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Conflict in the Middle East

Aid agencies and charities - are they neutral?

28 replies

mids2019 · 24/03/2024 07:21

I have noticed that a lot of people are a little hesitant in giving donations unreservedly to charities like Oxfam now. I think back on the 80s and 90s there was a national sympathy with famine in Africa culminating in band aid but I think people now are being a lot more circumspect about donations.

Gaza is a prime example of where people do hesitate in donating as it does feel you are donating to a side in a conflict and I wonder to what extent charitable giving is influenced by their views of who is the aggressor in this conflict and whether they can safely say aid is not being indirectly used to support Hamas.

It seems like charities like Oxfam (who I do not donate to now) are taking a stance on a military conflict when they as a charity should remain firmly neutral in their aid efforts. I would have more respect for their charity of some of the money they raise was given to the families of hostages to support their psychological wellbeing for example.

I didn't watch comic relief but I wonder if they did mention Gaza and glossed over the reasons for the conflict (or possibly bypassed this altogether) but it shows that a lot of major aid charities have to make emotional messages to draw in the money while glossing over a lot of the causes of the problems in say Africa (Islamist upsurges for example).

I wonder if those that participate in the Palestinian marches disproportionately give to aid charities? Certainly currently a lot of my peers are now viewing charities a little more cynically now.

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mids2019 · 24/03/2024 07:34

Aid agencies should be there to provide humanitarian aid in my opinion and not start to make judgments about conflicts as once they go down this line they are no longer logically neutral in conflict. I think there should be care about where people's hard earned cash is directed to and I don't think some charities give the impression they wish to give a simplistic narrative of war to appeal to people's consciouses.

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TowerStork · 24/03/2024 07:28

And your comment doesn't have even a hint of bias to it so that's fine