The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) campaign

This is the DEC appeal which hasn't so far run on BBC or Sky TV in the U.K.. The video is here also, on their Youtube site.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), is an umbrella organisation for 13 humanitarian aid agencies. They include the following: ActionAid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, World Vision.

The DEC had three criteria that needed to be met before it launched the appeal, namely that there was an overwhelming unmet need, that they could do something in a timely and effective way, and that there is public concern. DEC believed that the three criteria had been met for a Gaza aid appeal.

The BBC rarely breaches an agreement made in 1963 to give free air time to public appeals, and has in fact run such appeals concerning Myanmar and the Congo and also Darfur and Kosovo while news stories have been current. The BBC felt that running this advert would make viewers question its impartiality, as the story of Gaza and Israel is definitely still unfolding. There has been a strong public outcry in the U.K. due to this decision.

Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of the global humanitarian group Care International, said it was not a time for politics.

"As far as being impartial is concerned, that's our job... we know exactly what we are doing on the ground, there are a lot of people in real danger at the moment."

Protests are ongoing even though the appeals (aired on other TV channels) have raised more than a million pounds (AUD: 2.1 million, USD: 1.4 million).

If you wish to donate you can go to: http://www.dec.org.uk/ make a donation or call 0370 6060900 (U.K.), or for Australian readers, visit Australians for Palestine for an ongoing campaign related to the above. Also, there are charities listed in the blogroll, on the right.