Foreign aid is acknowledged as a tool to assist progress in developing countries, yet in the Palestinian case, instead of enhancing the standard and quality of life, promoting democracy and political reform, and assisting Palestinians to build their state institutions, foreign aid is argued by some to have aggravated these aspects (le More, 2005). Discussions in this book will investigate whether and how the political promotion of certain areas has created social-economic and political imbalances within society in Gaza. It also examines how these imbalances might hinder the opportunity for marginalised groups from advancing economically and, in many cases, how these groups might deteriorate.

As is the case in other communities, social division has always existed among Palestinians. Yet, in the context of Palestine, and Gaza in particular, these social divisions have been heavily influenced by several political events starting from the Nakbeh in 1948, to the Six-Day War in 1967 to the post-Oslo era (post-1993). Palestinians were divided along lines drawn by various national and international institutions that provided economic support. Social divisions among Palestinians can be seen in the classifications of Palestinians as refugees and non-refugees, locals (mowatineen) and returnees (aydeen), and metropolitans (mutamadenin) and peasants (fellahin) (Peretz, 1977). These classifications have extended themselves from merely being an external perception to mapping the population, to one where Palestinians began to selfidentify into, and place themselves within, these different groups. We will look at the context within which these divisions have emerged and will investigate whether foreign aid represents an additional factor that has exacerbated dedevelopment by widening these socio-economic divisions. We will also look at how aid has mobilised Palestinians politically and economically, and whether and how these forms of mobilisation have influenced the current Palestinian social reality. Moreover, the book will enquire whether foreign aid agencies demonstrated duality in their aid policies (Schumacher, 1989) in dealing with different sectors of Palestinians. In this context, this book will investigate the nature of this duality.