Late last year, the Israeli government announced it was suspending 37 humanitarian organizations from delivering aid to Gaza for failing to meet its new rules to vet international aid groups.
Oxfam-Québec was surprised to find itself on the list.
“It was linked to an old registration from us dating from before 2020, and which is no longer valid,” said Léa Pelletier-Marcotte, a policy analyst with the organization.
“That registration was dormant,” she said. “We had just failed to close it.”
Prior to that date, Oxfam-Québec had been registered with the Israeli government to operate in Gaza. Since that time, it has channeled aid to that territory through another member of the Oxfam family, Oxfam Novid, based in The Netherlands.
Oxfam Novid is also on the list of suspended organizations, which includes CARE, Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, International Rescue Committee and World Vision International.
In announcing the suspensions, which took effect Jan. 1, Israeli officials said the groups had failed to meet its new rules, which require aid groups to provide comprehensive personal information for all foreign and Palestinian staff. This includes disclosing names, passport numbers, contact information, marital status and children’s names.
Aid groups on the list refused to provide this information, saying it would endanger their local staff. They also said this requirement violates core humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence and impartiality.
Israel says the new rules are necessary to prevent the diversion of aid to Hamas. It has further said the listed organizations contribute less than one per cent of total aid that enters the Gaza Strip, and that help will continue to enter from organizations that did receive permits to continue operating in Gaza.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which represents and advocates for Canada’s Jewish community, said it cannot comment on the suspensions.
On its website, it says “there is ample evidence of Hamas’ misappropriation of humanitarian aid, which raises significant challenges for Israel’s ability to supply humanitarian aid while ensuring ‘right of control.’”
‘A long-standing process’
Pelletier-Marcotte, of Oxfam-Québec, says their organization would never share the names of its staff in Gaza with the Israeli government. In her view, Israel’s new policy is the “latest step in a long-standing process” to restrict aid to Gaza.
Oxfam-Québec “firmly opposes” the new rules, she added, saying she sees them as a “way to control who gets help and how.”
Currently, aid from Oxfam affiliates around the world, including from Canada, is provided to people in Gaza in the form of funding to enable partners to buy food and other needed items at local markets for distribution.
“We could do much more if we could ship in aid,” Pelletier-Marcotte said about the limitations from the Israeli government on aid shipments.
In response to the restrictive requirements, the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement calling on Israel to ensure that international aid groups are able to operate in Gaza in a “sustained and predictable way.”
The suspensions will have a “severe” impact on people in Gaza, they said, including on food and health care.
“Any attempt to stem their ability to operate is unacceptable,” the statement said. “Without them, it will be impossible to meet all urgent needs at the scale required.”
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, based in Winnipeg, is not on the list of suspended organizations, but it works through partners in Gaza, supplying them with funds to purchase food locally.
The broader implications of this decision are “extremely concerning,” said executive director Andy Harrington.
“[T]he humanitarian needs in Gaza are at a critical level and demand an unequivocal all-hands-on-deck response,” he added. “Excluding or constraining key humanitarian actors will further undermine an already fragile and overburdened response.”
Mennonite Central Committee, also based in Winnipeg, is not impacted by the suspension either, since it provides funding to a trusted local partner in Gaza. But Laura Kalmar, the senior director of communications and donor relations, said the organization is concerned about the impact on people in Gaza.
“This is another tool that Israel is using to stop the flow of humanitarian assistance in the region, adding to the already catastrophic situation for the people of Gaza,” she said.
If asked, MCC would not provide personal staff information to the Israeli government, she says, adding the organization’s “primary concern is staff and partner safety.”
