Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Al-Monitor · 2013
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the structural dilemma facing international NGOs in Gaza: they must operationally cooperate with Hamas governance to function, creating de facto collaboration that neither party acknowledges — while donor governments maintain non-engagement on paper while funding this pragmatic cooperation.
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the structural dilemma facing international NGOs in Gaza: they must operationally cooperate with Hamas governance to function…
Editorial summary — the full article is published by Al-Monitor and cannot be reproduced here. What follows is an account of the subject written afterwards, not the original text.
International NGOs operating in Gaza face a structural dilemma that has no easy resolution: they can either work with Hamas's administrative structures — thereby normalizing Hamas governance in the eyes of donor governments that have refused engagement — or they can refuse to engage, which means failing to deliver services to a population that desperately needs them. Most international NGOs operating in Gaza have adopted a pragmatic approach that avoids direct political engagement with Hamas while accepting the operational realities of Hamas governance. This means obtaining permits from Hamas ministries, coordinating with Hamas civil defense and security, and accepting that Hamas controls access to the communities they serve. The result is a de facto collaboration that neither side acknowledges publicly. International donors — who provide the funding for these NGOs — maintain their non-engagement policy on paper while funding organizations that must cooperate with Hamas operationally. This contradiction is uncomfortable but functional: it allows humanitarian work to continue while preserving the political fiction of non-engagement.
Topic: Gaza Governance — Hamas · NGOs · humanitarian organizations — Text © Al-Monitor — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source