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UNRWA asks for $75 million for Palestinian refugees
UNRWA: Serving your "refugee" needs. For over sixty years...Filippo Grandi, commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, told a news conference that UNRWA is especially targeting the newly emerging economic and political powers including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Boys, have I got a deal for you... Sounds like a hard sell. Wonder why that is? He expressed hope that these countries and others would "step up to the plate" and share the burden of financing UNRWA's main operations with the current donors, including the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia and many countries in Western Europe. C'mon, folks, step up to the plate. Think of the benefits. OK. Like? Well. There's....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...gimme a minute...... I'll get back to you on that. Grandi praised Brazil for contributing $7.5 million for UNRWA operations in Gaza this year and India for contributing in the last few years and expressed hope they would become permanent donors. Nice Olympics ya got there. Be a shame if something happened to screw them up... He said China is not a major donor to UNRWA and expressed hope that Beijing will "accompany its very good political support with some financial contribution as well." Fortune cookie say: "Very good political support much cheaper than financial contribution". He said there is a risk that the Palestinian issue will get eclipsed "because so much else is going on in the region" — and that "within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the refugee question gets further eclipsed." Oh, no. Not that... Asked whether any Palestinian refugees had been involved in the yearlong conflict in Syria or had left the country, Grandi said: "we have not seen any significant movements." Of course, we haven't looked... "There has been no instance of involvement, and my appeal is for this situation to continue," he said. "It's very, very important that the Palestinians continue as a group of vulnerable refugees™ to be isolated and to remain outside of the conflict." They must play their part in this internationl kabuki thing. And we'll play ours. Posted by: tu3031 2012-03-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=340683 |