The EU’s discrepancies in humanitarian aid rhetoric

Reading through comments regarding the latest purported disagreements over the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, one fact stands out above all others – humanitarian aid is being politicised, and it always has been.

It is easy for the European Union to state that aid “must bever be politicised or militarised” to be perceived, on a superficial level, as veering away from the more overt stance taken by the US and Israel. However, the EU knows that Palestinians are trapped between the new Israeli proposal that humanitarian aid delivery is carried out by private contractors, and the failing paradigm supported by the international community.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) operates from a lesser vantage point due to donor funding, which has been suspended several times. Several donors to UNRWA also support Israel’s genocide. All donors to UNRWA support the two-state paradigm, which in itself renders UNRWA a permanent fixture as there is no solution for Palestinian refugees. The international community had long determined that humanitarian aid would be politicised, and that Palestinians would pay the price for the decision.

Even when speaking out against the Israeli-US plans for humanitarian aid distribution, European leaders never present a clear stance.

READ: Trump vows aid for Gaza as Israel minister urges starvation, bombing food warehouses

Take Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, for example. While calling for a review of the EU-Israel Association agreement and speaking about against starving Palestinians in Gaza, he added, “from a democracy such as Israel, democracies fight differently, and Israel has to abide by international humanitarian law.”

Israel is not a democracy, it is a colonial power committing genocide. Politics is intentional, not instinctive. There is a plan even behind the words used by European leaders attempting to portray themselves as morally upright. The underlying tone is, according to the European narrative, that there can be no discussion of Israeli colonialism and genocide. With that silent stipulation, humanitarian aid becomes a discussion not an endeavour. What opposition to its plans is Israel truly facing? None at all.

France is another example. “Even when there is war, we respect a certain number of rules: we do not target civilians, we do not attack humanitarian workers, and we ensure that humanitarian aid can always reach the people,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated. This is genocide by starvation to advance Israeli colonisation, not war. Can foreign ministers start making this distinction, at least in order to make a point about humanitarian aid?

Not to mention that the focus on international law eclipses the focus on the Palestinians themselves. International law is supposed to work for the people. However, it has become a catchphrase to protect colonial interests at the expense of the people that should be protected.

What has been revealed so far of the US-Israeli plan for humanitarian aid in Gaza further degrades what was already unsustainable. Private companies delivering aid in “Secure Aid Distribution Sites” where civilians can go once a week “to receive one aid package per family that will be sufficient for seven days” is a further erosion of dignity and, in turn, further erosion of political rights.

But this erosion of political rights was already set in motion when UNRWA operated on a supposedly temporary basis that became as permanent as Zionist colonisation in Palestine. Humanitarian aid has always been politicised, and the West is now unable to deal with the repercussions, being too concerned to save the interests it invested in the paradigm, against the basics of democracy and decolonisation.

READ: Children in Gaza ‘face growing risk of starvation, illness, death’ as Israeli aid blockade continues: UNICEF

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.