Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, one of the most devoted to the complete starvation of the population of Gaza, declared recently, “not even a grain of wheat” will enter Gaza. Although large amounts of money are still going to Gaza, there is little left to buy, with the result only to raise the prices the few relief supplies that remain, not to increase the supply. It is mostly the wealthy NGOs that can afford to buy it with their mountains of donations, and offer it for free to those who have nothing. But soon even the NGOs will have nothing.
We and our partner, Fils de l’Homme, are a partial exception to Smotrich’s declaration. We are actually getting food and other relief supplies across the barrier that Israel is maintaining. How is that possible? Because the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization is delivering the aid. The JHCO retains a relief corridor that is permitted by Israel as a means of preventing the collapse of the Jordanian government. More than two thirds of Jordan’s citizens are Palestinians and will not accept for King Abdullah to do nothing, so Israel prefers to release the pressure in this way, and to keep him in power.
It is perhaps a devil’s bargain, but it saves some of the lives that Israel would otherwise snuff out. We believe in saving lives whenever we can. Your donations to PCWF and FPM (both projects of the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees) have enabled us to recently transmit $5000 to deliver large quantities of food in this way. The food came from Spain, but your donations assured that it got delivered in much larger quantities than would have been possible if we had been obliged to pay for the goods in addition to the delivery costs.
Thank you. We are hoping to repeat this success very soon, and with larger quantities of aid. You may rest assured that your donations will be used to save Palestinian lives.