<*>US Consul General Jake Walles announced an 81 million dollar donation to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday, his last working day as the top US envoy to the Palestinians.
Walles made the announcement in Ayda Refugee Camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, at a school run by the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Walles held a short news conference inside the school, which lies in the shadow of Israel's concrete separation wall.
In a short interview with Ma'an following the news conference, Walles said that in spite of ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements, last winter's war on Gaza and other severe setbacks, he has seen ''progress on the ground since he arrived in Jerusalem in 2005. Security in the West Bank is much better than when I got here.''
Asked about on reports the US had capitulated to an Israeli demand to continue settlement construction in East Jerusalem, Wallace did not comment directly. He said that that US envoy George Mitchell is working to ''create a positive environment in order for those negotiations to begin, and that involves all sides complying with their obligations."
''The Palestinian Authority has done a good job providing services to people, and now has come forward with a plan of how to move to statehood over the next two years,'' he said, referring to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government program.
''I think the main message I would give to the Palestinian people is not to lose hope. I'm hopeful and I think the Palestinian people should be as well,'' he said.
UNRWA facing shortfall
The 81 million dollar contribution is part of 900 million dollars US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to help rebuild the Gaza Strip at a donor conference in Sharm Ash-Sheikh, Egypt, in March after the devastation of Israel's three-week military offensive in January.
Of the 900 million dollars pledged, the US has delivered 267 million dollars to UNRWA so far this year. In July the State Department transferred 200 million to the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking alongside Walles, UNRWA Commissioner General Karen Abu Zayd thanked Walles for the donation and said the US, in its generosity, set an example for other donors.
Nevertheless, Abu Zayd said that her agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendants, scattered in camps dotting the Middle East, is facing a major budget shortfall. An appeal for 181 million dollars for emergency aid for Gaza issued last week remains unfulfilled, Abu Zayd said.
The contribution announced on Friday was designated for emergency services in both the West Bank and Gaza. Walles said that some of the funds were earmarked for the rehabilitation of UNRWA schools and health clinics that were damaged in last winter's war, health and education programs, food aid, job creation, and programs ''designed to help children deal with the trauma of the conflict.''
Even with the US donation, challenges remain in delivering aid to Gaza, which remains under a tight Israeli blockade, including a total ban on the construction materials needed to rebuild. Thousands of Palestinians are still living in tents or in the rubble of their houses that were by the Israeli assault.
''Reconstruction has proven to be a mirage,'' UNRWA said in its Ramadan appeal for funds last week, ''Of the billions pledged for reconstruction not one penny has reached Gaza. The ban placed by the Israelis on the entry of construction materials for all but a tiny fraction of needs has stymied any large scale reconstruction ''
In spite of this, Walles said the US is ''encouraging both sides'' to take steps to ease the blockade. ''The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, and UNRWA's work there fills a critical need,'' he said.
''All these programs also require full access for humanitarian goods, construction materials and humanitarian workers, and we will continue to work with all relevant parties to ensure that such access is allowed,'' he added.
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