Ireland to support Palestinian refugees with €11.4m aid package

AN €11.4 MILLION aid package to support Palestinian refugees was today announced by the Irish Government.

The cash will fund the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for three years which helps over four million refugees across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

The humanitarian aid will target the vulnerable population affected by conflict and make a real difference to the lives of Palestinian families.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern made the announcement in Bethlehem, at the start of a four-day visit to the Middle East.

Mr Ahern, in Bethlehem because of the security situation in Gaza, will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah later today.

“I have seen for myself today the reality of the bleak humanitarian and economic situation facing the Palestinian people,” said Mr Ahern, who visited a girls’ school in Bethlehem run by UNRWA.

“It is essential to work for an urgent political solution, but also to do everything possible to alleviate the effects of this humanitarian crisis.

“Ireland increased its aid to the Palestinian people by 40% last year, to €6.4m.

“Today’s decision will involve a further significant increase in our overall assistance in 2007.”

While in Bethlehem, Mr Ahern met with President Abbas’s Chief of Staff Rafiq Husseini and spent 45 minutes at the Aida Refugee Camp in the shadows of the new Separation Wall between east Jerusalem and west Jerusalem.

“As someone who has lived all my life close to a border, a wall like that cannot represent a permanent solution,” he said, describing the wall as an abomination.

Before leaving for Bethlehem, Mr Ahern met with David Shearer, Head of the UN Office for Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

UNRWA is involved in the delivery of humanitarian services for over 4.3 million registered refugees.