UN refusal to deliver aid – a failure of basic values

In Jewish communities across South Africa, families are encountering a familiar question: why are the people of Gaza hungry? Too often, the accusation follows quickly. It must be Israel’s fault.

This charge isn’t only false. It’s dangerous. It ignores a much more disturbing truth: that some of the largest humanitarian organisations in the world, including the United Nations (UN) itself, have chosen not to deliver food to Gazan civilians despite having everything they need to do so.

Since May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has delivered nearly 100 million meals to civilians across Gaza. We aren’t a Jewish organisation. We aren’t Israeli. We aren’t political. We exist for one purpose only: to feed the hungry. And we are fulfilling that mission despite grave threats.

The facts are clear. For weeks, more than 950 truckloads of food cleared by Israeli authorities and transferred across the Kerem Shalom crossing sat inside Gaza, just beyond the reach of Palestinians in desperate need. The food wasn’t blocked at the border. It wasn’t held back by security issues. It was already in Gaza.

But the UN refused to distribute it.

We pleaded with the UN to act. We offered to partner with them. We urged them to do their job. Still, they declined. They wouldn’t deliver the food. They wouldn’t allow us to deliver it either. So the food sat, untouched, through the searing summer heat. And then it began to rot.

This wasn’t an accident. It was a choice.

GHF is on the ground and ready to deliver aid at scale, with security protocols in place and operations fully transparent. But we are systematically excluded. Instead of co-ordinating to get food to civilians, more than 170 international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have called for our operations to be dismantled. They claim to be protecting neutrality. But neutrality that results in starvation isn’t moral. It’s complicity.

To be clear, we don’t oppose other aid organisations. We want them to succeed. We have invited the UN and other major NGOs to join us in distributing food. We have made repeated offers to share logistics and resources. They have not taken us up on it.

Meanwhile, the lies have escalated. Some groups are targeting GHF with tactics that Jewish communities know all too well. Scapegoating. Double standards. Accusations without evidence. And a refusal to see the truth because it is inconvenient.

One particularly vile rumour accused us of mixing pills with flour. That lie wasn’t just absurd. It was familiar. It echoed the medieval blood libels that blamed Jews for poisoning wells. Today, those same tactics are being used against anyone who refuses to allow politics to take precedence over human life.

We are also condemned for following Israeli security protocols. These are the same protocols every aid organisation must follow. But we are held to a different standard. At the same time, the UN continues to rely on Hamas for logistics and security in Gaza. No-one questions its neutrality. No-one calls for its shutdown.

Our food is packed in Israeli warehouses by Jews, Muslims, and Christians working side by side. Many of them also support the World Food Programme and other UN operations. But when we do it, it’s condemned. That double standard isn’t just offensive, it’s dangerous. It puts our staff at risk and undermines efforts to scale up the aid response.

It should never be controversial to feed a hungry child. But today, it is. And that’s a failure not of logistics, but of values.

Nevertheless, we will not stop. GHF will keep distributing food wherever and whenever we can. We will continue to call on the UN and aid organisations to act with urgency and to partner with us to get food into the hands of civilians. There is no shortage of food. There is a shortage of will.

No-one should have to apologise for feeding the hungry. And no-one should be blamed for doing so, least of all by those who claim to stand for human rights.

• Reverend Johnnie Moore is executive chairperson of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.