With donors still balking at funding a Hamas-led Palestinian Government that has yet to renounce violence, and with conditions in the West Bank and Gaza deteriorating, key international partners in the Middle East peace process meeting at the United Nations today endorsed a temporary mechanism to funnel assistance directly to the Palestinian people. The move came after senior officials of the diplomatic Quartet – the UN, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States – held daylong consultations hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, including a meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Read more about At UN session, Middle East diplomatic Quartet endorses direct aid to Palestinians
Key international partners seeking Israeli-Palestinian peace began a series of crucial meetings at United Nations Headquarters in New York today at a critical juncture for the process with political progress deadlocked and a humanitarian crisis looming in the occupied Gaza Strip. Foreign ministers of the so-called Diplomatic Quartet – the UN, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States – hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, kicked off their day-long consultations with a meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Following the meeting with the regional ministers, the Quartet principals are set to consult among themselves, and then hold a news conference at 5:00 p.m. Read more about UN hosts meeting on Israeli-Palestinian conflict at crucial juncture in search for peace
The World Bank circulated a new report on the Palestinian financial crisis. The report says that the crisis is worse than expected and it threatens to provoke a humanitarian crisis and the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. According to the report, 2006 is shaping up to be the worst year in recent times for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report follows the recent cut-off of financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. On Tuesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will host a high-level meeting on Tuesday of the diplomatic Quartet, the partnership of the United Nations, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States amid a potentially dangerous deterioration looming on the horizon. Read more about World Bank Report: "Palestinian crisis is worse than expected"
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) cautioned donor governments and Israel that the strategy of starving out the newly elected Hamas government by rerouting aid to outside agencies is deepening the suffering of civilians. Thirty-six aid agencies operational in the occupied Palestinian territories said the suspension of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority — a move initiated by Canada, the US and EU — is accelerating a slide into crisis. The sanctions have left unpaid for a second month the entire Palestinian public sector, comprising 150,000 police, doctors, teachers and other public service workers. Aid agencies the situation is most acute in the Gaza Strip. Read more about Aid agencies: Suspension of aid is accelerating slide into crisis
Secretary-General Kofi Annan will host a high-level meeting on Tuesday of the diplomatic Quartet, the partnership of the United Nations, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States that is seeking to bring a two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid a potentially dangerous deterioration looming on the horizon. The meeting at UN Headquarters in New York is being held at the principals’ level and is expected to be attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, with the EU represented by its High Representative for a Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik of Austria, as well as Benita Ferrero Waldner. Read more about Annan to host Quartet meeting on Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the main provider of education, health, relief and social services to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s five fields of operations: Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. UNRWA’s assistance is especially essential to refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory, where the economic situation continues to deteriorate and movement restrictions impede the delivery of UNRWA’s humanitarian aid. The frequent closure of the commercial Karni crossing to the Gaza Strip, where refugees account for two-thirds of the population. Below are some impressions and reflections of Palestine refugees in Gaza. Read more about Palestine refugees on 56 years of UNRWA
In order to have a deeper understanding of the social suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation, a pilot Quality of Life study was undertaken by the World Health Organization - West Bank and Gaza and the Bir Zeit Institute of Community and Public Health in cooperation with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The investigation was completed one month before the Palestinian Legislative Council Elections on 25 January 2006. It can therefore be seen as a baseline study to measure the impact of the negative response of Israel and the West to the democratic victory of Hamas. Adri Nieuwhof looks at the survey. Read more about World Health Organization: Life Quality Dramatically Deteriorated for Palestinians
At the opening session of the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he respected the decision of the Palestinian people in their election of a Palestinian Legislative Council and hoped the new Cabinet of the Palestinian Authority could address their aspiration for peace and statehood, as articulated by President Mahmoud Abbas. In a statement read out by Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane, he called on both parties to work towards the implementation of the Access and Movement Agreement, and urged the international community to find ways of continuing and intensifying support for the Palestinian people. All must understand that the Palestinian Authority must provide the bulk of the basic services necessary to avert a humanitarian crisis. Read more about Seminar on Assistance to Palestinian People opens in Cairo, Secretary-General calls on international community to intensify support for Palestinians
In his keynote address to the United Nations Seminar of Assistance to the Palestinian People this afternoon, Member of Palestinian Legislative Council Nabil Sha’ath said the new cabinet was willing to accept financial oversights or to have money transferred through President Abbas, but it could not accept the attempt to bypass the Palestinian Authority. This afternoon’s session, part of a two-day meeting sponsored by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, heard presentations by experts on the scope of the economic and humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Read more about Cairo meeting addresses economic, humanitarian crisis in Palestinian Territory
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Economic Affairs Officer Mahmoud ElKhafif said conflict, political instability, an elusive sovereignty and a policy of asymmetric containment had hampered the Palestinian Authority’s ability to ensure any governance, much less a corruption-free, best practice model. Speaking at the last panel discussion of the United Nations Cairo Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, he said humanitarian relief and budget support were inadequate to reduce poverty and economic vulnerability under current conditions. Sustained economic recovery required either dismantling the politics of asymmetric containment or dealing with it as an external constraint in the short term while working towards its eventual elimination. Read more about United Nations Seminar on Assistance to Palestinian People concludes
