{"id":150178,"date":"2025-06-10T15:56:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T22:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150178"},"modified":"2025-06-10T15:56:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T22:56:52","slug":"dont-fund-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-its-a-genocidal-smokescreen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/06\/10\/dont-fund-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-its-a-genocidal-smokescreen\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Fund the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: It\u2019s a Genocidal Smokescreen"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Medea Benjamin<\/a>, Courtesy Palestine Chronicle<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Gaza aid center was overrun by starving crowds. (Photo: video grab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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GHF has never been about delivering aid. It\u2019s about using the illusion of aid to control the population of Gaza\u2014and to give cover to war crimes.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Recent reports say that US AID is considering<\/a> giving $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)\u2014an aid\u201d initiative launched at Israel\u2019s request. At first glance, that might sound like a generous effort to help desperate Palestinians in Gaza. But peel back even one layer, and you\u2019ll find a deadly political scheme masquerading as humanitarian relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not about helping hungry people. It\u2019s about controlling them, displacing them, and starving them into submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with some basics. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not a humanitarian organization. It\u2019s a US- and Israeli-backed scheme run by people with no track record in neutral aid work. Its first director, Jake Wood, resigned on May 25, saying the organization failed to uphold humanitarian principles. Then the Boston Consulting Group, which had secretly helped design GHF\u2019s aid operations, pulled ou<\/a>t and apologized to staff who were furious about the firm\u2019s complicity in a system that enabled forced displacement and sidelined trusted UN agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GHF brand new director<\/a> is Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical PR executive best known for helping Donald Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and push the US embassy move there\u2014a move that only fanned the flames of conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GHF\u2019s entire premise is rooted in deception. It was launched with Israeli government oversight, without transparency, without independence, and\u2014critically\u2014without the participation of the United Nations or any respected humanitarian agencies. In fact, the UN has refused <\/a>to have anything to do with it. So have groups like Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme, whose leaders have warned in no uncertain terms that GHF\u2019s model militarizes aid, violates humanitarian norms, and places Palestinian lives at even greater risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GHF has never been about delivering aid. It\u2019s about using the illusion of aid to control the population of Gaza\u2014and to give cover to war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People in Gaza are starving because Israel wants them to. There are thousands <\/a>of aid trucks, many loaded with supplies from the United Nations, that\u2014for months\u2014have been blocked from entering Gaza. They contain food, water, medicine, shelter materials\u2014the lifeblood of a besieged civilian population. But instead of letting them through, the US and Israel are pushing their own version of aid: a privatized, militarized operation. Armed US contractors working with the GHF are reportedly <\/a>earning up to $1,100 per day, along with a $10,000 signing bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GHF plan is to make aid available only in the south, forcibly displacing people from the north\u2014driving them toward the Egyptian border, where many fear a permanent expulsion is being engineered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the very start of GHF\u2019s operations, with the opening of two distribution sites in southern Gaza on May 26, the chaos turned deadly<\/a>, with the Israeli military shooting at hungry people seeking food. In its short time of operation, nearly 100 Palestinians<\/a> have been killed and hundreds more wounded. These are not tragic accidents\u2014they are predictable outcomes of militarizing aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s also address the fear-mongering claim that when the UN was in charge of aid delivery, food was being stolen by Hamas. There is no credible evidence of this and Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme, has publicly refuted <\/a>this allegation, saying that trucks have been looted by hungry, desperate people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real threat to aid integrity isn\u2019t Hamas\u2014it\u2019s the blockade itself, which has created an artificial scarcity and fueled black markets, desperation, and chaos..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To truly help the people of Gaza, here\u2019s what needs to happen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n