Is Palestinian aid lining the pockets of terrorists?

Gilad Shalit was just a year out of high school when he was abducted by Hamas terrorists. It was June 2006, not even a full 12 months after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. In a bloody, vicious incursion, terrorists stole across the border into Israel via a series of tunnels. They murdered two people, wounded another four.

Shalit, also wounded, was taken hostage and held until 2011. That’s right; he was held hostage for five years and four months. Barely a man, Shalit was held hostage in Gaza for more than a quarter of the time he had been alive. His freedom eventually was secured when he was handed over in exchange for 1027 Palestinian prisoners. One life swapped for more than 1000.

But what is more extraordinary, if not surprising, is that among those released in that deal were two of the masterminds of the barbaric October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

What a terrible price to pay.

What an impossible situation. As of the time of writing, the hostage deal in Gaza was still pending. But the story of Shalit isn’t just an omen. It’s a demonstration of the systemic, deeply ingrained pursuit by Hamas and other militant Islamist groups of the elimination of the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

Australian Labor lives by the mantra “whatever it takes”. It’s got nothing on Hamas.

Shalit’s story provides critical context to the hostage exchanges about to take place. I want to propose it also gives cause to question the role, impact, involvement, knowledge and, some may suggest, culpability of the many non-government organisations (the UN chief among these) that operate in the disputed territories.

How can a person be held hostage for more than a half-decade with nobody knowing where he is? That’s a lot of collective ignorance or undeclared allegiance to the cause, depending on your view.

This past week, the world finally saw what Israel had flagged, cold hard evidence that al-Shifa hospital had been operating as a de facto terror base. The hospital hid munitions stores, concealed tunnels and war rooms. The world now has seen images of bloodied hostages being bundled into lifts on October 7. Security vision shows men standing guard, carrying assault rifles and what looks like a large machete or knife.

Yet the World Health Organisation, which repeatedly has described al-Shifa as a “death zone” in its numerous calls for a ceasefire, offered its best Sgt Schultz impersonation when pressed about why it didn’t notice anything unusual during many visits to al-Shifa since the massacre. We saw nothing, we knew nothing. We focused on the patients, was its explanation.

So focused, the presence of heavily armed men wandering corridors didn’t raise any red flags.

We’re expected to swallow this nonsense.

This month Geneva-based human rights watchdog UN Watch released a scathing report outlining how teachers working for the UN Relief and Works Agency were indoctrinating Palestinian kids into hatred, anti-Semitism and terrorism. It also revealed that more than 20 UNRWA teachers and staff were documented celebrating the October 7 massacre.

For reference, Western countries fund UNRWA with a lazy $US1.6bn ($2.4bn). More fool us.

As for others such as the Red Cross, UNICEF and those at the heart of this international aid industry, we should be demanding full disclosure.

Where does the money we send them go, how is it allocated and accounted for? What is the curriculum taught to Palestinian kids – is it English and maths or the currency of hatred and the glory of martyrdom? Is the aid provided helping Palestinians out of disadvantage or lining the pockets of terror groups? What services are provided in refugee camps funded by the UN? In June I went to Israel and the disputed territories with the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. This was no holiday. The security briefings we received each day seemed over the top. How little did we know.

I vividly remember driving into the al Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and thinking: where are all the UN billions? For starters it’s not a camp, it’s a suburb – old, rundown, borderline decrepit.

Al Am’ari was built under Jordanian occupation in 1947. There are low-rise apartments, sporting and youth centres, cafes and shops.

Kids raced around dusty streets on bikes and on foot, shouting and laughing as kids do. Only on this occasion several followed us at a distance, throwing small stones. At least one small boy followed up carrying a knife. You might ask how a child so young learns this kind of behaviour.

There was no sign of the billions of dollars in aid money that have been poured into the disputed territories across the decades. This is yet another of the myriad tragedies here. Why is our government and those in the broader West who are so quick to sign cheques not demanding an account of it? Follow the money; it’s a truism as old as time itself.

Foreign aid is an industry heavily infiltrated by the activist class.

As long as peace remains elusive, the industry will boom. The other thing I remember mulling over as we drove through a checkpoint back into Israel was that for many in the foreign aid ecosystem, peace would mean irrelevance; career ending. Chew on that for a moment.

Hamas has said on numerous occasions it intends to repeat the events of October 7. It’s not bluffing.

Yet some continue to call, Nero-like, for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

As a cohort of convicted murderers and terrorists is handed back to Hamas, it doesn’t take a PhD to understand what that means. Israel has vowed that Gaza will no longer be a haven for Hamas. I have faith that it’s not bluffing either.