Sat Apr 26 11:52:52 UTC 2025: ## USAID in Palestine: A Force for Occupation, Not Liberation?

**RAMALLAH** – The closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Palestine, a move initiated by the Trump administration, has sparked debate over the agency’s true impact on the occupied territories. While USAID claimed to have improved the lives of millions of Palestinians through healthcare and education initiatives, critics argue its aid served primarily to normalize Israeli occupation and stifle Palestinian resistance.

A researcher with years of experience assessing USAID-funded programs alleges that the agency, operating since 1994, became a tool for maintaining the status quo. Over $5.2 billion in aid, the researcher claims, was used to support the Palestinian Authority (PA), a body seen as a collaborator with Israeli occupation forces. This support, the researcher argues, included funding programs designed to depoliticize the conflict, portraying Palestinian resistance as a source of instability rather than a legitimate response to occupation.

The researcher points to specific examples, including the Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) program, which ostensibly aimed to foster cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli farmers. However, the researcher found that participation often provided Palestinians with the only means of obtaining Israeli work permits, forcing them to work on Israeli farms, frequently built on confiscated Palestinian land. This, the researcher asserts, highlighted the program’s failure to address the root causes of Palestinian hardship: Israeli occupation policies.

Another program, Seeds of Peace, which sent Palestinian youth to a summer camp in the US, disproportionately benefited the children of PA officials and the affluent elite, furthering the perception of aid prioritizing the established power structures rather than the broader population. Additionally, USAID’s support for certain Palestinian political actors ahead of the 2006 elections, although not direct financial support for candidates, favored groups aligned with Fatah, highlighting a potential bias in its operations.

The researcher also criticized the $230 million pier constructed to facilitate aid delivery to Gaza, arguing that it served as a public relations exercise obscuring US complicity in Israel’s blockade while also being used by the Israeli military in operations resulting in civilian casualties.

While acknowledging the short-term negative impact of USAID’s closure on some Palestinians, the researcher concludes that the agency’s aid ultimately failed to address the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The researcher suggests that the closure could present an opportunity for Palestinian civil society to re-evaluate its relationship with US government donors and adopt a new approach focused on genuine Palestinian self-determination rather than pacification.

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