Over at Open Democracy, Hugo Slim has an interesting piece about the role of NGOs in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Choice quote:

Public condemnation of Palestinian violence against Israelis by many NGOs and United Nations workers often has a routine aspect, as if it is something they “have” to do. Many representatives seem deep down to feel that this violence is an inevitable and understandable expression of “desperation”. Internecine violence among Palestinians is also mistakenly understood as the tragic consequence of a factionalism produced by occupation.

The narrative, strategy and feuds of Palestinian nationalism too often go unexamined by outside supporters and “solidarists” with the Palestinian cause. But, like all nationalisms, Palestinian nationalism is constructed, contested, enriched by myth and not a little faked. Why not treat it with the same rigorous examination that every other case of nationalism receives?

This failure of scrutiny can extend to the use of violence by Palestinian resistance and liberation movements. A lot of this violence is politically misguided, illegal and narcissistic. But many western supporters (including those in the aid community) more often exculpate or even indulge it. There is a similar lack of critical attention to the abominable articles in the Hamas movement’s charter that are clearly racist and exterminatory. Any equivalent sentiments found (for example) in Sudanese government documents or the pronouncements of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda would be eagerly denounced by international NGOs. The attitude to Hamas is different: its words are understood as relics of an earlier phase of the organisation which it has now outgrown, or the forgivable hyperbole of an oppressed resistance movement.

Now go and read the rest yourself.