Chauffeured Democracy

A couple of days ago I was sitting in one of the restaurants that cater to foreigners and more affluent, liberal Palestinians (key indicators of such spaces in addition to the clientele are the presence of a certain aesthetic, alcohol and certain foods. The owner (a larger than life character who declared that my accent was Australian and was adamant that he was right,) was trying a potential new addition to the menu – steak and onion pie – while we were paying the bill). On the table next to us sat Mustafa Barghouti with two young women, who may well have been his granddaughters. Barghouti is one of the most recognizable politicians in Palestine, primarily because he is a critic of Fatah and advocates the only non-violent political platform (he does support nonviolent resistance), and is therefore popular in the West. There is nothing particularly exceptional about seeing him in this space. However, when he left the restaurant my friend pointed to his car, a large 4x4. Sat in the front seat was a driver. In fact, the driver had been sat in the front seat the whole time Barghouti had been eating – at least an hour. This conspicuous display of wealth – it’s very unusual, even for the affluent middle classes, to have a chauffeur – was jarring for at least two reasons.

Firstly, as my friend noted, you simply wouldn’t see conspicuous displays of consumption like this even ten years ago. While during the second intifada (2000-2004/5) there were great efforts to keep life as normal as possible, some of the cultures of austerity that developed during the first intifada (1987-1992) still prevailed. More affluent members of society would on the whole be far more discrete. In 2005, I remember there were a group of guys who would come to a restaurant I would frequent in the nearby town of Birzeit, to drink alcohol away from watchful eyes in Ramallah. Examples of this discretion still exist: another restaurant in Ramallah I visited later the same day had a largely obscured upstairs section where people can eat and drink away from the (potential) public gaze. 

Secondly, for a self-styled man of the people and champion of democracy, he certainly seems to live a very different lifestyle from nearly all of his would be subjects. The chauffeured style of democratic politics that he embodies is perhaps both a good example of the consequences of, and a good metaphor for, the broader development of the economically liberalized non-state (or state affectation) that Israel and Fayad are currently pursuing. As an exemplar it clearly shows how new elites are emerging from conditions of increasing socio-economic polarization. As a metaphor: when someone is being driven around, they are never ultimately in control of the car or which direction it heads in.