SHUNEH, Jordan, 18 November 2005 — The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees appealed yesterday for international aid to plug a $13 million deficit and enable it to keep rebuilding homes devastated in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We have a $13 million deficit and we have no new pledges except from Italy which promised one million dollars,” Karen Koning Abu Zayd told a news conference in Shuneh, on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea.
“Four of five other donors have hinted” they will make new contributions but there were no firm pledges yet, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said.
“If they make contributions, it will narrow the deficit to five million,” she said, adding that UNRWA’s budget for 2005 stood at $365 million.
The chronically cash-strapped agency plans to increase its budget for the next two years by 30 percent, said Koning Abu Zayd.
“The problem is not the budget, the problem is where to find the money,” she said, hoping that new donor member states, including South Africa, Chile, Algeria and Qatar, will heed her appeal.
“We are asking for more money in order to increase our services,” including rehousing hundreds of homeless in the Gaza Strip, she said.
She singled out large contributions from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which have allocated $20 million each to rebuild homes in the Palestinian territories.
UN officials said in July that funds were in place to accommodate 1,285 families in the Gaza Strip, but the agency still needed $28 million to house a further 1,352 homeless refugee families.
Koning Abu Zayd said UNRWA was “doing very well in Gaza” since Israel completed a unilateral withdrawal in September.
“There is no problem in movement in Gaza but the West Bank worries us because of the wall (security barrier), settlements and restrictions on movement there,” she said.
“A lot of our work depends on the Israelis. It is very visible that the Israelis are making big efforts with the UN and actually they are relying on us because if we were not there they would have to do our job,” she said.
UNRWA cares for 4.2 million refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, which is home to the largest community of around 1.8 million refugees.
