UN agency launches $18 million appeal for Palestinians affected by Israeli wall
The United Nations development agency has called for immediate action to address the needs of Palestinian communities affected by Israel's Separation Wall, launching an appeal for $18 million in emergency assistance to address job needs and improve vital social, municipal and agricultural infrastructure requirements.
The proposals, by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian people, seek to generate over 200,000 employment opportunities, and include land reclamation projects, new agricultural roads and improved water infrastructure. They also aim to revamp health care and education and build the capacity of the municipalities and village councils.
"Immediate action is required to meet the needs of those affected by the construction of this barrier," Timothy Rothermel, the Special Representative of UNDP in Jerusalem, said. "After consulting numerous community leaders and farmers who lost their land in the various municipalities, UNDP has developed a comprehensive emergency action plan."
Israel began building the barrier a year ago with a complex series of walls, barriers, trenches, and fences within the occupied West Bank, carrying out what it said, was a security operation to keep out suicide bombers. The wall has encircled and isolated many Palestinian cities and villages. When completed, this first phase will cut across roads and water networks and will form a barrier between Palestinians living on each side and their agricultural lands, water wells, urban markets and public services.
The impact on agriculture is of particular concern in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqilya, where the first phase is being constructed. The wall could severely constrain the delivery of basic social services and commercial exchange, especially the movements of agricultural products, Palestinian officials have said.
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today warmly welcomed news that the United States will pledge up to $26 million for that agency's current emergency appeal, the largest single donation by any Government to UNRWA emergency appeals since they were launched three years ago.
"I am delighted by this strong vote of confidence in the Agency from the Bush Administration," Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said in a news release. The US Government has provided more than $107 million to UNRWA since October 2000, or 36 per cent of the total amount the Agency has received since then.
But the agency, set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees, warned that it remained concerned about under-funding of its appeals, with $102.9 million required for the current six-month period ending this December, and less than $3 million pledged prior to the US announcement.
Unless substantial new pledges are confirmed in the next two months, further cutbacks, resulting in layoffs and reductions in food distribution, remain a real likelihood, it added.