Over the past five decades, American taxpayers have invested more than 7 billion dollars to finance hundreds of humanitarian aid and development projects in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, all under the motto “peace building.” But the Biden administration is currently providing weaponry that is killing the very people the government set out to help and is failing to protect the vital projects that American money created. Furthermore, the administration funding has now been suspended to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the largest humanitarian group in Gazawhile 2 million Palestinians face each other there mass homeless, famine and disease.
We have spoken to a dozen humanitarian colleagues who are retired senior staff from Amideast, Anera, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and World Vision. All of us managed or consulted on projects that the US Agency for International Development funded in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the 1990s and 2000s. improve family access and primary health care; train teachers in teaching strategies; build nursing schools; improve the food industry; do more effective use of scarce water resources; and support municipal and social services. Through our non-governmental organizations, we also work to increase employment opportunities and create the first internet network for Palestinian NGOs and academic institutions.
We work closely with the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, the consulate in Jerusalem, and USAID staff on these initiatives. A key motivation that drove us all was the United States' responsibility to strengthen the economic, social, and cultural rights of the Palestinian people as part of its moral and legal commitment to regional peace and security. This is what we work so hard for and this is what More than 1,000 current USAID employees said in November when they publicly called on President Biden to support a ceasefire.
For us, this daily destruction of Palestinian society is very personal. Throughout the decades of this conflict, we have always condemned physical, structural, sexual and cultural violence, regardless of its justification or its perpetrators. Hamas' cruel attack on October 7 and Israel's subsequent ferocious response in Gaza can only lead to intergenerational insecurity for Israel, the fracturing of Palestinian society, and further postponement of the Palestinian right to secure self-determination.
By the end of January, most of what was produced with the help of humanitarian and development assistance in Gaza had been destroyed. Ambulance drivers and medical technicians in Gaza hospitals were trained, but are now being killed where they work, human rights groups say. says it violates international humanitarian law. Hundreds of Palestinian academics were trained at American institutions so they could return to teach at Gaza universities. But now more than 100 academics from Gaza have been murdered, and the universities throughout the Gaza Strip, along with technological hardware supplied by the United States for educational purposes, have been destroyed. American taxpayers supported farmers to expand their productivity. Now extensive expanses of fields, crops, orchards and greenhouses have been devastated. Women's empowerment projects have failed and many trained staff have died, while housing projects and sewage infrastructure have been devastated. Child disability, youth sports and other community projects no longer exist. The consequences of the siege have put Gaza in an “apocalyptic free fall,” as leaders of global humanitarian organizations say. described the situation last month.
Both Democratic and Republican administrations promoted these American-funded and congressionally confirmed USAID projects because they demonstrated a commitment to peace and were in the U.S. national interest. Now, without establishing effective limits on violence in this war, the policies of the current US administration are derailing that mission. These decisions can only increase cynicism about the real intentions and credibility of the United States in providing such postwar redevelopment assistance and about whether, in the future, our investment can once again it goes up in smoke.
American tax dollars should be spent on diplomacy to address the outstanding issues at the root of this conflict: the future of refugees, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. By prioritizing an immediate ceasefire and funding aid for Gaza through humanitarian organizations, the Biden administration could stem further devastation and support a future for both Palestinians and Israelis based on human dignity.
Bruce Stanley served as West Bank and Gaza director for the Middle East. Jonathan Evans served as country representative for Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for Catholic Relief Services. Annie Foster served as national director for the Palestinian Territories. to Save the Children. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the organizations listed here.
