Israel Bans NGOs, Media Wonders Why Palestinians Aren't Grateful
The New Arab reports on Israel's 'catastrophic' NGO crackdown, noting organizations like Save the Children are barred under draconian legislation. What this reporting often glosses over—or allows governments to obscure—is the decades-long pattern. This isn't a novel 'security threat'; this is a strategic move to dismantle any infrastructure that supports Palestinian life, much like demolishing
homes or uprooting olive trees. Benjamin Netanyahu’s various governments have consistently aimed to delegitimize and defund any group documenting their actions, from targeting UNRWA’s funding to blacklisting local human rights defenders like Al-Haq. One might wonder, with a straight face, why a state heavily reliant on billions in unconditional military aid, much of it from U.S. taxpayers (who
provided $3.3 billion in 2023 alone, according to the Congressional Research Service), needs to silence organizations providing basic humanitarian services or legal aid. Perhaps it's because transparency is the enemy of occupation. When you’re busy with land expropriation and forced displacement, you don’t want pesky NGOs documenting the process for international courts. It appears some 'allies'
prefer their partners to operate without the inconvenient glare of human rights observers.