In March of 2025, Israel passed new and extremely restrictive registration requirements for international organizations. These requirements are part of a systematic effort to arbitrarily criminalize humanitarian organizations, dismantle aid infrastructure, and inflict further harm on Gaza's civilian population. They are in violation of international law and humanitarian principles. We are calling on Israel to remove these restrictions and all barriers to lifesaving aid and international aid workers entering Gaza.
The registration process compromises humanitarian principles, independence, and access to civic space. It also imposes prohibitively difficult reporting requirements and requires organizations to submit complete staff lists and other sensitive information about staff and their families to the Israeli government. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s occupation in the Palestinian territory is unlawful. Disclosing operational information to a government credibly accused of genocide and apartheid endangers the lives of our staff and partners. Israel has already killed more than 500 aid workers since October of 2023. For these reasons, AFSC made the difficult decision to not reapply for registration with the Israeli government.
AFSC began working in Gaza in 1948 when the United Nations asked us to organize relief efforts for Palestinian refugees who had been expelled from their land by Israel at its founding. The UN asked AFSC to take up this work because of our experience helping Jews escape from Nazi Germany and our support for refugees during and after the world wars. Just as we are today, we were guided by our belief in the divine Light in every person and that it is both our right and our responsibility to work against violence and hate.
In the decades that followed, our programs have provided agricultural development, kindergartens, midwife training, humanitarian aid, and trauma healing. In the U.S. we also advocate for an end to occupation and apartheid, and for freedom, equality, and justice for Palestinians and all people. As a Quaker organization, we oppose violence in all its forms and work to address its root causes. We are proud of this work and proud to stand with communities working for justice and peace in the region and across the world.
Over the last two years, our staff in Gaza have provided hot meals, food parcels, fresh vegetables, hygiene kits, and other essential supplies to one million people displaced by Israel’s genocide. The consequences of Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid and the organizations who provide it are deadly and devastating. Palestinians in Gaza continue to die from cold, hunger, and preventable illness while Israel blocks trucks full of food, shelters, and medical supplies from reaching them.
Our operations are independent, impartial, and guided by the needs of the people we serve. All our staff, vendors and partners are already vetted through established U.S. and international sanctions mechanisms. AFSC operates in many countries where there are significant restrictions on civil society, including Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar; in none of those locations are the registration requirements for INGOs so extreme as they are in Israel, and nowhere would we comply with regulations that were a threat to the safety of our staff and partners.
AFSC joins with dozens of our partners and with the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory in demanding that these restrictions be removed in their entirety. And we call on the international community to take concrete political and diplomatic action to ensure unhindered humanitarian access and bring an end to the intolerable and ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people.
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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine Light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.