Systemic Colonial Policies: Targeting Humanitarian Action in the Gaza Strip
Against the backdrop of ongoing restrictions on humanitarian access and the reconfiguration of aid delivery in Gaza, this webinar invites a critical reflection on the political economies that govern aid and civic space. It gathers practitioners and aid workers to examine how funding dynamics intersect with broader structures of control.
This webinar sheds light on the structural relationship between colonialism and international funding regimes, and how funding conditionalities imposed by the occupation are used as a tool to re-engineer the civil and humanitarian space in Palestine.
The discussion will cover the direct impact of these conditionalities on the independence of civil society organizations, on the safety of workers in the civil and humanitarian sectors, and their engagement with local communities. The webinar also seeks to deconstruct funding and colonial policies as mechanisms of colonial political control that undermine humanitarian work and reproduce colonial domination over the civic space, reinforcing submission and colonial hegemony.
With speakers:
- Firas Jaber (Researcher and Co-Founder at The Social and Economic Policies Monitor (Al-Marsad): Colonialism, funding, and the re-engineering of the civil and humanitarian space in Palestine.
- Dr Iyad Krunz (Director of the Stars of Hope Society (SHS) office in the Gaza Strip): How the exclusion of international institutions and funding policies significantly affects humanitarian response, recovery, and the operations of local civic space.
- Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah (Professor of Conflict Medicine, American University of Beirut): Humanitarianizing the Genocide. The end of western humanitarianism.
Moderated by:
Kefah Abu Ghush - Executive Director of Stars of Hope Society (SHS)
Date: Thursday 12 March 2026
Time: 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM (Beirut time)
Platform: Zoom. Register and submit your questions for the panellists on this link.
The discussion will be held in Arabic.
* This webinar is organised by Stars of Hope and the Centre for Social Sciences Research and Action, part of the ‘Regional Solidarity Convening’, an initiative from civil society actors from the SWANA region who share anti-colonial, and transdisciplinary, participatory, transformative, intersectional, feminist approaches to achieving social justice. The convening seeks to reclaim political engagement, decolonise narratives, and imagine alternatives for more just, inclusive and equitable futures.
