The challenges of academic and community partnerships under military occupation and the complexity of power relations

Abstract

In this paper, the reader is taken on a field trip to a village in the north of the West Bank. Events described in the report are used to explore some of the methodological dimensions of a psychosocial programme designed and implemented in joint partnership between a local Palestinian academic institution, the Institute of Community and Public Health of Birzeit University, and a Palestinian nongovernmental organisation the Community Based Rehabilitation programme. In the discussion, attention is drawn to the challenges involved in conducting field research under military occupation, and the power relations entailed in collaboration between an academic institution and a partner organisation in the field, as well as with the local community.