Dozens of international aid organisations have sent a joint appeal to the Israeli High Court in a last-ditch effort to reverse Israel's decision to ban them from working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Last year, Israel announced a highly contested registration process for NGOs that wish to continue working in the territories. The process makes it mandatory for NGOs to reveal a list of all their Palestinian and foreign staff “involved in the management and implementation” of their operations – including names, passport numbers and identification numbers – to the Ministry of Diaspora and Combating Anti-Semitism, its website says.
Several NGOs have told The National this endangers staff and needlessly places Palestinians on the ministry's radar. Among the petition's 37 signatories are Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council, Tearfund and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
After the registration deadline expired on December 31, NGOs had 60 days to wind down activities in Gaza and the West Bank. But taking the matter to court has a last resort in the hope of having the decision reversed.
"We approached the court because we have acted in good faith every step of the way," Bushra Khalidi, Palestinian Territory Policy Lead at Oxfam – one of the NGOs involved in the petition – told The National. "We engaged, we proposed alternatives and we exhausted every administrative avenue available to us."
Under international law, Israel, as an occupying power, has the responsibility to provide assistance to the Palestinian people. "The reality on the ground shows the opposite: restrictions, obstruction and policies that have deepened harm to Palestinian civilians," Ms Khalidi added. "We have not seen Israel replace independent humanitarian assistance in the past and see no indication that this would change now."
Indeed, a large gap will be left behind if the NGOs do have to halt their vital work – particularly in Gaza, most of which lies in ruins after Israel's two-year war and persistent bombardment, even after a ceasefire was agreed to in October.
"We know that international aid organisations are a huge part of the humanitarian response, provide critical services, and deliver tremendous amounts of aid and work in supply lines on the ground," said Shaina Low, communications adviser in Palestine for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), another petitioner.
Restricting NGOs from working will accomplish only "one thing", she said – "increase the suffering for Palestinians, particularly in Gaza".
The ceasefire stipulates that Israel would allow unfettered entry of aid, which has yet to happen despite an increase in the amount of assistance entering the strip.
The Ministry of Diaspora's requirements for registration appear vague and subject to interpretation. Grounds for rejection include having staff who participated in terrorist activities or incitement against Israel, but also any office holder, partner, board member or founder who has “called for a boycott of the state of Israel” in the past seven years.
Israel has passed laws banning its officials from communicating with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and has prohibited that agency from bringing aid into Gaza or operating in the West Bank. With 12,000 staff, UNRWA has the largest humanitarian workforce in Gaza and is relied on by many NGOs for its vast network and warehouses.
Israel banned UNRWA after accusing several of its employees, without providing evidence, of participating in the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war.
In October, President of the International Court of Justice Yuji Iwasawa said Israel had not substantiated its claims against UNRWA and ruled it was required to allow UN agencies to provide aid relief.
Despite pressure from the international community, Israel has not relented.
"Statements are no longer enough. What we need now are consequences," Ms Khalidi said. "States continue to enable policies that are contributing to a coercive environment, one in which civilians are pushed towards displacement, famine, or death through the obstruction of humanitarian assistance."
