U.S. Aid and the Normalization of Colonization in Palestine: Examining USAID's Role in the Peacekeeping Sector
Rewritten Article:
USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, established its Palestinian office back in 1994, claiming to have "helped four million Palestinians lead healthier and more productive lives" since then. However, with Donald Trump's administration shutting down the agency, it's worth examining whether USAID was indeed a force for good in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The closure of USAID has undeniably affected the lives of many Palestinians, particularly those benefiting from its funding for educational and healthcare institutions. Humanitarian assistance also took a hit, with the World Food Programme, one of the primary humanitarian actors in the occupied Palestinian territories, dealing with major disruptions.
The short-term negative consequences are evident, but the utility of USAID and other US funding becomes questionable when viewed within the larger context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
As a researcher, I have spent years evaluating USAID-funded programs. Throughout this experience, I've observed firsthand how these programs contributed to maintaining the Israeli occupation and colonization – a far cry from their claims of helping Palestinians live better lives.
A Pacification Agenda
USAID's West Bank and Gaza Strip office opened as part of a broader American effort to lead and shape the political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis, initiated by the Oslo Accords of 1994. These accords promised Palestinians an independent state on the lands occupied by Israel in 1967, with a final agreement slated to be signed by 1999. As history shows, such an agreement was never reached, as Israel never intended to end its occupation or recognize Palestinians' right to self-determination.
Instead, the Oslo Accords served as a cover for Israel's ruthless colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories, dressed up in the rhetoric of peace negotiations. The creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a local governing body charged with managing civil affairs for Palestinians in designated areas was part of this strategy.
While the official Palestinian leadership envisioned the PA as a transitional polity that would administer daily life until independence was achieved, it was designed and closely overseen by the US to function as a client regime, managing and controlling the occupied population.
To fulfill this mission, the PA was obliged to collaborate closely with Israeli security forces to suppress any form of resistance within the territories it governed. Its two main security bodies – the Intelligence Service and the Preventive Security – were set up for this purpose.
The US intelligence agencies were tasked with supporting and training the Palestinian security apparatus, while USAID was tasked with backing the civilian functions of the PA. Between 1994 and 2018, USAID provided over $5.2 billion in aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, funding infrastructure, health, and education initiatives.
Some of the funding was funneled through civil society organizations with two primary objectives: to depoliticize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to cultivate a network of civil society actors who would promote this agenda. The depoliticization framework treated the Palestinian issue as an economic and humanitarian matter, addressing Palestinian economic and social problems independent of their primary cause: Israeli occupation. It also aimed to delegitimize Palestinian resistance by portraying it as a source of instability and chaos, rather than a political response to occupation.
USAID's system of background checks and strict conditions was Orwellian. The vetting extended beyond the individual to their extended family, the name of the place, and even the cultural context in which the funds would be used – none of which could be associated with resistance. It comes as no surprise that USAID programs often failed to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians.
Normalization through People-to-People Programs
Much of USAID's funding went towards initiatives aimed at normalizing Israeli colonization by seeking to establish connections between Palestinians and Israelis under the premise that "peace can be achieved through understanding and friendship." This assertion blatantly ignored the reality of apartheid and occupation.
One of the programs I evaluated was the Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) Program, promoted under USAID's People-to-People Partnership framework. By 2018, CMM had allocated over $230 million to various projects and was prepared to distribute another $250 million by 2026.
The program included projects targeting bereaved parents, farmers, and students to promote peacebuilding. One such project aimed to foster cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli farmers through shared farming experiences.
During a focus group discussion, I spoke to a Palestinian farmer who explained that Palestinian olive oil production had stagnated due to Israeli occupation policies that restricted Palestinian farmers' access to water and, at times, to their land. "These programs," he said, "don't address these issues."
When I asked why he participated, he explained that the project enabled him to obtain an Israeli travel permit and work on Israeli farms, earning an income to survive.
The absurdity of this scenario was striking: on paper, the program claimed to promote peaceful relations between Palestinians and Israelis; however, Palestinian farmers signed up to obtain travel permits and work on Israeli farms, often established on confiscated Palestinian land. Participation in the program failed to resolve any of the problems faced by Palestinian farmers – the Israeli occupation itself.
Another USAID-funded program I examined, Seeds of Peace, had the mission to bring together young people from conflict regions who had the potential to become future leaders in their countries. The program's central activity was a youth summer camp in an affluent area in the US state of Maine, where participants engaged in dialogue and leadership training.
The two largest participant groups were Israelis and Palestinians. While the Israeli Ministry of Education selected Israeli participants, the Seeds of Peace office in Ramallah oversaw the recruitment of Palestinian participants. Each participant benefitted from a heavily subsidized program, with costs reaching up to $8,000 per person.
A closer look at participant lists over the years revealed a striking pattern: the sons and daughters of PA leaders and affluent families frequently appeared.
Intrigued, I onceasked a program officer about this pattern. The response was enlightening: "In Palestinian society, leadership tends to pass to the children of high-ranking officials."
This meant that the organization's – and by extension, the US's – vision of political leadership in Palestine assumed that power is hereditary, leading US initiatives to focus on the sons and daughters of the current elite.
Political Interference
Seeds of Peace was far from an isolated case. Some relatives of high-ranking officials have received preferential treatment in securing lucrative USAID contracts, while others have led nonprofit organizations funded by the agency.
USAID has also been involved indirectly in the political scene in Palestine by supporting political actors favored by Washington. Between 2004 and 2006, it implemented an extensive democracy promotion program in the Palestinian territories prior to the 2006 legislative elections.
While there's no direct evidence to support the claim that USAID financially supported specific candidates or party lists, observers have noted that civil society organizations (CSOs) linked to Fatah or the Third Way candidates were recipients of USAID funding. In some cases, funding was channeled through organizations operating in unrelated sectors.
Despite substantial funding and political support, these groups failed to secure enough seats to prevent Hamas's electoral victory. Following Hamas's takeover of Gaza, USAID continued supporting Palestinian CSOs, sometimes drastically increasing their funding.
USAID also supported the police force under the PA through rule of law programs, although the bulk of funding for the PA's repressive security apparatus came through the CIA and the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) of the US Department of State.
A more recent and striking example of problematic USAID involvement is the malfunctioning pier built by the US military in 2024 to facilitate aid delivery into Gaza, at a cost of $230 million. The project was promoted as a humanitarian initiative, with USAID being one of the organizations tasked with distributing the aid that passed through it.
In reality, the pier served as a public relations stunt by the Biden administration to obscure US complicity in Israel's blockade of Gaza. It was also utilized by the Israeli military during an operation that resulted in the death of over 200 Palestinians, raising serious questions about the militarization and misuse of aid infrastructure.
The pier fiasco provides a clear illustration of the US approach to providing aid to Palestinians: it was never done for their benefit.
It's true that some impoverished Palestinians may be affected by the shutdown of USAID operations in the West Bank and Gaza. However, the cutoff of aid will have a more substantial impact on the US strategy of leveraging Palestinian civil society organizations to promote a pacification agenda and perpetuate hollow notions of peace.
In this regard, the closing of USAID could provide an opportunity for Palestinian civil society to reconsider its engagement with US government donors, given its moral obligations to the Palestinian people. Millions poured into pacification clearly didn't work; it's high time for a new approach that genuinely serves the interests of the Palestinians.
*Authored by [Name withheld for privacy reasons]happy to help! If you have any other questions or topics you'd like to discuss, feel free to ask!
- The closure of USAID, under Donald Trump's administration, has significantly affected Palestinians, particularly those relying on its funding for educational and healthcare institutions.
- The utility of USAID and other US funding becomes questionable when considered within the broader context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
- In the Oslo Accords of 1994, USAID's West Bank and Gaza Strip office was opened as part of a broader American effort to lead and shape the political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis.
- The PA, established as a local governing body for Palestinians, was designed and closely overseen by the US to function as a client regime, managing and controlling the occupied population.
- USAID's system of background checks and strict conditions was Orwellian, extending beyond the individual to their extended family, the name of the place, and even the cultural context in which the funds would be used.
- Many USAID initiatives aimed at normalizing Israeli colonization by establishing connections between Palestinians and Israelis failed to address the root causes of the conflict, such as Israeli occupation policies.
- The malfunctioning pier built by the US military in 2024, at a cost of $230 million, served as a public relations stunt by the Biden administration to obscure US complicity in Israel's blockade of Gaza, and was utilized by the Israeli military during an operation that resulted in the death of over 200 Palestinians.
