Haiti: a Photo Opportunity for Israel?

Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010
Author: Amna Ali

In an effort to clean up Haiti, as well as its reputation, Israel has been extensively contributing to the Haiti relief effort by quickly setting up a hospital on a soccer field and pouring doctors into the disaster-stricken developing country. While it cannot be ignored that Israel has helped save the lives of numerous Haitians by pulling barely breathing people out of the rubble, performing technologically complicated surgical procedures, and offering much needed medication, there is speculation about whether Israel has a hidden agenda besides pure generosity. And if Israel does, in fact, have ulterior motives for supporting Haiti, does it matter?

Israel’s infamous reputation was amplified this past year due to the aftermath of the Gaza conflict. Additionally, the United Nation’s Goldstone report did not stutter in pinpointing the findings that Israel committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law. Therefore, when Israel was at the front line of delivering aid on the ground with a camera crew and reporters documenting every step, some wondered if this was merely a publicity stunt to primarily reconstruct Israel’s image while also conveniently reconstructing Haiti.

In the long run it will be interesting to see if the pat on the back that Israel is receiving will influence its international stature and translate into better diplomatic relations, especially since the United States seems to think that a positive image is a key step in achieving global cooperation.

But currently, if you ask the Haitian man who just buried his own son and is waiting in the never-ending line at the Israeli field hospital to fix his crushed limb if he cares about Israel’s intentions, one would assume that he wouldn’t as long as he was being helped. Therefore, if Israel is, indeed, contributing greatly to helping the victims of the natural disaster, it would be more beneficial and time efficient for the international community to acknowledge this effort and continue to offer support to the people of Haiti instead of questioning Israel’s motives.