Ishmayo Gregory
Clara Mohammad High School
Fourth Main Committee
Humanitarian Aid to Palestine
Cuba
Humanitarian Aid to Palestine
There is very little amount of humanitarian aid in Palestine. Although there is
some aid there is a lot more needed. Since the start of the second intifada (Palestinian
uprising in the West Bank and Gaza strip that started in 1987 in protest against Israeli) in
October 2000, many Palestinian villages and towns have faced a humanitarian crisis.
Israeli restrictions have caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank that is
growing worse, leaving hospitals unable to treat the sick and keeping farmers off their
land.
On February 21, 2011 a senior United Nations official condemned the destruction
of temporary tented structures sheltering from the on Khirbet Tana, the second incident
affecting the community in February. Since they’re in shelters their homes must’ve been
destroyed before and the UN want to destroy their shelters. If the authorities responsible
for these destructions could see the impact on vulnerable Palestinian communities, they
might reflect upon the cruelty of their actions. The UN was only able to fund 52 percent
of the humanitarian aid it wanted to provide to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in
2010. It’s the first time such a large gap has existed between the initial aid request and
the amount of money donated since the UN began a humanitarian appeal for Palestinians
to member states and international organizations in 2003. Known as the CAP
(Consolidated Appeals Process), the money raised is not part of the UN annual budget for
the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The UN raised funds that met 79 percent of its
humanitarian requests for Palestinians in 2009 and 75 percent in 2008. UN humanitarian
coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard told reporters that
the worldwide economic crisis as well as events in Pakistan and Haiti had contributed to
the disappointing figures in 2010. The 2010 Palestinian appeal escalated $289.2 million,
which when combined with unspent money from 2009 funded a total emergency
humanitarian assistance budget of $312.7 million. $400.4 million have been appropriated
for economic aid to the Palestinians and $100 million for support of PA police training,
etc. for FY2010. The U.S. also provided just over $61.5 million (as of February 13, 2009)
in emergency humanitarian aid through USAID, UNRWA, and the International
Committee of the Red Cross following Israel's assault on Gaza.
The U.S. has never provided Palestinians with military aid (although we have
provided Palestinians with aid for policing their own people as well as with humanitarian
and development assistance). The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
has provided the Palestinian people with some indirect economic assistance through
funds distributed to U.S.-based NGOs operating in the West Bank and Gaza. According
to the CRS report, "Funds are allocated in this program for projects in sectors such as
humanitarian assistance, economic development, democratic reform, improving water
access and other infrastructure, health care, education, and vocational training." In
addition, some funding has occasionally been provided directly to the Fatah-led
Palestinian Authority (PA) in an attempt to strengthen it against competing political
parties (particularly Hamas) and for use in policing the Palestinian people. The United
States also provides funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), "which provides food, shelter, medical
care, and education for many of the original refugees from the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli
war and their families—now comprising approximately 4.8 million Palestinians in
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.