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World Jewish News
UNRWA official: Israelis, Palestinians both suffering
01.04.2009
WASHINGTON (JTA) - A United Nations official in charge of the agency assisting Palestinian refugees wants "friends of Palestine" to visit Israel and "friends of Israel" to visit Gaza to "look at the plight of both civilian populations."
John Ging, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's operations in Gaza, said that having only one crossing into Gaza open is "just not adequate to get supplies in that are needed" - which includes everything from food and medicine to building supplies to school textbooks. He said most Gazans were hungry - although not starving - and only getting an "emergency ration" of food that covered 60 percent of their nutritional needs.
He also pointed to the suffering of Israelis who are constantly under rocket fire in southern cities such as Ashkelon and Sderot. "They're still living under rocket fire," he said, adding that "there is no justification for firing rockets at civilian targets."
Ging spoke at an event on Capitol Hill for members of Congress and their staffs sponsored by Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who visited Gaza earlier this year.
Critics of UNWRA in Congress have said the agency needs more transparency and accountability and have proposed legislation that would call on the agency to make public a list of its employees so they can be independently verified for ties to terrorists. Asked about the legislation, Ging suggested that he supported efforts to ensure UNRWA was focused solely on its job of assisting refugees.
"We should not employ anyone involved in anything other than refugee" assistance, he said, admitting that he had been "betrayed" by staff in the past but he had an "active zero-tolerance policy."
"There has to be accountability," he said.
Ging also said that UNRWA has stopped using the Commercial Bank of Syria for financial transactions, which the United States says has been used by terrorists to transfer funds. He said the agency used the institution because it had a "massive network of offices," but has conferred with U.S. State and Treasury department officials in recent weeks and is now looking for a different bank.
Источник: JTA
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