Special Edition: 21 October 2004
Christian Aid: Report Uses Humanitarian Aims
to Promote Political Bias
Although Christian Aid claims to be a charitable and humanitarian
organization, the main focus of its activities on Arab-Israeli issues is almost
entirely political. In its latest publication, "Facts
on the ground: The end of the two-state solution?", (October 21 2004),
the facade of humanitarian objectives has been dropped entirely in favor of a
blatantly political and highly partisan position that is entirely outside of
this NGO's competence.
Like many previous
reports by Christian Aid, this report ignores the complexities of the
conflict and its history, while its authors examine a single element, out of
context of the broader picture. Thus, they have failed to consider the role of
incitement to hatred, and extremist Palestinian demands on issues such as
refugee claims, which have been manipulated since the 1948 war in order to
block agreement. Christian Aid's latest venture into the complex politics of
the Arab-Israeli conflict also fails to consider Palestinian rejection of all
proposals regarding shared access to Jerusalem, which was another critical
factor in the collapse of the permanent status negotiations. And although the
history of Palestinian terror in the service of rejectionism receives limited
attention, Christian Aid's claim that "the issue of land - which is both
the problem and the solution in the conflict between Palestinians and Israel",
reflects a very narrow and largely uninformed perspective.
Instead, by isolating the single issue of land, and
examining this exclusively from the perspective of the Palestinian leadership,
Christian Aid has produced a highly biased and counterproductive political
publication, which will add more fuel to the fire and hostility.
The emphasis on a "single state solution" also repeats reflects
the current political position of the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed
by Yassir Arafat. Under Arafat's guidance, Michael Tarazi, of the PLO's
Negotiation Support Unit (which is funded by the British government as a
"development" project) has recently written a number of newspaper
columns on precisely the same themes as those that are the subject of this
Christian Aid report.
Thus, the claim that this report reflects the "Facts on the
ground" is highly misleading - these facts are highly selective and
filtered through a pro-Palestinian political lens. Although emphasizing
political assertions (I.e. "the strangulation of the Palestinian economy,
as more land is taken from the West Bank for settler roads and
settlements"), the impact of terrorism and corruption among Palestinian
leaders receives scant notice. The exposed politicized objectives of Christian
Aid's "Palestinian
and Israeli partners" have been substituted for professional and
unbiased analysis of these complex and controversial issues.
As a result of these and other serious deficiencies, the claim that the
recommendations that flow from this report are likely to somehow resolve a
conflict that has continued for 75 years (long before "occupied
territory") is simply not credible.