Gaza and Charities at War
A really good German miniseries about a charitable hospital during WWII
While civilians along the 36 mile Gaza Israeli border are literally running for their lives, dying by the thousands by now, those of us who can only look on in horror should probably indulge some nuance and discernment in our comfortable arm-chair pontifications. I am not sure NGO Monitor is doing that, but then its not sitting comfortably in an arm chair. Its based in Israel, fighting for its life right now. For people in Israel and indeed Gaza, nuance and discernment can wait until survival.
NGO Monitor has gathered full statements about the conflict from 63 NGOs and published them under the heading, “NGOs Justify Hamas Atrocities Against Israeli Civilians”. NGO Monitor, by the way, is described as a
Right-wing non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem that reports on international NGO activity from a pro-Israel perspective. The organization was founded in 2001 by Gerald M. Steinberg under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, before becoming a legally and financially independent organization in 2007. NGO Monitor has been criticized by academic figures, diplomats, and journalists for allowing its research and conclusions to be driven by politics, for not examining right-wing NGOs, and for putting out misleading information. NGO Monitor’s stated mission is to “end the practice used by certain self-declared ‘humanitarian NGOs’ of exploiting the label ‘universal human rights values’ to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas”. A number of academics have written that NGO Monitor’s aims and activities are political in nature. The organization’s leader, Gerald M. Steinberg, has reportedly worked for the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Prime Minister while heading NGO Monitor.
I am not here endorsing or disputing that description, NGO Monitor’s headline, or its characterization of generally, but not universally left-leaning NGO statements as “justifications” for atrocities. In fact, I feel almost voyeuristic even commenting on the matter. This blog is entertaining for us, but there are people literally running for their lives right now. People are getting shot, stabbed, hacked or blown to pieces. Raped, tortured and kidnapped too. Literally. Right now.
I am posting about it only to note that the tragedy provides opportunity to study how civil society reacts and perhaps polarizes in times of armed conflict. I have not read all the excerpts NGO Monitor selected, and certainly not the entire statements to which the excerpts are conveniently linked. But a random sample suggests that NGOs think Hamas forfeited whatever moral ground it previously occupied, and will never again reoccupy, to prosecute longstanding legitimate grievances. Of course, once you recognize that even criminals or terrorists might sometimes have legitimate grievances, even if associated with illegitimate means (that phrase, “illegitimate means” doesn’t even capture what Hamas did and is doing), you are thought to justify crime or terrorism. NGOs are essentially asserting that the people of Gaza have legitimate grievances. But that is a different conversation while bodies are piling up. There are two different conversations being had together; they should be had separately, I think. Just like it’s wrong to say those NGOs justify atrocities, it’s wrong to even have the second conversation while bodies are piling up. Let’s stop stacking bodies and then have the second conversation. NGO Monitor highlights the conflation of two different conversations in an online discussion by Amnesty International:
Any theorizing about or recognition of “root causes” in the midst of human carnage, which Secretary Callamard does later in the thread, apparently justifies atrocities. NGO Monitor asserts as much, without hint of nuance or discernment but with plenty of useful transparency. Characterizations like that certainly don’t help the humanitarian groups already having a hard time bring relief to victims. Anyway, NGO Monitor provides a useful database if you are studying how NGOs act and speak in times of war. The whole thing oughta make us all weep, really.
darryll k. jones