Krisen i Palæstina giver anledning til et stigende fokus på humanitære organisationers politiske lobbyarbejde, mener 22 NGO’er. De opfordrer EU til at boykotte varer fra jødiske bosættelser.
JERUSALEM, IRIN, 29 November 2012: “We do aid not politics”, has been the traditional mantra of the mainstream humanitarian community.
But that division is not always easy to maintain, perhaps nowhere more so than for those working in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), something that was brought into sharp relief by the recent seven-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
NGOs such as Oxfam quickly condemned the escalation, saying that “real security for people in Gaza and southern Israel comes when all parties to the conflict put people before politics.”
But if politics is recognized as the problem, then can humanitarians ignore it in their search for solutions? For some, the line between humanitarian aid and political advocacy is increasingly blurred.
The bombardment destroyed scores of buildings rebuilt with humanitarian aid since the 2008-9 crisis, and the wider context of the Israeli land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza strip has also hampered humanitarian work, “with UN and other projects stalled due to the lengthy and bureaucratic Israeli procedures to bring in crucial materials like steel, aggregate and cement,” said Ana Povrzenic, area manager of the Gaza “Shelter Sector” collective.
The impact of the man-made crisis in oPt in recent years has given rise to an increasing focus on political advocacy among humanitarian NGOs.
“We address political issues because humanitarian aid must come hand-in-hand with a strong advocacy platform,” said Aimee Shalan, director of advocacy and communications at the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), one of 22 signatory NGOs – many of them with a humanitarian mandate – of a recent report calling on the European Union to ban imports of Israeli settlements’ products.
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