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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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TowerStork · 24/03/2024 07:28

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

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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Dulra · 24/03/2024 09:43

@mids2019 What's your point? People should now stop contributing to charities that are supplying humanitarian aid to those suffering in Gaza because they aren't providing support to the hostages as well? No idea how they'd even do that.
People choose to support different charities for many different reasons and from my perspective (in Ireland) the charities supporting the people in Gaza are doing just that, they are not there to make judgement about the politics of the situation or why these people are starving they are there to provide humanitarian aid so they can survive. Why make it any more complicated then that? I think the massive distrust of charities seems to be quite a British thing.

HeidiInTheBigCity · 24/03/2024 10:08

I think you are mixing up "neutral" with "apolitical" here - most humanitarian work strives to achieve the former and inherently cannot be the latter!

Take the refugee crisis in the Med as an example: virtually all humanitarian orgs that worked there at the hight of it were hightly critical of the EU, its migration policies, and of Frontex. Because they had to be! Their mission - to save as many lives as possible and safeguard the human rights of the ones that did make it - was simply being hampered by The EU's actions [all of this is still ongoing and still true, by the way].

And, yes, that is political. That does not mean "not neutral" in the sense that it does not mean these orgs are "against the EU" - merely that they, by necessity, oppose the actions and the parts of EU policy that interfere with their own goals. This was not a problem with Ukrainian refugees and: lo and behold, no complaints about the EU then!

Gaza is very comparable in this way!

I suspect that by charities not being "neutral" you are referring to the fact that pretty much every humanitarian organisation on the ground has been heavily critical of Israel's conduct of the war - and, to some extent, of there being a war at all (if you interpret calls for a ceasefire that way).

But, again, they would have to be - because, again, this particular conduct fundamentally hampers (in this particular case: mostly negates altogether) their ability to fulfil their own missions.

Again, this is not biased as such - a "neutrality" problem would be, if the citizens of Tel Aviv were being starved to death and carpet bombed - and MSF refused to provide them with its services. But that is not what is happening. Or if the ICRC (a rather good example in that its mandate explicitly demands neutrality) called for the release of Palestinian prisoners but not Israeli captives (it is actually doing the exact opposite and thereby explicitly not interfering with an Israeli judicial system for Palestinians which is widely criticised - and rightly so! - but that is not what the ICRC does).

I suspect when you call for humanitarian orgs to be "less political" and "more neutral" what you would like to see is less criticism of how the war is conducted and fewer pleas for a ceasefire and accusations that Israel is interfering with humanitarian aid. Again, they cannot do that - they are not stating "Israel bad" but "these conditions make it impossible for us to do our work, and civilians come to unneccessary harm as a result".

Technically, I suppose, they could pivot to what some governments have been doing: drop some food from airplanes or try to establish a sea route. The issue with that is: this is ineffective - and every expert worth their salt says as much! As such - and now call me a cynic - there is also a plausible case to be made that such efforts exist more to a) pander to upset domestic electorates and ... wait for it ... b) political posturing opposite the Israeli government. Neither of which is something that large humanitarian orgs need to worry about (because they are not states or their governments).

None of this is to say there are no flaws in the system - there clearly are. No, I have never been employed by an NGO - I do have some cumulative 3+ years of volunteering in the field under my belt, though, and have seen plenty of stuff I did not think was great. A lot of it, by the way, related to the need to appeal to donors. Organisations demanding change that enables them to do their work, however, is not a "bug" but a "feature" - it doesn't discredit them. If anything it's a testimony to their committment to their actual mission (as opposed to "making no material difference but helping upset Europeans feel a little better").

Oh, also: your Comic Relief bloke you cite? Hardly an expert in the field: he is a business executive with a long history with WPP and precisely none of humanitarian field work who, as one of several such mandates, served on the board of a charity whose main purpose is to funnel funds to other orgs who actually deliver projects - and a card-carrying zionist, so: hardly a beacon of political neutrality himself. HTH.

Gingerkittykat · 24/03/2024 10:26

The actions of Hamas in October were horrific and I believe the hostages should be freed but why would aid agencies give money to their families? I'm assuming that Israel has some kind of health care which could help them and has the resources to put that help into place.

Meanwhile Palestine is close to famine with people starving and living in camps. Women can't breastfeed because they are so malnourished and babies are dying.

I know which country needs aid the most.

Scirocco · 24/03/2024 10:32

Giving to charity to help others when we can is important - so important that it's actually one of the fundamental pillars of Islam that all Muslims who are able to do so must contribute a portion of their wealth to charity, to help others.

The idea of there being concerns or a need to check information about individual charities isn't new. For as long as organisations managing donations have existed, people have needed to ask questions to satisfy themselves - does this charitable organisation share my values? is it experiencing corruption? is it effective in getting my donation to where I want it to go? And if a charity doesn't seem suitable for a person, there are lots of other ones available.

Are people only now realising that if they want to donate for a specific thing (or not to a specific thing) then they should find out about the organisation they're planning on donating to?

Parkingt111 · 24/03/2024 11:05

@mids2019 perhaps your peers are hesitant. Most people i know have massively increased their charity donations as have I and will continue to do so.
Gaza is at the brink of a famine, why wouldn't people want to donate?
There are many charities to choose from if you have doubts about one.

Blueglassfromikea · 24/03/2024 11:08

Who can you donate to for the people of Gaza? I didn't think aid was getting through on any level?

gloriagloria · 24/03/2024 11:14

I’ve increased my charity donations but not at the moment to Gaza (except to a few small projects where I know the money can actually get into Gaza and make a difference now). There are millions of tons of aid at the border - the problem for the moment isn’t money but access. Personally at the moment I would rather give to other disasters that are being neglected and switch to Gaza when I think it can be more effectively translated to aid.

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 24/03/2024 11:20

As a pp has said, it’s unavoidable that charities are small p political: they try to relieve want, injustice and cruelty (I’m leaving out animal charities here) so will have views on the causes of those things.

But I agree that many overstep the line quite frequently. Charity campaigning - for change, not just raising money - is an increasing problem. The Charity Commission has looked at quite a few issues in this area over the last few years.

I would welcome much stricter rules about charities’ conduct.

As for Gaza, I can’t see there’s anything to be done about the attitude of charities. If food, fuel and other necessities are needed, they’re needed. I’ve no doubt some will be diverted, but we have to live with that for the greater good.

Where I have graver doubts is the information we’re being fed via Hamas. I tend to take a sceptical line about what I’m told by terrorist organisations. But there are enough western journalists there to show a real crisis without having to hear it from Iran’s puppet.

TinyYellow · 24/03/2024 11:20

You can’t simultaneously believe that ‘aid agencies should be there to provide humanitarian aid and not start to make judgments about conflicts’ at the same time as believing oxfam should provide psychological support for the families of hostage victims. The families of hostages need support but they’re not at risk of starvation. Were you calling for aid charities to provide psychological support to the refugees created by the the IDF before they were starving?

How is your stance to charity giving avoiding a politics?

gloriagloria · 24/03/2024 11:28

TinyYellow · 24/03/2024 11:20

You can’t simultaneously believe that ‘aid agencies should be there to provide humanitarian aid and not start to make judgments about conflicts’ at the same time as believing oxfam should provide psychological support for the families of hostage victims. The families of hostages need support but they’re not at risk of starvation. Were you calling for aid charities to provide psychological support to the refugees created by the the IDF before they were starving?

How is your stance to charity giving avoiding a politics?

The idea of humanitarian aid is to reach populations where there are no alternative services. I very much doubt that is the case in Israel, which is a high income countr that also recieves very significant international aid. It will have national third sector organizations and public sector that can respond to their needs. So no, I wouldn’t necessarily see it as a role for international organizations unless they have a specific Israeli chapter with a clear national remit.

Kindatired · 24/03/2024 13:52

Not calling for a ceasefire to allow aid distribution is more political than calling for one.

What we are seeing is that the Biden administration is trying to talk from two sides of its mouth at the same time- voters don’t want to see starving children, but criticism of Israel is likely to result in a targeted smear campaign and an election loss.

It’s not just a year for presidential elections- all 400+ seats in the lower house and a third in the upper house are up for election.

The Us defence industry is a big driver of economic activity in the US - Israel is the biggest recipient of military aid, outstripped by Ukraine in the last 2 years. Much of the military aid is used to buy US made arms so business interests obviously also don’t want the war to pause either.

So the US Democratic presidential administration is under strong political pressure to continue to support a war against the wishes of its electorate.
Their solution is to make a show of delivering by sea and by land, dropping food parcels on top of people and killing them. Meanwhile the Israelis drive around in their tanks on the new roads they’ve built shooting people and boys with baseball bats and masks try to distribute food.

The only way to get aid distributed is to pause the fighting and let experts do this difficult job without these cynical photo ops.

mids2019 · 25/03/2024 06:40

I think it's complex. The lack of mention of Gaza on Comic reliefs website shows that for a main stream charity charitable donations for foreign aid has become more considered as compared to the era where people were giving money for famines IinEthiopia. I think this is now why many charities that had an international focus are now skewing towards domestic causes.

I would just find it curious to know who is giving in significant quantities to Gaza appeals and judging by comments on some of the charities face book pages there is a lot of contention. In reality a lot of famine is a by product of war and the only real way of sustainably relieving it is to explore avenues for peace which are beyond the remit of chafity.

I don't think it is the place for aid agencies to necessarily call for ceasefires as the ceasefire have to based on certain terms of engagement and I do feel aid charities do overstep the mark here. Yes, provide humanitarian relief where possible but don't enter the political sphere by blaming just one side in a conflict. It's a difficult line but I think charities have to follow it.

I r

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Scirocco · 25/03/2024 07:16

If that's your preference, then there will be charities that align with that. There'll also be others that don't.

Of course people need to look beyond the main headings and the adverts to check if a charity aligns with their values... Isn't that normal? Do people really not check that??

Dulra · 25/03/2024 08:06

mids2019 · 25/03/2024 06:40

I think it's complex. The lack of mention of Gaza on Comic reliefs website shows that for a main stream charity charitable donations for foreign aid has become more considered as compared to the era where people were giving money for famines IinEthiopia. I think this is now why many charities that had an international focus are now skewing towards domestic causes.

I would just find it curious to know who is giving in significant quantities to Gaza appeals and judging by comments on some of the charities face book pages there is a lot of contention. In reality a lot of famine is a by product of war and the only real way of sustainably relieving it is to explore avenues for peace which are beyond the remit of chafity.

I don't think it is the place for aid agencies to necessarily call for ceasefires as the ceasefire have to based on certain terms of engagement and I do feel aid charities do overstep the mark here. Yes, provide humanitarian relief where possible but don't enter the political sphere by blaming just one side in a conflict. It's a difficult line but I think charities have to follow it.

I r

I would just find it curious to know who is giving in significant quantities to Gaza appeals and judging by comments on some of the charities face book pages there is a lot of contention.

I think this is an experience in the UK but definitely not the experience I have in Ireland where this issue is not contentious and people can see beyond the politics to a starving, persecuted population that needs help. I find it really unpalatable that people would politicise a starving population to discourage people from donating to charities that are helping them and I would be very suspicious about where these comments on fb you are seeing are coming from . It is lent here at the moment which is traditionally an important time in the catholic faith when people give to charities in lieu of giving something up for lent. All our main charities have campaigns for Gaza and there is a lot of fundraising events happening as well.

I don't think it is the place for aid agencies to necessarily call for ceasefires as the ceasefire have to based on certain terms of engagement and I do feel aid charities do overstep the mark here.
Aid agencies have a job to do - supply aid. The agencies are calling for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds to allow the distribution of aid, it is not for political reasons it is so they can do their job and do it safely. The provision of humanitarian aid should never be political but Israel from the beginning has made it so, this is on them

Kindatired · 25/03/2024 14:45

The only practical way to avert a catastrophic man-made famine is a prolonged pause in the fighting. The other approaches are cynical politically motivated propaganda measures that deflect from the urgency and severity of this imminent crisis
Aid agencies do have a role in calling for the need for a ceasefire

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 25/03/2024 14:51

Kindatired · 25/03/2024 14:45

The only practical way to avert a catastrophic man-made famine is a prolonged pause in the fighting. The other approaches are cynical politically motivated propaganda measures that deflect from the urgency and severity of this imminent crisis
Aid agencies do have a role in calling for the need for a ceasefire

A longer term solution for avoiding conflict and famine would be for the destruction of the terrorist group Hamas, funded and directed as it is by Iran. A pause in which Hamas can re-arm and re-group is not the answer to that.

gloriagloria · 25/03/2024 15:07

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 25/03/2024 14:51

A longer term solution for avoiding conflict and famine would be for the destruction of the terrorist group Hamas, funded and directed as it is by Iran. A pause in which Hamas can re-arm and re-group is not the answer to that.

I think that this is already becoming very clear that this isn't possible through military means (unless you think the complete destruction of an innocent population is a price worth paying)

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 25/03/2024 15:12

gloriagloria · 25/03/2024 15:07

I think that this is already becoming very clear that this isn't possible through military means (unless you think the complete destruction of an innocent population is a price worth paying)

That’s not clear at all.

We’d all prefer a negotiated end to Hamas (and Hezbollah and others). But that’s not going to happen.

If the answer ultimately is that Iran will just finance a new terrorist group to destroy Jews, well, we’re in a very different war and civilian crisis scenario then, aren’t we?

Dulra · 25/03/2024 15:13

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 25/03/2024 14:51

A longer term solution for avoiding conflict and famine would be for the destruction of the terrorist group Hamas, funded and directed as it is by Iran. A pause in which Hamas can re-arm and re-group is not the answer to that.

A longer term solution for avoiding conflict and famine
The famine part is manmade by Israel, it doesn't need to be that way, starving a population and restricting humanitarian aid is illegal as a weapon of war.
Eliminating Hamas should not include starving a population and children dying of malnutrition

mollyfolk · 25/03/2024 15:36

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 25/03/2024 14:51

A longer term solution for avoiding conflict and famine would be for the destruction of the terrorist group Hamas, funded and directed as it is by Iran. A pause in which Hamas can re-arm and re-group is not the answer to that.

Even the US has pointed out that Israel is pushing Gazan citizens into the arms of terrorists with their actions. There will be a Hamas 2.0 unless the Palestinian’s can see a political path to peace and a better future for themselves.

Oxfam has an advocacy arm and it’s mission states it aims to deliver systemic change. Ultimately aid alone is like a band aid on a wound that will never heal and the only change that will help will be to change the system/laws that are contributing towards the hurt.

Some aid agencies have an advocacy arm so they will campaign for change. Some don’t . I have noticed that all Aid agencies are being particularly loud at this point though. Probably because Israel seems to be using the lack of delivery of humanitarian aid as a weapon to weaken the population - blocking, stalling and making it difficult to deliver. In fact the aid agencies are saying that even if the fighting stops they will not be able to mount an adequate response to meet the basic needs due to the level of destruction.

Oxfam works in the poorest countries in the world so your suggestion for it to suddenly work in Israel - so it’s not “taking sides” - is not workable.

gloriagloria · 25/03/2024 15:37

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying it has never been possible to destroy a terrorist organisation with roots in the area they are based through military means. You can temporarily destroy their infrastructure (obviously Hamas has taken very heavy losses and is in complete disarray by many accounts) but not the ideology that underpins it, which Israel is strengthening through slaughtering the civilian population and creating young people with little to lose and immense anger. A political solution is the only possibility, although no-one is pretending that would be easy.

mollyfolk · 25/03/2024 15:49

Take the refugee crisis in the Med as an example: virtually all humanitarian orgs that worked there at the hight of it were hightly critical of the EU, its migration policies, and of Frontex. Because they had to be! Their mission - to save as many lives as possible and safeguard the human rights of the ones that did make it - was simply being hampered by The EU's actions [all of this is still ongoing and still true, by the way].
**
And, yes, that is political. That does not mean "not neutral" in the sense that it does not mean these orgs are "against the EU" - merely that they, by necessity, oppose the actions…

this is very well explained.