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Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
How Humanitarian Aid Feeds War Machines
Volunteers arrange parcels as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid await entry to the Gaza Strip, Aug. 6. The pictures are heartbreaking: convoys of United Nations-marked trucks inching toward bomb-scarred cities, desperate children clamoring for supplies. These images seem to prove that the international system is, at the very least, trying to help. Yet in every conflict I have studied—Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and Gaza—the same trucks double as cash machines for warlords, militias and authoritarian regimes. Aid diversion is a widespread problem in humanitarian operations. Unless the U.S. and other donors rewrite the rules so that aid can't be separated from accountability, they will keep subsidizing the conflicts they abhor. Somalia shows how thoroughly diversion can be built into routine. Three clan cartels win most World Food Program transport contracts, skim 30% to 50% of the cargo, and then split the spoils with those who transport the food and those who control the displacement camps. Based on U.N. reports and monitors, my coauthor and I estimate in our study that barely one-eighth of donated food reaches intended households. In Syria, former President Bashar al-Assad insisted that all aid be converted at a government-set rate to roughly half the market price, enabling the regime to pocket at least $60 million in 2020 alone, while blocking aid from reaching the opposition by designating it as 'unsafe.' In Ethiopia, U.S. Agency for International Development workers discovered that their implementing partner, the U.N.'s World Food Program, was aware of industrial-scale theft by the Ethiopian military but failed to stop it. Large quantities of wheat were diverted to private mills to make flour for the army. Gaza presents the longest-running case of diverted aid. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, with a $2.48 billion annual budget in 2024 and 13,000 local staff, effectively provides most public services in Gaza. That frees Hamas to use its resources for tunnels and rockets. In regions under its control, it taxes incoming aid and places loyalists on the payroll. A donor freeze after evidence that Unrwa personnel joined the Oct. 7, 2023, attack lasted only months; services resumed with no vetting reforms because, donors said, 'there is no alternative.' Diversion persists for several reasons. First, the moral considerations are difficult: When officials weigh 'people will die tomorrow' against 'fighters will grow stronger next month,' tomorrow always wins. Second, people give priority to institutional survival: The humanitarian sector employs some 570,000 people and until 2025 spent about $35 billion a year, and agencies that refuse armed groups' terms lose access, budgets and jobs. Third, adversaries are able to adapt: Warlords remain in place while aid workers rotate; they open businesses posing as nongovernmental organizations and bill the U.N. for delivering cargo. Add fear of donor backlash and the result is a continuing lack of accountability. Those who break the rules hold more leverage than those sworn to enforce them. But accountability is still within reach if donors step up and put pressure on humanitarian organizations. When donors finally cut funds because they find the scale of diversions unacceptable, even hard-line actors bend. When Washington paused food aid to Ethiopia in 2023, diversion plunged, and the government grudgingly accepted QR-coded tracking. The U.S., the European Union and Gulf states combined supply more than 70% of global humanitarian budgets. Together, they could enforce five conditions on every grantee: • Require nondiversion benchmarks. All access fees, escorts and local taxes must be disclosed in advance; one missed benchmark triggers a 12-month funding pause. • Integrate security. Grantees may hire donor-vetted guards or accept U.N. peacekeeper escorts; private deals with militias void the grant. • Build in insurance for whistle-blowers. Two percent of every grant pays for external audits and the legal defense of whistle-blowers. • Create sunset clauses. Missions longer than 10 years shut down unless donors unanimously extend them after a public review. • Fund innovation. Create dedicated funding streams for fintech tracking, QR-coded commodities and other tools that make diversion more difficult. None of this requires rewriting international law. It's simply about enabling donors to use the one lever they control: money. Every diverted dollar undermines U.S. counterterrorism goals, fuels migration pressure on Europe, and forces Gulf monarchies to spend twice—first on aid, then on arms. Conditional funding flips those incentives. Regimes that want to look legitimate on the global stage must choose: guns or food, not both. Boosting accountability would also blunt the common critique that Washington preaches good governance while financing bad actors through humanitarian back doors. Critics say pausing aid is immoral, as civilians would starve. This risk is real but not as definite as how it is often presented. Typically, there isn't enough data to infer the effect that a pause will have. The June 2023 Ethiopia pause triggered dire warnings of widespread famine. While some people no doubt suffered, the warnings didn't materialize. Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition went down in 2023 compared with 2022. In Yemen, food-security analyses during the suspension were limited to southern Yemen, where the pause in aid didn't occur. Acute food insecurity did rise in these areas, which were unaffected by the halt but where multiple other forces were at work: currency collapse, wage arrears, siege tactics. Against the immediate risk of human suffering, donors must consider that allowing aid diversion could extend that risk for years. A cross-country analysis of 621 leaders in 123 countries from 1960 to 1999 showed that large, unconditional aid inflows help autocrats survive. World Bank data show that unconditional aid correlates with higher corruption and weaker rule of law. Nothing obligates donors to bankroll the fighters causing the suffering. Setting conditions on aid to prevent diversion aligns humanitarian spending with humanitarian intent. Climate shocks, urban sieges and pricier grain will likely push humanitarian budgets beyond $50 billion within a decade. Without reform, much of that money will feed armies before children. Worse, each scandal makes future interventions politically toxic, putting civilians in real need at risk of not receiving help. The choice is stark: tighten the taps now or watch the well run dry. Ms. Barak-Corren is a law professor and the Haim H. Cohn Chair in Human Rights at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Mint
a day ago
- Politics
- Mint
How humanitarian aid feeds war machines
The pictures are heartbreaking: convoys of United Nations-marked trucks inching toward bomb-scarred cities, desperate children clamoring for supplies. These images seem to prove that the international system is, at the very least, trying to help. Yet in every conflict I have studied—Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and Gaza—the same trucks double as cash machines for warlords, militias and authoritarian regimes. Aid diversion is a widespread problem in humanitarian operations. Unless the U.S. and other donors rewrite the rules so that aid can't be separated from accountability, they will keep subsidizing the conflicts they abhor. Somalia shows how thoroughly diversion can be built into routine. Three clan cartels win most World Food Program transport contracts, skim 30% to 50% of the cargo, and then split the spoils with those who transport the food and those who control the displacement camps. Based on U.N. reports and monitors, my coauthor and I estimate in our study that barely one-eighth of donated food reaches intended households. In Syria, former President Bashar al-Assad insisted that all aid be converted at a government-set rate to roughly half the market price, enabling the regime to pocket at least $60 million in 2020 alone, while blocking aid from reaching the opposition by designating it as 'unsafe." In Ethiopia, U.S. Agency for International Development workers discovered that their implementing partner, the U.N.'s World Food Program, was aware of industrial-scale theft by the Ethiopian military but failed to stop it. Large quantities of wheat were diverted to private mills to make flour for the army. Gaza presents the longest-running case of diverted aid. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, with a $2.48 billion annual budget in 2024 and 13,000 local staff, effectively provides most public services in Gaza. That frees Hamas to use its resources for tunnels and rockets. In regions under its control, it taxes incoming aid and places loyalists on the payroll. A donor freeze after evidence that Unrwa personnel joined the Oct. 7, 2023, attack lasted only months; services resumed with no vetting reforms because, donors said, 'there is no alternative." Diversion persists for several reasons. First, the moral considerations are difficult: When officials weigh 'people will die tomorrow" against 'fighters will grow stronger next month," tomorrow always wins. Second, people give priority to institutional survival: The humanitarian sector employs some 570,000 people and until 2025 spent about $35 billion a year, and agencies that refuse armed groups' terms lose access, budgets and jobs. Third, adversaries are able to adapt: Warlords remain in place while aid workers rotate; they open businesses posing as nongovernmental organizations and bill the U.N. for delivering cargo. Add fear of donor backlash and the result is a continuing lack of accountability. Those who break the rules hold more leverage than those sworn to enforce them. But accountability is still within reach if donors step up and put pressure on humanitarian organizations. When donors finally cut funds because they find the scale of diversions unacceptable, even hard-line actors bend. When Washington paused food aid to Ethiopia in 2023, diversion plunged, and the government grudgingly accepted QR-coded tracking. The U.S., the European Union and Gulf states combined supply more than 70% of global humanitarian budgets. Together, they could enforce five conditions on every grantee: • Require nondiversion benchmarks. All access fees, escorts and local taxes must be disclosed in advance; one missed benchmark triggers a 12-month funding pause. • Integrate security. Grantees may hire donor-vetted guards or accept U.N. peacekeeper escorts; private deals with militias void the grant. • Build in insurance for whistle-blowers. Two percent of every grant pays for external audits and the legal defense of whistle-blowers. • Create sunset clauses. Missions longer than 10 years shut down unless donors unanimously extend them after a public review. • Fund innovation. Create dedicated funding streams for fintech tracking, QR-coded commodities and other tools that make diversion more difficult. None of this requires rewriting international law. It's simply about enabling donors to use the one lever they control: money. Every diverted dollar undermines U.S. counterterrorism goals, fuels migration pressure on Europe, and forces Gulf monarchies to spend twice—first on aid, then on arms. Conditional funding flips those incentives. Regimes that want to look legitimate on the global stage must choose: guns or food, not both. Boosting accountability would also blunt the common critique that Washington preaches good governance while financing bad actors through humanitarian back doors. Critics say pausing aid is immoral, as civilians would starve. This risk is real but not as definite as how it is often presented. Typically, there isn't enough data to infer the effect that a pause will have. The June 2023 Ethiopia pause triggered dire warnings of widespread famine. While some people no doubt suffered, the warnings didn't materialize. Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition went down in 2023 compared with 2022. In Yemen, food-security analyses during the suspension were limited to southern Yemen, where the pause in aid didn't occur. Acute food insecurity did rise in these areas, which were unaffected by the halt but where multiple other forces were at work: currency collapse, wage arrears, siege tactics. Against the immediate risk of human suffering, donors must consider that allowing aid diversion could extend that risk for years. A cross-country analysis of 621 leaders in 123 countries from 1960 to 1999 showed that large, unconditional aid inflows help autocrats survive. World Bank data show that unconditional aid correlates with higher corruption and weaker rule of law. Nothing obligates donors to bankroll the fighters causing the suffering. Setting conditions on aid to prevent diversion aligns humanitarian spending with humanitarian intent. Climate shocks, urban sieges and pricier grain will likely push humanitarian budgets beyond $50 billion within a decade. Without reform, much of that money will feed armies before children. Worse, each scandal makes future interventions politically toxic, putting civilians in real need at risk of not receiving help. The choice is stark: tighten the taps now or watch the well run dry. Ms. Barak-Corren is a law professor and the Haim H. Cohn Chair in Human Rights at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
My Palestinian Family Had a Home in West Jerusalem. Then Came 1948.
My father, George Kuttab, and his mother, our Tata Nazira Fatalleh, fled their neighborhood of Musrara in what is now West Jerusalem in May 1948, after their sister Hoda's husband, Elias, was killed by Zionist snipers in front of her and her children. They went to the Jordanian city of Zarqa and were later followed by my paternal uncle, Qustandi. Ammo ('uncle' in Arabic) Qustandi's words, which became famous within our family and were repeated in our homes for years when he arrived in Zarqa, always brought smiles to our faces. Waving the metal key to the old homestead, he said: 'I have locked the house with two clicks,' assuring his mom and my dad that their Jerusalem home was safe. It was not. While we are not sure how our grandparents' house was dealt with, we would later discover that the house was made available to Yemeni Jews. The flight of my father and his family was not unlike that of 750,000 Palestinians who were forced to become refugees in what we now call the Nakba, an Arabic word for disaster. May 15 of every year is remembered by Palestinians who lost their lands and homes at that time. My uncle's simple act and his hopeful words captured the heart of the Palestinian refugee tragedy: a people forced into exile but refusing to relinquish their right to return. For over seven decades, this longing has been passed from one generation to the next. But it is not merely nostalgia or poetry; it is about dignity, justice, and a people's demand that their story not be erased. Contrary to common belief, the right of return was never the deal-breaker in various Palestinian-Israeli talks, whether in Oslo, Camp David, or Taba. From my own personal work as a journalist and from reputable polling data, it is clear that if allowed to choose, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian refugees would prefer to stay where they are, move to a third country, or return to a future Palestinian state. Only a small minority insist on returning to what is now Israel. But the insistence on the right to return remains near-universal because it embodies a moral and legal recognition of the injustice endured. Yet, as the chair of the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine, the entity created in 1948 under U.N. Resolution 194 to mediate the Arab-Israeli conflict, the United States understood early on that Israel would never allow the refugees back. Instead, the Americans sought alternatives, notably through local integration of Palestinians in host countries. This gave birth to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which was modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority, aiming to provide employment and support services for the refugees. UNRWA, conceived as a temporary agency by the United Nations General Assembly, was never given a set U.N. budget, and relied heavily on voluntary donor funding. Its original sin was embedded in its very name. The 'works' in UNRWA referred to labor-intensive projects meant to integrate Palestinians economically in host countries, effectively shifting the focus away from the return guaranteed by Resolution 194 to resettlement, or tawteen. Israel, which was admitted to the U.N. under Resolution 273 on the condition it would honor Resolution 194, has for decades evaded its responsibility. Instead, it left the burden of supporting over five million registered Palestinian refugees to UNRWA, while continuously undermining the agency. This reached a crescendo in 2018 when the first Trump administration, influenced by Israeli lobbying, slashed 30 percent of the agency's funding. Despite this, UNRWA remained a critical lifeline. It employed Palestinian refugees, ran schools and clinics, and provided hope. In places like Gaza and the West Bank, it represented more than relief; it was a symbol of the international community's acknowledgment of the people's plight. That is why Israel has long sought to dismantle it—because it embodies the Palestinian refugee narrative. But dismantling UNRWA and denying that narrative will not make the refugee issue disappear. On the contrary, it ensures that the wound remains open. Refugee camps, chronically under-resourced and symbolically potent, have become centers of resistance. Movements like Hamas found fertile ground there, not because of ideology but because of the unaddressed pain of displacement. There is, however, a path forward. It starts with honesty. Israel must accept moral and historical responsibility for the refugee problem. Without this acknowledgment, no solution will gain traction among Palestinians. Recognition does not mean the literal return of millions to Israeli towns and villages, but it means recognizing that a wrong was done. A 2003 poll by respected Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki showed that fewer than 10 percent of refugees want to return to their original homes in Israel. What most want is dignity, choice, and a fair settlement. This is why initiatives like the 1999 Ottawa Process, led by Canadian scholars and former diplomats, are worth revisiting. Their proposal is grounded in political reality and human dignity. The Ottawa framework proposes a two-step solution: first, obtaining refugee buy-in to a peace process; and second, offering four choices for permanent residence: Remain in the current host country, move to a third country, relocate to the new Palestinian state, or for a limited number, return to Israel. Compensation and resettlement aid would accompany these options. In the subsequent Israeli occupation of the rest of Palestine and the transfer of Jewish Israelis to settlements illegally built in the West Bank, Palestinians have extracted similar resolutions that guarantee the right of displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in what will be the state of Palestine. This approach, balancing the right to choose with political feasibility, offers a way to finally close one of the most painful chapters of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But it depends entirely on political courage. Until Israeli leaders are ready to acknowledge their role in the Nakba and allow for a real Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, the refugee problem will not go away. It will live on in memories, keys, and unfulfilled promises. My father, having married my mother, a proud Jordanian from the city of Salt, returned to East Jerusalem. But after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and with no Palestinian higher education institutions at the time, he accepted my mother's idea of emigrating to New Jersey, where her sister had been living. After studying and graduating in the United States, I returned to Jerusalem, and have since commuted between Jerusalem and Amman, working in journalism. We carry the stories of our families not to dwell on the past, but to shape a better future. That begins with truth, responsibility, and the courage to imagine peace rooted in justice.
Arab News
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Future looks dire for UN Palestinian refugee agency, says UNRWA chief
BEIRUT: The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that while an Israeli ban has not yet forced the agency to cease operations, it faces an 'existential threat' in the long run. 'I have been very clear that despite all the obstacles and the pressure the agency is under, our objective is to stay and deliver until we are prevented to do so,' Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA, said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. Israel last week formally banned UNRWA from operating on its territory. As a result, Lazzarini said, international staff have had to leave East Jerusalem because their visas expired, but in Gaza and the West Bank there has been no immediate impact on operations. Even in East Jerusalem, he said, health care and other services provided by UNRWA 'are continuing, though not necessarily at the same scope it used to be.' UNRWA is also likely to face increased pressure from the United States under the new Trump administration. US President Donald Trump in recent days proposed permanently resettling the approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza in neighboring Arab countries and suggested the United States taking long-term control of Gaza. Lazzarini called the proposal 'totally unrealistic,' adding, 'We are talking about forced displacement. Forced displacement is a crime, an international crime. It's ethnic cleansing.' Trump announced Tuesday that Washington will not resume funding for UNRWA — which had already been halted since January 2024 when the Biden administration stopped it following accusations by Israel that UNRWA staffers in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel had alleged that 19 out of UNRWA's approximately 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the attack. UNRWA said it fired nine staffers after an internal UN investigation found evidence that they could have been involved. While several other donor countries also suspended funding at the time, all but the US decided to resume funding. Lazzarini called the loss of US support 'a challenge,' but said the agency is appealing to Gulf Arab countries and other donors to increase their contributions. He described his agency as the target of a 'massive disinformation campaign' with a politically motivated objective of dismantling it. UNRWA's opponents believe the agency has prolonged the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving refugee status to the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel in 1948, thus maintaining for them, in theory, the right of return. Lazzarini said those who think that UNRWA can simply be dissolved and its responsibilities handed over to other institutions are mistaken. UNRWA provides aid and services — including health and education — to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, it has been the main lifeline for a population reliant on humanitarian aid in Gaza. Lazzarini said that while replaceable by a functioning public institution, UNRWA provides essential public services that no other UN agency offers on such a scale. It has served as a 'substitute in the absence of the state for the Palestinian refugees,' he said. He argued that the only way to end the agency's mandate is as part of a political process resulting in a Palestinian state alongside Israel, so that 'at the end of this process, the agency can hand over its services to an empowered Palestinian institution.' The alternative, he said, is to 'let the agency implode and abruptly end its activities, which would mean additional suffering for one of the most destitute populations in the region.'
Washington Post
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Future looks dire for UN Palestinian refugee agency, says UNRWA chief
BEIRUT — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that while an Israeli ban has not yet forced the agency to cease operations, it faces an 'existential threat' in the long run. 'I have been very clear that despite all the obstacles and the pressure the agency is under, our objective is to stay and deliver until we are prevented to do so,' Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA, said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut.
