How to give to Gaza

HELPING PALESTINIANS has long been a thorny issue. There are plenty of charities working with Palestinians. But some have been accused of being involved with terrorist organisations. On the other hand, many donors feel that their donation is urgently needed to build homes, hospitals, schools and the like. Such donors seem to have a dilemma: either unwittingly support terrorists, or leave those Palestinians who need help without any aid.

The dilemma has only become harder since the conflict in Gaza earlier this year, with aid increasingly becoming a political issue, if the aid can get to Gaza at all. Even the UN’s food aid supplies fell briefly into the hands of militants. What’s more, the Charity Commission has just released the results of their two-year long investigation into INTERPAL (see profile) a charity that works with local NGO’s in Palestine. Although the Commission cleared INTERPAL of some accusations, it also reached some worrying conclusions.

But this need not keep you from giving. There are a wide variety of NGOs doing excellent work in the area, and they’re not too hard to find. John Lyndon from the OneVoice movement recommends:

If you're very concerned about transparency- but still want to aid the humanitarian effort look for larger international charities which focus on the whole region rather than exclusively on Gaza. These charities will have a general policy about how to deal with sensitive political issues. Charities with a narrower focus can tend to get involved with various political actors, either through design or necessity

“Save the Children [ see profile] do fantastic work to both intervene and provide crucial emergency assistance, and increase the humanitarian infrastructure, supplying sustainable water, creating income generation projects, and helping build schools and emergency hospitals”