DEC Gaza appeal

A territory is under blockade and its people are suffering. There is war, and getting help to the suffering will be a challenge. Any humanitarian effort might be exploited by one or both of the combatants.
I'm talking about 1942 when a remarkable group of people met in Oxford. They wished to try help civilians in Greece who were suffering as a result of the Allied blockade. (Greece was at that time being occupied by the Axis powers, 1942 being at the height of World War Two.) Allied policy at the time was that the Axis Powers could jolly well be responsible for feeding the peoples they had conquered. And if they failed, the suffering civilians were perhaps more likely to be sympathetic to the Allied cause. Further, there were obvious risks that the Axis Powers would exploit any relief effort - e.g. distribute the aid to their troops, or only to collaborators. Despite these problems, the Oxford committee was eventually able to arrange for relief to cross the blockade and be distributed successfully. The small committee went on to become Oxfam.

The reason for this history lesson is that I'm still trying to understand the BBC's position on not co-operating with the DEC appeal for Gaza. Their position (statement from the BBC Director General here) boils down to two issues:

1. they can't broadcast the appeal without seeming to take sides
2. they don't believe that the DEC will manage to get the aid through

That is, they are raising just the points that the fledgling Oxfam had to deal with in 1942. And of course it is a recurring theme. Most big crises have some sort of human contribution. Whether there is direct violence (DEC appeals for Darfur, or Kosovo) or whether there is a natural disaster exacerbated by human failings (e.g. Zimbabwe, Burma Cyclone Appeal). After so long It's odd to still be arguing about whether you can "just help these people" and bypass- for that purpose at least - the question of whose fault it all is. That might be well worth asking, but in order to save people's lives that might have to be a separate conversation.

The second point was whether humanitarian aid can actually be delivered. Obviously that is a concern. The DEC, basically says "trust us":

"The DEC launches joint appeals when three criteria are met: overwhelming
humanitarian need, ability by DEC members and their partners to respond and
evidence that the UK public want to help. The Trustees judge that these criteria
are met and are confident that that joint action by DEC Member Agencies is the
best course of action in this crisis."(http://www.dec.org.uk/item/322/248/0/0)

(If you are interested in how the DEC plans to ensure money donated to the appeal is well spent, then the DEC's FAQ page has plenty to read.)

Clearly, there is a role for journalists to investigate whether humanitarian organizations actually do deliver what they promised. I haven't yet seen (and don't expect to see) the BBC or any other news organization exposing the DEC as being unable to deliver the aid it has promised. It seems odd (to say the least) for the BBC to pre-empt such a conclusion by managerial decision.

Far from helping the BBC to remain impartial, the whole sad affair seems only to be helping the lunatic fringe of zionist conspiracy theorists (who of course have never thought the BBC impartial, anyway because conspiracy theorists know that everything is a consipracy).

By the way, the DEC say that the Gaza appeal raised £3,000,000 in the first week. That donation link again: http://www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/