- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is
ending its emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic
collapse there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that
Israel must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the
economic needs of the Palestinians.
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- The move comes as the Israeli media reported that Fran×ois
Bellon, the Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generalsthat
the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an "explosion"
that could lead to "the worst ever humanitarian crisis" in the
occupied territories.
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- Israel is concerned that other international organisations
may follow the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of
providing the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates
put as high as $1.1bn (£650m) a year.
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- The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight
of military closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians
to move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last
year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week
by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.
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- The Israeli government says the tight closure is needed
to prevent Palestinian militants crossing into Israel to carry out suicide
bombings and other attacks, but it has been accused of inflicting collective
punishment on the Palestinians. Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's chief
of staff, recently spoke out against the closure, saying it was increasing
Palestinian resentment of Israel.
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- As a result of economic collapse, a fifth of Palestinian
children are malnourished, according to a report last year by an American
government aid agency. International aid organisations have stepped in
to provide assistance. In the wake of the invasion and reoccupation of
West Bank cities last April, the Red Cross launched an emergency food and
essentials programme for Palestinians.
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- The organisation has spent $46m over the past year and
a half providing food and such necessities as cooking oil and matches to
around 300,000 of the most needy Palestinians in the West Bank. But now
the ICRC says that must stop, and that Israel must live up to its responsibility
as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet the economic
needs of the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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- Vincent Bernard, an ICRC spokesman, said: "This
was humanitarian relief designed to assist in a humanitarian emergency,
not to address the longer-term problems caused by curfews, closures and
the collapse of the economy that has occurred. It is not our responsibility
to take care of the economic needs of the Palestinians. We have repeatedly
said it is the responsibility of the occupying power."
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- Mr Bernard denied Israeli press reports that the food
programme had been cancelled for budgetary reasons. "As the occupying
power, Israel has the responsibility to minimise the humanitarian consequences
of its actions," he said. "You cannot go on for ever with the
curfews and closures which are destroying the Palestinian economy. They
have to find a different way to guarantee their security. If they lifted
these security measures, the Palestinian economy, though damaged, would
start again."
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- Mr Bernard refused to comment on a report in Ha'aretz
newspaper that Mr Bellon had told senior Israeli generals at a recent meeting
that the Palestinians were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. But it
is an assessment with which senior officers in the Israeli army are believed
to agree.
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- For the time being, the UN's World Food Organisation
has stepped into the breach, setting up an alternative food programme until
next summer.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=464142
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