CRS official: U.S. policy challenges aid workers, Palestinians

Published: 2006-11-14

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The U.S. government's policy of "no contact" with Hamas leaders has complicated church aid workers' duties in the Palestinian territories, said an official of Catholic Relief Services. The United States lists Hamas as a terrorist organization, and diplomats and officials of U.S.-based aid agencies are forbidden to have any contact with Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in January. "Of course we're not going to talk to people from a terrorist group, but we are talking every day to people in the communities, and we often don't know what their political affiliations are," said Tom Garofalo, country representative for Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. Garofalo told Catholic News Service that it was easy for some staff of CRS, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, to avoid Hamas-controlled ministries within the Palestinian Authority. But for staff members who work in the Palestinian communities, avoiding Hamas becomes more difficult, he said.

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