The Misappropriation of Palestinian Humanitarian Aid – A Case for Stronger Oversight

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The Misappropriation of Palestinian Humanitarian Aid – A Case for Stronger Oversight

6th September 2022 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

There have long been questions raised about the checks and balances in operation for the vast flow of Palestinian humanitarian aid from the international community. Now, a new body of research conducted by NGO Monitor in Israel shows how such funds have been regularly re-routed to serve less than legitimate activities, thus betraying not only the people it has been supposed to help but also the tenets of international law.

Nor has the routing of funding been the only issue. Only recently the European Union had to freeze funds earmarked to the Palestinian Authority after it was found they helped sustain school programmes aimed at demonising the Jews and glorify Jihad as the expression of one’s piety and national duty. There is a strong argument to be made against such irresponsible funding because it not only empowers terrorist organisations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad who utilise such teaching for their violence, but also as it runs contrary to Palestinian civil society interests and civil liberties.

In view of these findings, it seems evident that a broader conversation should take place around the need for a more stringent vetting process for this international funding, for if this is occurring with Palestinian aid, is it not likely that the humanitarian aid community and Western governments are also propagating similar systems in other jurisdictions?

By kind invitation of Baroness Ros Altmann, The Henry Jackson Society is delighted to invite you to an-person discussion in the House of Lords about the misappropriation of Palestinian humanitarian aid and the wider issues springing from it.

 

 

Anne Herzberg is the Legal Advisor of NGO Monitor. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University Law School. Prior to joining NGO Monitor, she worked as an attorney in New York. Her areas of research include business and human rights, international human rights law, the laws of armed conflict, universal jurisdiction, international fact finding, NGOs, and the UN. As NGO Monitor’s UN representative, she regularly speaks before UN bodies.

She is the author of the widely cited “NGO Lawfare: Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” co-author of Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-finding, and co-editor of The Goldstone Report ‘Reconsidered’: A Critical Analysis and Filling in the Blanks: Documenting Missing Dimensions in UN and NGO Investigations of the Gaza Conflict. In recent months, she has co-authored  two in-depth reports analysing the apartheid charge towards Israel: False Knowledge as Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State (December 2021) and Neo-Orientalism: Deconstructing Claims of Apartheid in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (March 2022).

Anne’s articles and op-eds have appeared in many publications, including the American Journal of International Law,  The International Criminal Law Review, Ha’aretz, the Jerusalem Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

 

This photo is a property of https://richard-kemp.com/

 

Colonel Richard Kemp has spent most of his life combating terrorism and insurgency in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. Between 2002 and 2006 he headed the international terrorism intelligence team for the Joint Intelligence Committee and chaired the intelligence group in the UK national crisis management committee COBRA. He is a writer, speaker and media commentator on defence, terrorism, intelligence and security and a strategic consultant. He has spent a considerable time in the Middle East, often in Israel including during all of the Gaza conflicts since 2008.

 

 

Catherine Perez-Shakdam is a French Jewish political analyst and commentator for the Middle East. A former consultant for the United Nations Security Council on Yemen’s War Economy; her research was instrumental in better understanding Yemen’s political landscape and actors’ financial interests.

Her writing and commentaries on the Middle East have graced the cover of countless publications, including the Huffington Post, BBC Arabic, BBC Persia, Voices of America, and the Times of Israel.

In 2017 Catherine was the only Western media personality to have been granted an interview with now-President Ibrahim Raisi.

Her ability to move close to Iran’s Leadership and have access to key information as to the regime’s propagandist structure bought her the ire of Tehran and allegations that she had operated in Iran at the behest of foreign powers.

Once a close friend to Nader Talebzadeh, Catherine had a front row seat to the inner-workings of the Islamic Republic.

 

 

Baroness Ros Altmann is an award-winning expert on later life issues. She was an academic economist and investment banker before starting her own consultancy and then was Director-General of Saga Group from 2010 to 2013. Ros was awarded a CBE in 2014 for services to pensioners and pension provision, was the UK government’s Business Champion for Older Workers from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of State for Pensions under David Cameron from 2015 to 2016.

She sits in the House of Lords and is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, Emeritus Governor of the LSE, a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute and an adviser to the International Longevity Centre. She appears regularly in the media, writes for national and trade press and is widely respected as a policy thought leader.

She has a First Class Honours Degree in Economics from University College London, was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University and received her PhD from the LSE. She also has honorary Doctorates from the University of Westminster and the University of Nottingham.

 

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EVENT SUMMARY

 

The Henry Jackson Society was pleased to be invited by Baroness Altmann to hold a discussion on the misappropriation of Palestinian humanitarian aid and the potential for greater governmental oversight. Baroness Altmann began the conversation by introducing the speakers. Anne Herzberg highlighted some of the links found between individuals involved in humanitarian organisations and the PFLP and made the case for increased controls on international aid spending. Colonel Richard Kemp discussed how anti-Israeli sentiment is distributed through educational materials, television, films, and literature. Catherine Perez-Shakdam underlined how indoctrination can start from a very young age and is difficult to reverse. She also argued for UN member states to hold other member states, and UN agencies accountable for unwittingly supporting the misappropriation of aid. Finally, the speakers answered questions on Mahmoud Abbas, the British Consulate in Jerusalem, and how we can support humanitarian organisations who are promoting liberal ideals.

 

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Venue

Committee Room 1, House of Lords
Westminster
London, SW1A 0AA United Kingdom
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Other

SPEAKER
Anne Herzberg, Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, Catherine Perez-Shakdam, Baroness Ros Altmann

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