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The New Humanitarian has published an investigation revealing that an international aid organization accepted donations explicitly earmarked for Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank. The organization deleted the content from its platforms hours after the investigation was published.
What the Investigation Found
The New Humanitarian's investigation documents how an international organization that presents itself as a neutral humanitarian actor accepted donations explicitly designated by donors to support Israeli military personnel and settler communities in the occupied West Bank. Fundraising pages, since deleted, contained explicit language linking donations to support for military units and specific settlements.
The investigation involved months of documentation, including archived web pages, screenshots of donation pages, financial transfer records, and interviews with former employees who raised internal concerns about the practice.
The organization — which operates across multiple conflict zones and receives funding from major institutional donors including European governments — deleted the relevant content within hours of The New Humanitarian's publication, without any public explanation or acknowledgment.
Why This Matters: Humanitarian Principles and Neutrality
The cornerstone principles of humanitarian action — humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence — are the practical foundation upon which humanitarian organizations' ability to access and assist affected populations depends. An organization that accepts donations explicitly designated for military personnel of one party to a conflict has a serious neutrality problem.
"Humanitarian neutrality is not optional or negotiable. The moment you start directing funds to military forces or illegal settlements, you have ceased to be a humanitarian organization in any meaningful sense of the term."
— Senior Humanitarian Law Scholar, quoted by The New Humanitarian
The Settler Dimension: International Law Considerations
The inclusion of settler communities in the West Bank as beneficiaries of the organization's fundraising raises distinct legal questions. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law by the International Court of Justice, the UN Security Council, and the vast majority of the international community.
Several European governments have issued guidance to NGOs operating under their funding frameworks to ensure their activities do not inadvertently support or legitimize settlement expansion.
Accountability in the Humanitarian Sector
The investigation highlights broader accountability gaps in the international humanitarian sector. The sector lacks a comprehensive independent oversight mechanism capable of auditing organizations' activities against the neutrality and impartiality principles they claim to uphold.
Several former aid workers and humanitarian law scholars have called the investigation a "wake-up call" for the sector, arguing that the absence of systematic accountability for neutrality violations has allowed problematic practices to develop without detection or consequence.
The Broader Context: Aid, Conflict, and Integrity
Trust in humanitarian organizations — earned over decades of dangerous work in some of the world's most difficult environments — is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild once lost. The New Humanitarian has called on the organization's board and institutional donors to commission an independent review of the practices documented and to make the results public.
Sources: The New Humanitarian — thenewhumanitarian.org | ICRC — Fundamental Principles — icrc.org | UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016) — un.org | ICJ — Advisory Opinion 2004 — icj-cij.org
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