The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) opened its office in Palestine back in 1994. Its website, which is no longer available, used to boast that since then, it has “helped four million Palestinians lead healthier and more productive lives”.Now that the agency has been shuttered by US President Donald Trump’s administration, it is pertinent to evaluate the claim that USAID was a force for good in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Undoubtedly, the shutdown of the agency has affected Palestinians, especially those benefitting from its funding for education and healthcare institutions. Humanitarian provision was also affected, with the World Food Programme, one of the main humanitarian actors in the occupied Palestinian territories, facing major disruptions.
While the short-term negative impact is apparent, the utility of USAID and other US funding becomes questionable when put in the larger political context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
As a researcher, I have been directly and indirectly involved in assessing USAID-funded programmes for years, and I have seen first-hand how they have contributed to maintaining Israeli occupation and colonisation. The US agency was far from “helping” Palestinians lead better lives, as it claimed. Advertisement
A policy of pacification
USAID opened its West Bank and Gaza Strip office as part of the broader American effort to lead and shape the political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis initiated by the Oslo Accords of 1994.
The so-called “peace process” promised Palestinians an independent state on the l …
