In the decades of relentless attacks, aggression, and human rights violations of Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza, aid is being instrumentalized by donor countries to forward their own political, economic, and security interests. Alaa Tartir, a Palestinian-Dutch scholar, mentions how the current aid system, which follows the process of “US decides, the World Bank leads, the EU pays, the UN feeds, and Israel destroys,” undermines Palestinians’ right to self-determination, development, and lasting peace. Despite this, West Bank and Gaza need ODA to provide basic goods and services to its people, amid persisting conflict and humanitarian crises, and to facilitate a ‘peace process’ with Israel. Aid remains as Palestine’s lifeline, as it is “chronically dependent on donor funding for its fiscal survival.”
This Deep Dive aims to expose how aid towards Palestine is being instrumentalized to pursue donor interests, impose damaging neoliberal policies, criminalize civil society, hinder CSO-led Triple Nexus initiatives, and undermine the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and liberation. The research also forwards a Triple Nexus approach that is people-centered, based on solidarity and social justice, as a way to address the root causes of conflict and forward sustainable development for Palestine and other conflict-ridden contexts.