Daily Alert Archives

How Terrorists Exploit Humanitarian Organizations

(Quillette) Ari Heistein and Nathaniel Rabkin - Humanitarian aid allows militant groups in the Middle East to evade responsibility for civil affairs while pursuing their agenda of mayhem. In fact, the terrorist groups often go much farther than this, and actually rely on aid streams to fund and equip the gunmen that commit their atrocities. Humanitarian aid has become a lifeline for these groups, enabling their deadly attacks. During the 15 years in which it has controlled Gaza, Hamas does not generally expropriate aid items directly, but rather uses its control of the government apparatus in Gaza to ensure that donor funds are siphoned off, either directly to Hamas or to entities it controls. For example, private security companies are all licensed by the Hamas Ministry of Interior, and their staff must be approved and trained by the ministry. UN and other aid group facilities therefore end up paying Hamas to guard them. Turning foreign aid into a source of revenue enables militant groups to deepen their hold on the territories in which they operate and increase their capacity for terrorism and aggression. Ari Heistein was a research fellow at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies. Nathaniel Rabkin has worked as an analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense.
2023-12-17 00:00:00
Full Article