Thursday, November 01, 2007

More on US Assistance to the Pals.

The U.S. State Department reports:-

When more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced following the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli War, the United States was among the first countries to help feed and shelter them...Today, “the United States continues to work closely with the Israelis and Palestinians to realize President Bush’s vision of two states living side by side in peace and security,” Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, told USINFO.

...the United States has been the single largest aid contributor to the 4.3 million Palestinians. Palestinians are the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid worldwide from all sources...

...The United States has provided more than $3 billion in UNRWA donations from 1950 through 2007, and contributed millions more responding to emergency funding appeals over the years. It is also the single largest contributor to the U.N. World Food Programme, providing millions of tons of food assistance for distribution by private nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to thousands of Palestinians living in communities other than those served by UNRWA.

...additional bilateral economic assistance -- an average of $85 million per year -- is delivered from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through private companies and NGOs working in region.

...Since May 2006, USAID has worked with Palestinian officials to deliver more than $3.9 million in emergency medical assistance, including essential medicines, generators and other needed goods, to Palestinian NGO-run clinics and hospitals.

Hanan, a USAID-sponsored project that focuses on health care for Palestinian mothers and children, has trained 845 health care providers and equipped four specialized maternity hospitals. USAID’s Emergency Water and Sanitation program has prevented disease by bringing clean, reliable water supplies into 15,000 Palestinian homes and sewage systems to 8,000 others though programs such as the Bani Naim water supply system in the southern West Bank.

...Since 2006, some 10,000 Palestinian agribusinesses, farmers and fishermen have received assistance and training through USAID’s Palestinian Agribusiness Partnership Activity, while the Palestinian Enterprise Development project has formed partnerships with six Palestinian companies to increase export, promote investment and generate new jobs.

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