Palestinian children 'malnourished'

BBC News Online ^ | 11/18/2002

[GeneD]

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says more than a fifth of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are suffering from acute malnutrition.

"They are suffering for purely man-made reasons," said the agency's commissioner-general Peter Hansen.

"No drought has hit Gaza and the West Bank, no crops have failed and the shops are often full of food."

He said the failure of the Middle East peace process and Israel's policy of sealing off Palestinian areas had had the effect of a terrible natural disaster.

Underspent

The UN agency is now launching a $200m appeal to fund what Mr Hansen said was the region's biggest food aid programme.

The agency said it was planning to spend $35m of that money on distributing food parcels to 1.3 m people - or 222,000 families - over the first six months of 2003.

Level of malnutrition "comparable to that in Zimbabwe or Congo"

Before the latest Palestinian intifada (or uprising) started two years ago, the agency had been feeding just 11,000 families in the occupied territories.

The agency requested $170m for this year's programmes. It said it received only 60% of that amount, but endless obstacles, delays at checkpoints and heavy curfews meant the agency actually spent less.

The UN said in September that the uprising and Israel's stranglehold on the occupied territories has left the Palestinian Authority bankrupt and plunged Palestinians deeper into poverty.

It said nearly half of the Palestinian population was living on less than the UN's poverty threshold of $2 a day.

The local economy was close to collapse and the level of malnutrition was comparable to that in Zimbabwe or Congo.

Nursing mothers and pregnant women are consuming on average 15-20% fewer calories per day than they did before.

As a result, both their health and the normal development of their children are threatened.

There has also been an increase in stillbirths.

Security

Mr Hansen said he was not surprised over "harsh" measures by Israel to protect its people.

However he said he did not believe that many of the steps would provide effective security.

"We are not there to advise the Israeli Government on its security policies," Mr Hansen said.

"But if we were to be asked about advice, I think we would find that many of the measures that are taken do not, in the medium and long-term, increase the security which the Israeli people have the right to expect in their lives."

Mr Hansen said that Israel's measures created "a number of people who have seen their lives ruined, who have seen their families killed or maimed, and who have experienced a humiliation that one really must see and experience to grasp it".

Israel's ambassador to UN offices in Geneva said that Israel was working "with the interested parties to alleviate the humanitarian situation in the territories and make life easier for those Palestinians not involved in terrorism".

[joltinjoe]

Gee, somehow they manage to smuggle guns, explosives, etc. Imagine if they used the same resources feeding their children!!

[per loin]

The Palestinians should migrate en masse to Mecca, where they would be well cared for by their beloved Islamic brethren.

[Route66]

They should tell Arafat to take all that money he has stashed away in foreign bank accounts and feed his people.

[xm177e2]

The aid money is going to terrorist groups. And Europe REFUSES to audit the money they are sending Arafat. But they say Israel is at fault for trying to DEFEND ITSELF against the terrorists sponsored by European money.

[My2Cents]

Let them eat blasting caps.

[doug from upland]

The Palestinians could end the problem tomorrow by beheading Arafat and turning over all of their terrorists.

[breakem]

I agree, nutrition is not improtant when you're preparing your kid to kill others and them selves.

[yonif]

The agency requested $170m for this year's programmes. It said it received only 60% of that amount, but endless obstacles, delays at checkpoints and heavy curfews meant the agency actually spent less.

--These checkpoints and other actions are done in response to Palestinian terrorism. It should say enless terrorism by the Palestinian side has made it spent less.

The UN said in September that the uprising and Israel's stranglehold on the occupied territories has left the Palestinian Authority bankrupt and plunged Palestinians deeper into poverty.

--Israel's strangleshold? Ha. You mean the spending of this money on weapons, bombs, and recruiting campaigns for terrorist organization Arafat is apart of.


Mr Hansen said he was not surprised over "harsh" measures by Israel to protect its people.

However he said he did not believe that many of the steps would provide effective security.

--Realy?

"We are not there to advise the Israeli Government on its security policies," Mr Hansen said.

"But if we were to be asked about advice, I think we would find that many of the measures that are taken do not, in the medium and long-term, increase the security which the Israeli people have the right to expect in their lives."

--Does checking cars for bombs too much? Or asking men to raise their shirts, due to the fact many have been carrying bombs too much? Or searching ambulances which have been found to be carrying more then the injured too much? Many of these actions also protect your UN members.

Mr Hansen said that Israel's measures created "a number of people who have seen their lives ruined, who have seen their families killed or maimed, and who have experienced a humiliation that one really must see and experience to grasp it".

--Nothing but Arab propaganda. Do humiliated people eat less? Or is this comment just Anti-Israel rehetoric? A number of people on the Palestinian side? Israel's citizens are the one who have had their lives ruined.

[zingzang]

Cry me a river. If their parents were at all interested in their welfare they would do one of two things.

1. Demand Arafat's head on a stick
2. Vacate the country since their "leader" isn't helping them to do anything other than raise future suicide bombers.

[Publius6961]

How much food and medication would the amounts the Palestinians are spending on explosives and weapons buy?
Just curious...

Wonder where those hundreds of millions contributed by muslim countries has gone?

[Thinkin' Gal]

The agency said it was planning to spend $35m of that money on distributing food parcels to 1.3 m people - or 222,000 families - over the first six months of 2003.

There goes the UN, trying to fight market forces. What good is food aid when each Pali kid is worth 25 grand... dead? The Palis will simply convert the food into something more useful... explosive belts. Therefore, it is the UN that is "continuing the cycle of violence."

[antaresequity]

They are confusing malnourishment with a designed slim physique necessarry for suicide bombers. The more gaunt your Palestinian Teenager is, the more explosives can be strapped around him and hidden under a jacket without arsousing suspicion

[zingzang]

True, how many fat teenaged PLO freaks do you see on the streets? Come to think of it, you literally see them "on the street" (or splattered all over the block) most of the time, so it's kind of hard to tell.

[Dallas]

It's the world's responsibility to make sure future bombers are not malnourished, and are able to die in good health.

Nine-year-old Suheib Saade marches with his brother Ibrahim's M-16 as mourners carry the body of Ibrahim Saade during his funeral in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank Saturday Nov.16, 2002.

[lawdude]

"They should tell Arafat to take all that money he has stashed away in foreign bank accounts and feed
his people."


"Is not my yob" ala Jose Jimenez (Bill Dana).

[gaspar]

For a Palestinian to "vacate the country" is easier said than done. Most Arab nations want nothing to do with Palestinians, considering them troublesome to an extreme (viz. Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait).

In the Sinai the Egyptian presence is almost totally devoted to keeping the Palestinians out of Egypt, and for more than 50 years it has been nearly impossible to obtain immigrant visas or documentation that would allow a Palestinian to work in Egypt.

[xrp]

excellent pic...an M16/AR15 costs between $750 and $1500. I consume about $200 in food monthly and that is USA prices. $1500 would be enough to feed a Palestinian family for a year or more. If they can afford guns and explosives then they damn sure can afford food.

[Ronin]

You beat me to that comment. Arafat is sitting on billions that he has stolen -- and the Pallies know it.

Sorry, no sympathy from me.