As holiday shoppers crowd the stores, and Geneva familes order their foie gras and oysters and lobsters for the fetes (holidays), the United Nations is asking us not to forget the needy in Palestine.
“Two-thirds of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are now living in poverty”, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Kevin Kennedy said, noting that children make up about half of the population of some 4 million, according to the UN Department for Public Information (DPI).
UN’s DPI is reporting that “The United Nations and its partners today launched their largest ever appeal for emergency aid to the occupied Palestinian territory — more than $453 million to help address a rapidly deteriorating situation after donors cut off funds to the Government when Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, won elections earlier this year. The rapid deterioration is linked with the fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority that has been unable to pay its 160,000 staff, who support another 1 million family members. In addition, Palestinians are subject to increasing restrictions on their freedom of movement through Israeli security measures, limiting their access to jobs, markets, health services and schools. After Hamas, which is dedicated Israel’s destruction, won elections in January, Israel stopped handing over tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, and international donors suspended direct aid, calling on Hamas to commit to non-violence, recognize Israel and accept previously signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The UN News Centre story is here. =
The UN emergency Appeal was made by twelve UN agencies together with 14 NGOs operating in the occupied Palestinian territory. For more information please contact: Chris Gunness, UNSCO, 054-5-627-825, Allegra Pacheco OCHA â 0545-627-848, Juliette Touma, 054-81-555-46, Judith Harel, 054-6600-582; Johan Eriksson, UNRWA, 054-240-2632.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also appealed from Geneva today for some one billion Swiss francs (nearly one billion US dollars) to “meet humanitarian challenges in 2007”.
While Palestine will be the third most absorptive location for UN assistance, after Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it will come in second in the ICRC list of operational priorities — also after Sudan, but before Iraq.
The ICRC is earmarking some 71 million swiss francs (nearly $70 million dollars), for what it calls “Israel, the Occupied and Autonomous Palestinian Territories”.
However, the ICRC was careful, in launching its appeal on Thursday, to distinguish its approach from that of, say, the United Nations:
“Combining political, military, social and humanitarian objectives and activities within an overall crisis response is an ongoing trend and has become an inherent feature of many contexts today. Most often it takes the form of integrated or multidisciplinary UN missions or State-run stabilization campaigns. The ICRC has made it clear that it cannot be part of such an integrated approach, although it has reaffirmed that it will continue to coordinate its activities proactively with all humanitarian actors concerned. The reason for this stance is that the ICRC has a responsibility to act in all situations of armed conflict and violence. Such situations are by definition highly sensitive, and to fulfil its role, the ICRC needs to build acceptance by and seek dialogue with all actors influencing or directly involved in a given conflict. While other actors have complex mandates and diverse agendas, which may include political and constitutional reform, social change and economic transformation, the ICRC works with the actors and realities as they are on the ground. The ICRC in particular insists on dialogue with all parties to armed conflicts in order to reach and improve the lives of those most in need. To be able to do this, the ICRC must be — and must be seen to be — neutral and independent. Neutrality must be understood here as a deliberate decision not to take sides in a conflict and to keep its action distinct from the political or military agenda of any one actor. By the same token, the ICRC will continue to attach importance to bilateral and confidential dialogue in the conduct of its operations.” The ICRC appeal — with its explanation of how the ICRC is guarding its neutrality — is here.
The problem with both these appeals, however, is that they essentially aim to rebuild or replace what earlier humanitarian donations have put into place, only to see smashed and destroyed in subsequent Israeli Defense Force operations in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). While donors last year indicated that they were growing tired of underwriting Israel’s destructive rampages, the scale of the humanitarian and political crisis in the oPt is of such dimensions that the money-raisers are rushing back in to help lower the pressure.
The pity is that the Palestinian national movement has been reduced to an insistent demand to have salaries paid in the oPt. Of course, Palestinians need to live — something which is often given secondary importance and little consequence. But, still forgotten are the other half of the Palestinian people, who live in exile outside — including many still living precariously in refugee camps in surrounding “host countries”.
Of course, it is probably far less threating and much more palatable to have Palestinian leaders demanding the payment of salaries, instead of their rights, including an independent State.