Nora Lester Murad is a writer and activist. She is the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Ida in the Middle, editor of I Found Myself in Palestine (2020) and co-author of Rest in My Shade (2018). Nora writes commentary for outlets including Mondoweiss, The New Arab, Markaz Review, Aljazeera, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and more. She co-founded Dalia Association, Palestine’s community foundation, and Aid Watch Palestine, a community-driven aid accountability initiative. Nora serves on the board of Visualizing Palestine and shares K-12 teaching resources about Palestine at www.IdaInTheMiddle.com. She can be reached through her blog at www.NoraLesterMurad.com.
From this author
The Trump Administration’s decision to cut aid to the Palestinians and cease USAID operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) must serve as a wake-up call for Palestinian policymakers to lay the Oslo Accords aid model to rest. Neither this model nor the masses of aid funds that have poured into Palestine.
Donors at the recent conference on the reconstruction of Gaza pledged an unprecedented $5.4 billion. At the same time, it can be argued that violations of Palestinian rights in Gaza – and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – would not be possible without international aid policies that, at least since the 1980s, have actively supported Israel and offered Palestinians development projects in exchange for rights.
