Trump aid freeze shuts down peacebuilding

One of President Donald Trump’s first actions in the White House was to freeze nearly all US foreign aid worldwide for three months, to assess all aid programs for "efficiency" and "consistency with foreign policy".

The move has caused chaos and confusion across the international aid sector, not least in the Middle East, although lifesaving humanitarian aid, including in Gaza, has been exempted, as has military assistance to Israel and Egypt.

Among those programs that have ground to a halt are the peacebuilding projects funded via the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA). The move brings to a halt most co-operative ventures between Israelis and Palestinians just as the Gaza ceasefire had allowed some to resume.

The timing also clashes with a push by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to use the Northern Island model for resolving the conflict. Starmer served as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and witnessed the impact of the International Fund for Ireland (IFI), which provided massive funding of grassroots peacebuilding to shape the societal and political conditions leading to the Good Friday Agreement.

The Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, known as MEPPA or the Lowey Fund, is a $250 million fund designated by Congress for projects that support peacebuilding, Palestinian economic development, and partnership. Almost all peacebuilding ventures in the region are funded, at least partially, through MEPPA.

The fund underwrites environmental joint ventures such as Ecopeace; health organisations such as Project Rozana; advocacy organisations such as the Parents Circle-Families Forum; as well as education, interfaith, technology, sporting and cultural organisations.

Kids4Peace, a joint Jewish, Muslim and Christian youth group which was forced into hiatus during the Gaza war, is poised to be revived using a $US 3 million grant to engage more than 1000 Israeli and Palestinian young people over the next three years.

Peacebuilding organisations say the timing is terrible because they lose the momentum gained by the ceasefire.

Chair of Rozana Australia Lee Ann Basser said the organisations had been issued with a stop-work order, suspending operations of its flagship program, the Nursing Hub, which trains Palestinian and Israeli nurses to become advocates for peace in their communities.

She said while the pause was temporary, it "placed considerable strain on our ability to maintain momentum in a region where trust and cooperation are both fragile and invaluable".

“Our goal is to see funding reinstated as quickly as possible, so that these vital programs—always important, but never more so than now amid a fragile ceasefire—can continue."

MEPPA was regarded as a gamechanger by peacebuilding organisations, offering endorsement and funds to those who believe that getting Palestinians and Israelis working together on joint projects can break the impasse of the conflict.

It is the largest investment ever made in peacebuilding in the region and recognises the importance of grassroots peacebuilding programs to overcome suspicion and dehumanisation of the other.

“Most strategies toward peace have focused on diplomats negotiating a final solution and failed to engage with peacebuilders working on the conflict at a people-to-people level every day. The Lowey Fund recognises that sustainable and lasting peace must be built from the ground up to create a broad base of support,” explains the Alliance for Middle East Peace (All-Mep), the umbrella organisation for peacebuilding projects.