Israel Matzav

Is the World finally tiring of the 'Palestinians'?

Could it be that the World is finally tiring of the 'Palestinians'? Maybe. It seems that they had a little shortfall in their 'fund raising' this year (Hat Tap: Challah Hu Akbar).

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, according to statistics it released on Wednesday at a press conference in Jerusalem.

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 Consolidated Appeals Process, the money raised is not part of the UN’s annual budget for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The UN raised funds that met 79% of its humanitarian requests for Palestinians in 2009 and 75% in 2008.

Maxwell Gaylard, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters that the global economic crisis as well as events in Pakistan and Haiti had contributed to the “disappointing figures” in 2010.

His office noted that some of the projects such as those for education, agriculture and sanitation were not perceived by donors as emergency items.

According to Gaylard’s office, the Palestinian territories were the UN’s sixth most under-funded appeal in 2010. Such appeals raise an average of 61% of the targeted amounts, it said.

Funny. They don't seem to be suffering too much.

Labels: humanitarian non-crisis, Palestinian Authority

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:36 PM