Q1: What is NIF Fundraising for, exactly?
NIF is raising money for aid organisations, the World Central Kitchen (WCK), Clean Shelter and Standing Together’s Humanitarian Guard. These organisations and projects are equipped to feed and otherwise nourish innocent civilians in Gaza. Every dollar raised in this campaign goes directly to them.
Q2: NIF does not normally fund humanitarian aid, nor fund groups outside of Israel. Why make this exception?
It is the right thing to do. 2.1 million people in Gaza are food insecure, 900,000 children are going hungry and 70,000 are already showing signs of malnutrition. We believe we have a moral obligation to help feed them. As José Andrés, the celebrity chef who founded the World Central Kitchen, wrote in the New York Times, “food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right.”
When people do not have food, feeding them is a Jewish (and an NIF) value. NIF is a community of people committed to defending human rights. We cannot sit idly by at this time. This value is deeply embedded in Judaism, as it is in Muslim, Christian, and many other secular and religious teachings.
Feeding people living in Gaza is the right thing to do for Israel’s sake too. Israelis and Palestinians are destined to always live together side-by-side. For Israelis–and NIF supporters who stand with Israel–to sit on the sidelines while Gazans starve, poisons the already bitter well for any future neighborly relationship.
When something extraordinary happens, NIF responds in extraordinary ways. When democracy was under attack by an extremist government in Israel in early 2023, NIF responded by supporting the democratic pushback. When Israelis were brutally attacked on October 7, NIF responded by providing humanitarian aid for Israelis. We bought hotel rooms for the evacuees, we supported (and continue to support) the Hostage Families’ Headquarters, we helped purchase ambulances for unrecognised villages in the Negev, and funded emergency relief centers for Jews and Arabs in the south.
Finally, our effort to feed the people in Gaza does not come at the expense of our ongoing work fighting for equality and democracy, rather it complements it.
Q3: Who is NIF working with in this?
World Central Kitchen (WCK), one of our key partners in this work since last year, has a global track record feeding communities in crisis. In Israel, this has included mobilizing to feed Israelis in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack, feeding released Israeli hostages, and offering relief in the wake of recent Israeli wildfires. Since the Israeli blockade on aid delivery that began on March 2, WCK teams in Gaza had been stretching every remaining ingredient and fuel source. However, since May 7, their warehouses have been empty. They now lack the basic ingredients needed to prepare daily meals and flour for their mobile bakery (theirs was the last working bakery in Gaza). Despite this, they are still working in the Strip. They have trucks loaded with food and cooking fuel waiting at the border and are working to get permission to bring them into Gaza, refill their storehouses and feed families again. In the meantime, they are working tirelessly to continue to support Palestinian families by purifying and distributing critically needed potable water where possible.
Clean Shelter is a German-registered organization founded by two women, a Palestinian living in Munich and an Israeli living in Berlin. The organization provides immediate relief to displaced communities in Gaza by offering essential sanitation and shelter solutions. These include tents, toilets, community structures, and access to clean water. Clean Shelter also organizes and implements comprehensive infrastructure projects. For example, in Khan Younis they restored access to clean drinking water for approximately 120,000 residents across six neighborhoods. They entirely rehabilitated the Zomi Camp for internally displaced Gazans, and are now responsible for residents care and daily needs there. Clean Shelter has also rebuilt and now operates two desalination systems, enabling thousands of displaced families in southern Gaza to access clean drinking water.
Clean Shelter works by leveraging resources that are already available in Gaza—which often means repairing and recycling materials—for these infrastructure projects. This means that they are far less dependent on aid trucks entering the Strip than other organizations. Their on-the-ground team and local vendors are highly vetted so that Clean Shelter can support both immediate access to necessities as well as long-term infrastructure recovery for Gazans in need.
Standing Together’s Humanitarian Guard
In May, Standing Together launched the Humanitarian Guard, where they brought activists to Tarqumiyah checkpoint to guard aid trucks headed to Gaza from extremist settlers that come out to attack the trucks. Until they launched the humanitarian guard, the Israeli police did not sufficiently prevent the attacks or arrest the attackers, and the Humanitarian Guard’s activity at the checkpoint ensured heightened police presence and legal consequences for the attacks. This action has ensured that all trucks passing through the Tarqumiah checkpoint reach Gaza, and has also been important in raising awareness of the attacks in Israeli society - pushing people in Israeli society to fight for collective humanity.
Q4: Do they really need NIF's help?
Yes. The entire population of Gaza is experiencing hunger; there is a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis.
Moreover, NIF’s campaign, specifically, makes a powerful statement: Australian Jews and supporters will not stand on the sidelines and let people in Gaza starve.
Q5: Didn't the WCK suspend its activities in Gaza after seven of its aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes on April 1?
Yes. WCK paused its activities in April 2024 when seven of its staff were killed by the IDF (an act for which IDF leaders have apologised). Until that point it was providing more than 60% of all NGO food aid reaching Gazans.
WCK has now resumed food distribution within Gaza, but they are reporting significant difficulty transporting aid across the border. They are intermittently able to receive aid, although this situation changes hour by hour. In the meantime, they are working tirelessly to continue to support Palestinian families by purifying and distributing critically needed potable water where possible.
Q6: How can we be sure that this food will get to innocent civilians?
These organisations bring deep experience providing humanitarian aid in extremely challenging situations politically. Risk assessment and robust due diligence is central to their response planning. WCK utilises U.S. government systems to screen participants for involvement in terror organisations. They also communicate closely with the IDF when it comes to aid distribution and comply with all Israeli military requirements. Clean Shelter works with trusted partners on the ground to reuse existing materials where possible. You can read more about all these organisations above.
Nevertheless, we recognise that aid distribution in Gaza is complex and ever changing. We have open line communication with the three organisations selected and will update our supporters if there is a significant change in their ability to provide these services.
