizenship. The study reached a set of recommendations including: the Palestinian civil society organizations should seek self-funding sources to finance their activities so as not to fall prey of conditional funding and should also develop a comprehensive national strategy which stems from the particularity of the Palestinian people, expresses its national issues and addresses its actual problems.