Rules introduced by Israel in 2025 are being used to block humanitarian organisations from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories, limiting aid delivery and silencing advocacy.

Why is Israel banning the esteemed international aid organisation Save the Children from working in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and why is the same ban being applied to the American Quakers (The American Friends Service Committee AFSC)?

In March of this year Israel introduced new International Non Government Organisation (INGO) rules. Under these new measures INGOs can be denied access to the Occupied Territories if they engage in vague activities such as the “delegitimisation” of the state of Israel.

This can include advocacy and humanitarian reporting on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Such rules are inconsistent with international humanitarian law. They are designed to control these INGOs, to silence advocacy and censor humanitarian reporting. Some of the world’s biggest aid groups are now being banned by Israel, many of whom have worked in Gaza and the West Bank for decades.

The application of the ban on the Quakers is particularly sinister given that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) along with its British counterpart received the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize for helping and rescuing victims of the Nazis. The AFSC Refugee division was established after Kristallnacht in 1938 as many Jews in Germany were in danger and needed more than humanitarian relief. This division rescued over 22,000 Jews and Christians during and after World War II. The organisation’s core values are justice and a commitment to pacifism as well as integrity, and yet Israel is banning the Quakers from providing humanitarian support to Palestinians. Despite the fact that the American Quakers, with support from Quakers around the world, have been running a very significant educational Palestinian institution, the Friends School in Ramallah, since 1869.

The organisation Israeli Shomrim (one of two Israeli organisations of the same name) that brings journalistic attention to issues of injustice, inequality, and human rights violations against Palestinians says “an organisation may be prevented from working in the territories if, for example, it promotes de-legitimisation of Israel.” It adds that “without specifying what that means or providing any evidence, the registration of many organisations has been denied on this basis.” In relation to the AFSC, Shomrim reports the Israeli government has ruled that the organisation is “disqualified due to alleged support for terrorism against Israel, de-legitimisation activity, calling for a boycott of Israel, denial of the events of 7 October, and calls to prosecute Israelis at the International Criminal Court.” 

Save the Children is another such organisation affected by these new rules. It has been operating in Gaza for more than 70 years but in August this year was informed by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism that it did not meet the new criteria for re-registration and would need to remove its international staff from Gaza. In addition, the reason why the Ministry for Combating Antisemitism is involved is that these new rules allow Israel to ban aid groups even for statements they make. Israel has made it clear that unless all INGOs submit to the full registration requirements, including the mandatory submission of details of private donors, complete Palestinian staff lists and other sensitive information about personnel for so-called “security” vetting to Israeli authorities, organisations will be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days.

According to Norwegian People's Aid under these new procedures, other disqualifiers can include “support for a boycott of Israel within the past seven years (by staff, a partner, board member, or founder) or failure to meet exhaustive reporting requirements.”   

These requests are particularly disturbing when many Palestinian humanitarian and healthcare workers have been killed and are regularly subject to harassment, detention, and direct attacks. In fact, the occupied Palestinian territory is the deadliest setting for aid workers worldwide, with Palestinian staff accounting for 98 per cent of aid worker fatalities: some 509 out of 517 killings that took place between 2023-2025 were Palestinian according to the Aid Worker Security Database.

Further on 6 August this year, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that these information requests by Israel risk violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPA advised “that INGOs should not comply with these requests, and that the only solution is for Israel to amend its requirements and for the relevant ministries to issue a formal protest.”

To make the situation worse, the promised surge in aid to Gaza has failed to materialise in spite of the fact that the majority of Israeli hostages have been returned. Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in aid into Gaza saying that organisations are “not authorised to deliver aid.” In July this year alone, over 60 agencies were denied permission to deliver aid, many from agencies that have worked in Gaza for decades.

While the international community has been exceptionally generous for the first two years of the Gaza genocide, third-party crowdfunding platforms are reporting that it is becoming more difficult to raise money for Gaza. For example, Gaza Soup Kitchen using GoFundMe has been able to raise over $5.8m since the beginning of 2024. This year donations fell 51 per cent. Aid to Gaza remains restricted, with only three of the seven border crossings open. Education and humanitarian aid from UNRWA continues to be denied and since 2021 the Australian government has not accredited any Australian INGO for any humanitarian partnerships in Gaza.

On 12 September Foreign Minister Penny Wong, with the support of 100 other UN members, launched the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, stating the “Declaration is a powerful recommitment to the rules that safeguard humanity and ensure aid reaches those who need it most. . . we are reinvigorating commitment at the highest political level to protect aid workers in conflict zones”. These measures “include a commitment to facilitate access and protect humanitarian personnel, ensure faster and more efficient visas and work permits.”

Fine words and strong sentiment but it seems that our government continues to enable Israel’s impunity with its silence regarding Israels banning of INGO’s. This lack of moral clarity and apparent unwillingness to implement this important declaration is resulting in yet another toothless UN declaration and more misery and hardship in the Palestinian Territories.