Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
King orders aid to
Palestinians
EU says new assistance fund could be ready by June
Agencies
King Abdullah on Monday ordered the dispatch of
urgent relief aid to the West Bank and Gaza to help the Palestinians overcome
their economic crisis.
A convoy of 25 trucks laden with 400 tonnes of food and humanitarian assistance
will leave for the Palestinian territories today, President of the Jordan
Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) Abdul Salam Abbadi was quoted by the
Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying.
Abbadi said 10 trucks will go to the West Bank and 15 to Gaza.
It will be the fourth convoy of humanitarian assistance to be sent to the
Palestinians in the past two months.
Over the past few years, Jordan sent more than 200 aid convoys to the
Palestinians, in addition to more than 30 fully equipped ambulances, according
to the JHCO.
The Palestinian Authority is facing a mounting financial crisis after the
European Union and United States froze direct aid payments to the government in
March after Hamas took power.
The problem has been compounded by lengthy closures of the Karni crossing
between Israel and the Gaza Strip, although Israeli authorities insist they
allow medicine to reach its destination, according to Agence France-Presse.
In Brussels, meanwhile, the European Union said Monday it was moving swiftly
ahead with plans to get financial aid to the Palestinians without it reaching
the Hamas government, and one official said a temporary trust fund to handle the
money could be set up as early as June.
“We cannot have business as usual” with the Hamas-led government until it meets
those demands, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner was
quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
The aid cut off, along with Israel's decision to withhold the transfer of more
than $50 million in monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the
Palestinians, has plunged the West Bank and Gaza into a financial crisis.
To try to get around Hamas, the EU and its three partners in the so-called
Quartet of Mideast negotiators — Russia, the United States and the United
Nations — decided last week to try to funnel aid through a temporary trust fund.
The fund would be held by an international organisation such as the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations and jointly controlled by
the Quartet members to avoid direct contact with Hamas, according to the AP.
Foreign ministers from the 25 European Union nations endorsed the plan at a
meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Ferrero-Waldner said the fund could be operational as early as June.
“The situation is bad, the sooner we are able to put everything together” the
better, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters as he arrived for
the meeting.
Many details of the plan still need to be worked out, including how much money
will be delivered, how it will be spent and how to ensure that the money is not
used for terrorism.
“We would like to put everything in the same box, the money that comes from
every donor,” Solana said. “We have to talk to the World Bank to see if they
want to be the agency that launches the mechanism.” In particular, the EU is
asking Arab nations to contribute to the fund.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi Al Faisal, who was in Brussels for a meeting of the
Gulf Cooperation Council and the EU, said his nation was trying to help.
“Fortunately, public opinion in Europe is aware of the suffering of the
Palestinians and we are working to alleviate it,” Faisal said.
The Palestinians, heavily dependent on foreign aid, want to use the money to pay
the salaries of 165,000 government employees who have gone unpaid for two months
because of the crisis, jeopardising the backbone of the Palestinian economy.
The money is also likely to put to humanitarian uses.
Margaret Beckett, the new British foreign secretary, said she hoped for quick
progress. “The thinking is that, initially, the focus should be on healthcare,
because that is regarded as the greatest need and the area where there is
greatest urgency,” she told reporters.
Israel and the United States have reacted coolly to the funding plan, stressing
that no money should reach Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in
suicide bombings.
Ferrero-Waldner said Washington does not plan to take part in the fund, but does
not oppose its creation.
She urged all other donors, notably Arab nations, to use the facility to provide
funding, and EU officials have also pressed Israel to release some of the frozen
tax revenues via the fund.
“With our money alone, [the EU] cannot avert this crisis,” Ferrero-Waldner said.
The EU is the largest source of aid for the Palestinians.
Its annual aid package totals some $636 million a year in all manner of
assistance. Half of that comes from the EU budget, the rest from the 25 EU
governments.