NGO's in Gazastrook helpen Hamas aan legitimiteit

 

Humanitair werk in een gebied dat onder controle staat van extremisten is een hachelijke zaak, zoals ook de recente ontvoering van een Nederlandse hulpverlener in Afghanistan weer eens aantoont. Het is een groot dilemma voor NGO's, en als de extremisten ook nog "officieel" het bewind voeren zoals Hamas in de Gazastrook, is het vrijwel onmogelijk op dat bewind te bekritiseren zonder de eigen positie en het humanitaire werk in gevaar te brengen. In Darfoer werden de hulporganisaties zonder pardon uitgewezen. In Gaza lijkt men soms echter wel erg welwillend te staan tegenover Hamas...

 

Wouter

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NGOs admit how they help Hamas

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/ngos-admit-how-they-help-hamas.html

GANSO is the Gaza NGO Safety Office, run by CARE International, to help NGOs in Gaza stay safe.

Their website describes incidents that jeopardize the safety of internationals in Gaza, both from IDF incursions and from militant actions (like mortars or rockets that fall short.)

Last February, there was an (apparently Islamist) attack on a Red Cross convoy in Gaza, and GANSO wrote a special report about the ramifications.

This report describes, incidentally, how much the NGOs in Gaza help Hamas, and it makes clear that this is considered a desirable political goal.

Here's how NGOs in Gaza think - in their own words:

The presence of the international community in the Gaza Strip is vital to the stability of the de-facto government; over 60% of the Gazan population is food insecure, according to UN sources, and unemployment surpasses 50%; thus, a majority of the population is either partially or entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. The assistance provided by the international community, particularly by UNRWA and WFP. eases the burden on the de-facto government of managing the needs of its impoverished and dispossessed population, enabling the de-facto government to achieve a modicum of legitimacy. Thus, even the partial reduction or suspension of humanitarian aid activities in the Gaza Strip as a consequence of a disintegrating internal security environment would have devastating consequences for both the population and the de-facto government's legitimacy.

The presence of the international community in the Gaza Strip is also a major political benefit to the de-facto government. The willingness of international governmental and non-governmental organizations to send diplomatic delegations and expatriate staff into the Gaza Strip demonstrates a level of trust in the security infrastructure of the de-facto authority.

Moreover, the presence of expatriate staff in Gaza implies that expatriates do not feel threatened by the de-facto government itself a boon to the credibility of the Hamas movement in the international arena, in which the movement has for years been labeled as a "terrorist organization" by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

The skepticism of regarding Hamas as a terror organization is evident in this report, as well as the pride in how NGOs prop up Hamas as a political force.

In other words, NGOs in Gaza are acting at odds with EU and US policies by knowingly and eagerly propping up Hamas' Islamist rule in Gaza.