Are NGOs in Palestine up to the challenge?
Civil society institutions in Palestine, which are in charge of documenting violations and providing aid for development projects, have recently come under criticism for failing to rid the Palestinians from the oppressive Hamas and Fatah regimes.
Civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have failed over the past decade to influence the Palestinian street and put an end to division or to topple the two ruling parties behind the division, namely Fatah and Hamas — even though they are the cause behind the deterioration of living conditions and the growing violations of human rights.
This raises questions about the role these institutions should play, the limits of their intervention and their pursuit of democracy and change, as they receive foreign funding. According to official government estimates published by the Palestine Economy Portal in January 2016, these funds amounted during the first nine months of 2015 to $800 million.
