Swiss help chart brighter future for Palestinians

Many refugees are dependent on food handouts swissinfo.ch

Officials from 67 countries and over 30 international organisations are in Geneva for the world’s largest-ever conference on Palestinian refugees.

The meeting aims to come up with a long-term development strategy for the 4.1 million registered refugees living in the Middle East.

Co-sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the two-day event – which wraps up on Tuesday – also aims to raise public awareness of the worsening humanitarian situation in Palestinian refugee camps.

“In my experience, the Swiss public is largely unaware of how many Palestine refugees exist and about their living conditions in general,” said the deputy head of the SDC’s Office for Gaza and the West Bank, Fritz Fröhlich.

“A lot of people know about the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians from what they see on television,” he told swissinfo. “But their understanding of the socio-economic impact of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian population is fairly limited.”

In Gaza alone, the number of Palestinians living below the poverty line has shot up from 20 per cent just four years ago to 80 per cent today.

Meanwhile, the effects of the intifada have wiped out almost 40 percent of the per-capita domestic product.

Faced with a growing number of hardship cases and a decline in donations from the international community, UNRWA says it simply can’t keep up with the needs of the refugee population.

Living standards

UNRWA’s commissioner general, Peter Hansen, says that until the early 1990s, the agency was successfully able to help the refugees keep pace with the living standards of the countries that hosted them.

But over the past ten years, the organisation has been forced to slash its spending per refugee – from $200 per year to $70 – due to a growing refugee population and difficulties posed by the on-going violence between the Israelis and Palestinians (see related items).

“Over the past five decades, the Palestine refugees have proven themselves resilient, but they continue to need help so that they can help themselves,” said Hansen.

“We see this conference as a way of raising the profile of their plight and of charting the best way to help them make full use of their human potential,” he added.

His comments were echoed by UNRWA’s public information officer in Gaza, Paul McCann, who said the agency was grateful to Switzerland for providing a “first-of-a-kind opportunity” to come up with a long-term development strategy for the future.

“The Swiss government is not only one of our most generous but also one of our most active donors,” McCann told swissinfo. “They are extremely generous with their knowledge, interest and efforts on our behalf.”

No Israeli involvement

When contacted by swissinfo, the Israeli Mission in Geneva refused to comment on the fact that Israeli government representatives have not been invited to take part in the conference.

According to UNRWA and SDC officials, the Israeli foreign ministry has been kept informed about the meeting and they insist that its focus is strictly humanitarian.

They also point out that the Israeli government will have a chance to respond to the outcome of the gathering during the UN General Assembly meeting in September.

“This isn’t about putting political pressure on Israel,” said Fröhlich. “This is essentially an expanded donor conference focusing on the socio-economic needs of the Palestinian refugees.”

swissinfo, Anna Nelson in Geneva

In brief

Switzerland has been active in the West Bank and Gaza since 1993, providing roughly SFr21 million ($16.8 million) in development aid to the region this year.

The bulk of its funding for Palestinian refugees is channelled through UNRWA, which offers educational, health, social and relief services to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East.

In 2003, the Swiss government provided almost SFr10 million in general financing to UNRWA and has contributed over SFr8.5 million in emergency funds to the agency since the start of the intifada in 2000.

UNRWA was established in 1949 as a special UN agency to provide services to the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict and their descendents.

With over 24,000 mostly refugee staff members, and a total annual general budget of $330 million, it is by far the largest UN operation in the region.