Is Humanitarian Aid in the Gaza Strip Problematic?

The Gaza Strip has been a Palestinian enclave for more than 70 years. Palestinians that lived in now modern-Israel areas have been forced to the over-crowded and under-resourced city of Gaza and its surrounding areas. The population consists of around 2.1 million people where 1.4 are Palestinian refugees. Half of the population of Gaza is unemployed and more than half live in poverty. These people live without consistent access to food, clean water, and other basic necessities. Due to these horrible conditions that people in face in Gaza, they are sent humanitarian aid from organisations, such as the UN, and other countries.

Although this sounds like the right thing to do (to note: I don’t argue that global attention, acknowledgement, and at least the intention of aid is wrong), there are consequences and issues with humanitarian aid into areas.


Firstly, there is the argument that foreign aid is never properly specialised to the area that is receiving it. The narrative of what helpful aid is has been altered to nourish the saviour complex and gloss over the structural issues causing the need for aid. This is more applicable to the spread of what ideas are deemed correct and which are wrong, usually following whatever the Global South dictates.


In the Gaza Strip, people are hesitant to accept humanitarian aid as they do not want to be silenced and victimised. Reducing a person to being solely known as a victim diminishes their power and lessens how they are perceived. If they are only known as victims of harsh conditions, then they will only be perceived as such and capable of nothing more than living off of foreign aid. Some people living in Gaza have proclaimed that “Western imperialism made us beggars in order to remain weak and stop fighting Israel” (Feldman 2009: 28). 


Another issue with humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip is that it remains apolitical. In theory, this seems correct as it is neutral aid that helps starving individuals in a relatively quick manner. But, if there is no political changes in the structure of Gaza or of the treatment of Palestinian people, there will never be an end to the root source of need of humanitarian aid. 


These issues manifest in all forms of humanitarian aid around the globe. There isn’t a specialisation of aid for every area and its issue, there are serious implications with reducing someone to being a victim, and humanitarian aid can act as only a surface-level form of help. Once again, I don’t believe aid is criminal and shouldn’t exist, I just believe that it needs to be carefully examined and monitored. 




Feldman, I. (2009). Gaza’s Humanitarian Problem. Journal of Palestinian Studies, 38(3), 22-37.                                 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jps.2009.xxxviii.3.22?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Comments

  1. Austin W.December 9, 2021 at 12:59 PM

    Great article. My question to you would be if the people of Palestine are uncomfortable accepting aid, which they clearly need, then how is that any different from a country accepting alliances? Is it just me, or is Palestine being stubborn by not accepting aid?

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    Replies
    1. Annabelle VeithDecember 10, 2021 at 12:03 PM

      Thanks for the comment Austin! Alliances come about though mutual interests, goals, and benefits. The parties involved in an alliance still have a say and voice (to varying levels of equality) in different issues. Some Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip fear losing their voice and political power if they accept aid or, using your comparison, join an alliance. I think the power dynamic that is in giving and receiving aid is what makes it hard to compare humanitarian aid with forming an alliance.

      Delete
  2. Eli WebbDecember 14, 2021 at 11:10 AM

    Annabelle, this is a really interesting article, and I never thought about the repercussions that accepting aid have on the power dynamic or view of the group. Before I read this post I had no clue that the Palestinian's would refuse aid because it makes them look weak, but now I understand. With that being said, however, I do not believe that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip is problematic. You raise good points, but in my opinion, I think that aid in this situation should not be refused or considered bad. To your point though, can one receive aid without looking weak? I never thought about that this year, and i want to say yes, but I now think no. What do you think?

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