http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=464142

Blame Israel, says Red Cross as it ends food aid for West Bank

By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem

The Independent
16 November 2003

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its
emergency food programme in the West Bank, saying the economic collapse
there is the direct result of Israeli military closures and that Israel
must live up to its responsibility as the occupying power for the
economic needs of the Palestinians.

The move comes as the Israeli media reported that François Bellon, the
Red Cross representative, told senior Israeli generalsthat the
Palestinian Authority was on the verge of an "explosion" that could lead
to "the worst ever humanitarian crisis" in the occupied territories.

Israel is concerned that other international organisations may follow
the Red Cross, which would leave Israel to face the cost of providing
the services they currently provide - a cost that some estimates put as
high as $1.1bn (£650m) a year.

The Palestinian economy has collapsed under the weight of military
closures of Palestinian cities, making it impossible for Palestinians to
move their produce or travel to jobs in other cities or in Israel. Last
year and early this year, curfews imposed for all but a few hours a week
by the Israeli army made it impossible for Palestinians to work at all.

The Israeli government says the tight closure is needed to prevent
Palestinian militants crossing into Israel to carry out suicide bombings
and other attacks, but it has been accused of inflicting collective
punishment on the Palestinians. Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's chief
of staff, recently spoke out against the closure, saying it was
increasing Palestinian resentment of Israel.

As a result of economic collapse, a fifth of Palestinian children are
malnourished, according to a report last year by an American government
aid agency. International aid organisations have stepped in to provide
assistance. In the wake of the invasion and reoccupation of West Bank
cities last April, the Red Cross launched an emergency food and
essentials programme for Palestinians.

The organisation has spent $46m over the past year and a half providing
food and such necessities as cooking oil and matches to around 300,000
of the most needy Palestinians in the West Bank. But now the ICRC says
that must stop, and that Israel must live up to its responsibility as an
occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet the economic
needs of the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Vincent Bernard, an ICRC spokesman, said: "This was humanitarian relief
designed to assist in a humanitarian emergency, not to address the
longer-term problems caused by curfews, closures and the collapse of the
economy that has occurred. It is not our responsibility to take care of
the economic needs of the Palestinians. We have repeatedly said it is
the responsibility of the occupying power."

Mr Bernard denied Israeli press reports that the food programme had been
cancelled for budgetary reasons. "As the occupying power, Israel has the
responsibility to minimise the humanitarian consequences of its
actions," he said. "You cannot go on for ever with the curfews and
closures which are destroying the Palestinian economy. They have to find
a different way to guarantee their security. If they lifted these
security measures, the Palestinian economy, though damaged, would start
again."

Mr Bernard refused to comment on a report in Ha'aretz newspaper that Mr
Bellon had told senior Israeli generals at a recent meeting that the
Palestinians were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. But it is an
assessment with which senior officers in the Israeli army are believed
to agree.

For the time being, the UN's World Food Organisation has stepped into
the breach, setting up an alternative food programme until next summer.