The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinates emergency responses worldwide. Local U.N. offices transfer government money to various U.N. agencies and human rights NGOs.

The office operates in some 30 nations where humanitarian aid is required, including Syria, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, and Sudan. In Afghanistan, its goal is defined as "saving life"; in Cameroon, it is to ensure that people in a crisis situation survive; and in Yemen and Somalia it's "providing lifesaving aid."

But the definition of humanitarian aid is different when it pertains to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2002, OCHA established a branch in east Jerusalem, where its mission was defined as ensuring that the "rights of the Palestinians living under occupation" are upheld in accordance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Since then, local and international NGOs have received hefty funding, most of which comes directly from governments, for initiatives that fall under the definition of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Since 2003, nearly $5 billion has been raised. The total amount of money that various groups are requesting for their projects for 2018-2020, per person destined to benefit, is higher than in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This is true despite the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations having identified the need for humanitarian aid in the West Bank as "low" and the need in the Gaza Strip as "moderate."

Many of the initiatives that U.N. agencies are operating in Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem have nothing to do with humanitarian aid. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being transferred from the EU's emergency aid fund to projects that mainly aim to denigrate Israel. In 2017, the fund – to which many countries, including Norway, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, contribute – gave money to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, which is devoted to legal warfare against Israel, so it could document cases in which the IDF supposedly violated international law during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

The Israeli organization Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual frequently petitions the High Court of Justice against the demolition of terrorists' homes, among other issues. It recently received humanitarian funding to "expose procedures in which the military uses arrest and interrogation of minors in the West Bank."

There are organizations that have held true to the real meaning of humanitarian aid. But it is important to note that the human rights industry, which is lavishly funded, frequently exploits important values to goad Israel politically and does so at the expense of people who really need the assistance.

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Not surprisingly, her defense was that the activity to which he was referring was nothing more than humanitarian work. The word "humanitarian"  evokes sympathy, and justifiably so. It is associated with helping those who were hurt by Mother Nature or by war.  But just as "human rights" causes are misused to advance political agendas, so too is "humanitarian assistance" misused sometimes to malign Israel.

Every year, the coffers of governmental organizations fill up with vast amounts of money designated for strategic objectives defined by each region's humanitarian agenda for that year. For example, the plan for humanitarian assistance in Somalia is to "save lives and find mutli-facted means of reducing the high level of morbidity." Saving lives is also the paramount goal in Yemen and Afghanistan.

In the Palestinian areas, the first goal is defined as "safeguarding the rights of the Palestinians living under occupation in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law."

But such definitions often obscure the well-oiled machine in which humanitarian aid is misued for political purposes – both by the countries funding the operations and by the NGOs themselves.

As a result, radical groups, some of them even tied to terrorist groups, get millions of dollars just so they can document alleged misconduct by Israeli troops against Palestinian children. The footage they take is used by those who are trying to have the Israel Defense Forces blacklisted by the United Nations, a campaign led by organizations that have ties to the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and others.

NGO Monitor released a report last week showing that under the guise of humanitarian relief, the U.K., the EU and Norway "provide millions of dollars annually to the Norwegian Refugee Council for massive and unprecedented political campaigns exploiting the Israeli legal system." This effort is coordinated with the Palestinian Authority.

The report says the NRC is registered with an International Humanitarian Visa authorized by the Social Services Ministry. Foreign governments use it to advance their agenda, primarily in east Jerusalem and in Palestinian areas where Israel maintains full military and civilian control

According to those governments, Israel's legal system violates international humanitarian law and has led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. As far as they are concerned, their legal meddling is warranted. The NRC says it has carried out its activity under a "low visibility policy," and the governments behind it have refused to release details on what that means, citing "commercial interests" and "national security."

But the documents we have obtained at NGO Monitor explain why they are trying to hide their activity. The documents show that the goal is to change Israeli policy and practices by "disrupting the Israeli judicial system" with "as many cases as possible" and advocating "measures to be taken by the U.N. and third states to deter the settlement enterprise hampering Palestinians' access to livelihoods and leading to forcible transfer."

This has led to hundreds of cases being added to the workload of the Israeli courts. Between 2009 and 2014, the NRC provided legal representation in 4,069 cases. The organization says that in 2018 it aims to pursue "5,399 opened and continuing cases for legal assistance." Those legal  efforts are run as part of the NRC's flagship program and are coordinated with lawyers from he Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian assistance requires impartiality, a humane outlook, and neutrality. This is especially true in conflict zones. Flooding the Israeli legal system with thousands of cases whose only purpose is to promote a political agenda and change the policies of a sovereign nation – while collaborating with one of the parties to a conflict – is a clear violation of those very principles and runs contrary to international norms governing relations between democracies.

Humanitarian relief efforts should be about saving lives. But the humanitarian aid that is sent to the Palestinians is being used for political warfare against Israel and against the IDF.

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UNRWA, the aid agency for Palestinian refugees, has a reputation for inciting to violence and perpetuating the Palestinians' refugee status, while UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, consistently denies any Jewish links to Jerusalem.

But while the U.S. was threatening to withhold funding from UNRWA as Israel watched closely, another U.N. agency, the International Children's Fund – UNICEF – was making its own effort to delegitimize Israel.

New research by the nonprofit watchdog group NGO Monitor reveals that "UNICEF Palestine" and other NGOs are working to add the IDF to a U.N. blacklist of organizations that violate children's rights. This list mainly comprises terrorist organizations such as Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and the Taliban.

Every year, the U.N. secretary general issues a report on "Children and Armed Conflict," with an appendix listing groups that commit grave violations (such as using children as soldiers, systematically killing or wounding children, and committing sexual violence against children). Since 2007, UNICEF has headed a working group of organizations charged with documenting supposed violations of Palestinian children's rights. The group's findings are plugged into UNICEF data and quoted in various reports, including the secretary general's. UNICEF pours millions of dollars into these tracking and reporting efforts.

UNICEF guidelines stipulate that members of the working group remain neutral and independent of any side in the conflict. But the members of UNICEF Palestine fail to meet these criteria, with some of them belonging to extremist political groups. One is the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which, since 2015, has – along with four other organizations – filed four suits in the International Criminal Court accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The PCHR described the terrorist attack in Har Adar, in which three Israelis were killed, in this way: "Israeli security forces killed Nimr Mahmoud Jamal. … Border Police at the entrance to the Har Adar settlement opened fire on him. In addition, three Israeli soldiers were killed and a fourth was wounded."

An equally problematic group that receives U.N. funding is Adamir, which provides assistance to Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorist activities, whom it calls "political prisoners." The group described last summer's terrorist attack in Halamish, in which three members of the Salomon family were stabbed to death in their home, as "the Halamish operation, which ended with the killing of three Israeli settlers."

The wording is no surprise, given that a number of members in the group have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The irony is that UNICEF has determined that "claims of human rights violations" must be made with care as they could "serve as a propaganda tool with which to slander others," and warns that reports can be "biased toward one side."

It is important to note that the reports from UNICEF Palestine are used as a platform by a broader campaign with the main goal being to accuse Israel of violating Palestinian children's rights. The campaign is picking up steam in North America, Australia and Britain. This year, it seems likely to turn into a common cause for the organizations that try to delegitimize Israel.

Under a claim of objectivity, UNICEF is cooperating with actors that seek to promote an extremist agenda, mostly thanks to funding from foreign governments. The Israeli government must demand a clarification from representatives of the governments that fund UNICEF on its ties to extremist organizations that are spearheading campaigns to delegitimize Israel, including the campaign to include the IDF on the same list as Islamic State.

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