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.