The Gaza precedent: Criminalising humanitarian aid

On 6 May, 55 iNGOs sounded the alarm by releasing a letter calling for urgent action from the international community against Israel’s new registration rules for humanitarian organisations. These measures, introduced in March 2025 and set to take effect within six months, require all currently registered NGOs in the occupied Palestinian territories to either reapply or be expelled. Recent developments have made it clear that traditional responses to subversion of international law, consisting of diplomatic pressure, donor conditionality and advocacy campaigns, have repeatedly failed to halt the systematic erosion of humanitarian and civic space in occupied Palestine.

Oversight of this new iNGO regulation process has been entrusted to a new committee staffed by security and intelligence officials who lack basic understanding of international humanitarian law critical for such a position, eroding the neutrality and independence required of humanitarian action. Minister Amichai Chikli, leader of the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, justified the new measures as essential to prevent foreign entities from conducting what it describes as delegitimisation of Israel under the guise of humanitarian aid. However, the effect of such a procedure is unmistakably to criminalise core humanitarian principles and institutionalise a system of aid that is conditional on political alignment. This is a “comply or die” scenario that cannot be disguised despite the efforts to clothe it in legal rhetoric.

The new guidelines allow Israel to reject NGO registration if the organisation – or any of its employees – have supported or indirectly endorsed “anti-Israel propaganda”, ranging from supporting BDS, questioning Israel’s definition as a Jewish and democratic state, or backing international legal action against Israeli military or security personnel. If not clear enough, the guidelines also require the submission of complete personal identification data of staff, particularly Palestinian employees. In a context where over 300 Palestinian aid workers have been killed, this exposes staff to potential targeting, harassment, or worse. It also puts their families at risk. In sum, these new registration procedures impose impossible compliance measures based on a political litmus test of loyalty to Israel that is contrary to the very thread of neutrality that humanitarian aid organisations operate on. Its vague and unclear criteria of what constitutes “anti-Israel propaganda” present an ever-moving target that can shapeshift with changing circumstances.

OPINION: Israel not only weaponises humanitarian aid, but also criminalises those who deliver it

Back in March, SARI Global released a list of anticipatory actions and triggers to look out for to prepare for likely and worst case scenarios in the coming months. We are now at a time where these need to be highlighted, and collective action needs to be taken to ensure that impartiality of aid remains sanctified under international humanitarian law. If not addressed, these tactics risk setting a global precedent for the politicisation of aid under the ever-elusive categorisation of national security.

For SARI Global’s most-likely case scenario of “heightened operational constraints with partial NGO compliance”, which is happening currently, the organisation provides a list of anticipatory actions needed to protect the sanctity of humanitarian aid organisations. The list proves basic and is a redundant parroting of the efforts that are already being coordinated globally. It is time to confront the limits of conventional solutions. The persistent calls for international condemnation, conditional aid and legal appeals have not prevented the steady advance of these restrictions. Under the worst-case scenario of “mass deregistration and collapse of international humanitarian operations”, of which Israel has meticulously laid the ground work for, SARI Global recommends that community-based organisations and local NGOs be supported with adequate resources and capacity-building responses for solutions to deliver aid on the ground. 

A meaningful response requires acknowledging that the crisis is not just simply humanitarian, but fundamentally political. Any attempt to paint the situation as a matter of aid delivery alone, without addressing the underlying realities of occupation, blockade, and dispossession, signals political bankruptcy. In this new era, solidarity, not charity, must be the organising principle. The challenge is not only to demand access and protection for aid, but to reimagine resistance and support for Palestinian civil society as a form of global civic action. Our collective responsibility as a community is to mobilise emergency funding streams to support these alternative aid channels to fill in the gaps left behind by the aid vacuum. The financial efforts matter now more than ever.

We are facing a time where the civic space worldwide is shrinking and is being replaced with the criminalisation of solidarity and advocacy. Not only individuals, but entire humanitarian organisations whose job it is to remain impartial, are presented with the choice of either complying with illegal and unethical demands or risk losing their ability to deliver life-saving food, water, and medical care to prevent genocide and extermination of Palestinians. In this dystopian time when international law means no more than a warning label on a weapon of war, it falls on ordinary people to become the last line of defence for humanity. 

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