AP reports: “Israel on Tuesday said it had suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and CARE, from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules.”
Among Israel’s rules for humanitarian aid groups are a list of ideological requirements including not expressing “support for legal proceedings against Israeli citizens in a foreign country or before an international tribunal, for actions carried out in the course of their duties in the [IDF] or in any [Israeli] security agency.”
In testimony at the U.N. Security Council last year, a Doctors Without Borders representative said the group is afraid Israel will punish his colleagues as a result of his talking about Israeli war crimes. One of the groups is Norwegian Refugee Council, see new interview with a representative on NPR and contact information below.
Hani Mahmoud reported on Al Jazeera: “Beyond just the material aid — beyond the aid that is provided by these organizations — there [are] broader consequences here: visibility and accountability. Throughout the past two years [with] all these genocidal acts unfolding, these international organizations helped document conditions on the ground. They maintain connection between Gaza and the outside world. So now forcing them out, suspending their operations, means further isolating Palestinians from the outside world. So the suffering becomes [easier] to overlook here, and the connection between Gazans and the outside world becomes less and less. And that’s the point that the Israeli military’s after.”
Contact:
NRC global media hotline: [email protected], @nrc_norway
Ahmed Bayram, Middle East Media Adviser, in Amman: [email protected]