The 2019 humanitarian plan for Palestinians in the occupied territories will allocate $350 million for aid intervention, according to Ramallah’s Minister of Social Development Ibrahim Al-Shaer and UN envoy Jamie McGoldrick. The people of Palestine remain divested of their legitimate human and civil rights in order to retain the imposed status of near-total aid dependency.

Despite decades of humanitarian aid sent their way since 1948, the Palestinians have still not recovered from the immediate deprivation of basic necessities created by the Nakba. This paradox could have been resolved if their rights had been fulfilled with equal enthusiasm. Indeed, if human rights are truly universal, where is the international impediment preventing them from becoming a reality for the Palestinians?

Human rights, it seems, are official opportunities for personal advancement at the UN. Is that not a means of the politicisation of humanitarian aid? According to Ma’an news agency, Al-Shaer “reaffirmed the danger of politicising humanitarian aid because that would undermine and threaten human rights.” The context for the statement was the deficits in funding, which stem from Machiavellian political motivation behind the scenes that is detrimental to the Palestinians. Read more.