The Rise and Fall of Human Rights provides a groundbreaking ethnographic investigation of the Palestinian human rights world-its NGOs, activists, and "victims," as well as their politics, training, and discourse-since 1979. Though human rights activity began as a means of struggle against the Israeli occupation, in failing to end the Israeli occupation, protect basic human rights, or establish an accountable Palestinian government, the human rights industry has become the object of cynicism for many Palestinians. But far from indicating apathy, such cynicism generates a productive critique of domestic politics and Western interventionism. This book illuminates the successes and failures of Palestinians' varied engagements with human rights in their quest for independence.
"This powerfully argued book provides a welcome perspective on the 'human rights industry' in occupied Palestine. It constitutes a valuable contribution to the study both of a key example of the global discourse of human rights, and of the worsening situation of the Palestinians after nearly two decades of dual control by Israel and the Palestinian Authority."
Columbia University
"The idiom of human rights now pervades Palestinian ideas of who they are and what they hope to be. This eye-opening book explores how, between the friction of disappointment and hope, human rights values might still generate more viable means to build a common world. A profound reflection on the dominant discourse of emancipation in our times."
Harvard University
"The book is a breath of fresh air in the context of a human rights literature dominated by unrealistic and optimistic assessments of human rights actions and campaigns which fail to acknowledge that human rights movements have changed little despite their institutionalization, legitimation, and international funding. Human rights organizations produce reports, diagnostics, and participate in publ
