Oxfam America

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Oxfam's work in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories focuses on helping marginalized communities claim their rights, assisting those living in poverty to improve their incomes, responding to humanitarian needs, and working to end a conflict that has eroded the rights, security, and livelihoods of so many in the region.

Last updated 26 November 2007

What Oxfam is Doing

Oxfam's programs in Israel

In Israel, Oxfam is supporting more than twenty partner organizations who are working on a range of issues that include promoting a sustainable peace, and helping the Bedouin—many of whom live in villages that lack basic services—and other minorities to secure their rights.

Oxfam's programs in the occupied Palestinian Territories

In the occupied Palestinian Territories, Oxfam is working with partner organizations to protect public health by providing clean water and sanitation facilities, repairing water networks that have been damaged by the conflict, constructing water storage facilities, training public health inspectors, and promoting hygiene and health in schools and with women in their communities. We support primary health care clinics in Gaza and the West Bank, and mobile clinics to provide those living in isolated rural areas with access to primary care services, including specialized services for women.

Oxfam and our partners are working to help Palestinians improve their incomes through a range of programs: we are supporting a network of microfinance institutions that helps finance small businesses, with an emphasis on impoverished women; we are assisting farmers to improve the quality of their land and seeds, as well as their access to irrigation water; we are trying to increase income opportunities from agriculture (by helping producers sell their olive oil, for example); and we're working to improve the nutrition and incomes of some of the poorest families by providing them with rabbits, goats, and sheep, and the means to raise household gardens.

In Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories, and beyond

Oxfam supports both Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations that monitor violations of international humanitarian law, and we are assisting Israeli and Palestinian women's organizations who are promoting peace. In addition, Oxfam is advocating with governments in the Middle East and around the world for adherence to international humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as for steps that will lead to a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Escalating Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza »

Major international aid organizations urge an end to the violence and suffering.

The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion »

The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion describes the deepening poverty, severe decline of basic services, and destruction to the economy that have resulted from the recent blockade of Gaza.