This petition refers to the recent suspension of aid into
Gaza by the UNRWA as a result of Israeli actions
that prevent the UN food trucks from entering.

Please read the petition below. If you'd like to sign,
clickon:

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/

Yours,
Oren Medicks & Gila Svirsky
______________________
The Petition:
To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
We are appalled to hear that UNRWA has been forced to suspend its food aid in Gaza as a result of n
ew Israeli
regulations. The severe economic hardship of the children and adults in Gaza is well documented by
US AID
and other sources. Preventing the access of humanitarian aid will exacerbate already existing condi
tions of
starvation and malnourishment.

Therefore, we individuals and organizations concerned with peace, justice, and human rights -- Isra
eli and
international -- call upon the Israeli government to ensure that UNWRA and other relief agencies ar
e able to
continue their work or, alternatively, that Israel replace this aid with its own, and thereby ensur
e the well-being
of the population, as mandated by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

We demand that the Israeli government address this matter with the utmost urgency, as human lives a
re at
stake. We call upon the governments of other countries to lend weight to this humanitarian appeal,
which is
intended to secure Israel's compliance with its obligations under law as well as basic humanitarian
values.

Sincerely,

If you'd like to sign this petition, clickon:

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Aid2Gaza/
Background information:UNRWA Press Release 1 April 2004UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East-Headquarters Gaza
website: www.unrwa.org
Press Release No. HQ/G/06/2004
1 April, 2004

UNRWA suspends emergency food aid in Gaza

Gaza - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today stopped
distributing emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, or approximately half o
f the
refugees receiving UNRWA food aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, following restrictions int
roduced by
Israeli authorities at the sole commercial crossing through which the Agency is able to bring in hu
manitarian
assistance. Stocks of rice, flour, cooking oil and other essential foodstuffs that UNRWA provides
to refugees
reduced to poverty, or otherwise affected by a humanitarian crisis now in its 42nd month, have been
fully
depleted.

Efforts to persuade the Israeli authorities to lift the restriction on the transport of UNRWA's emp
ty food
containers out of Gaza have so far failed, forcing the Agency to suspend the delivery into Gaza of
11,000 tons
of food from Ashdod Port to avoid a bottleneck which would result in prohibitive costs. Under norma
l
circumstances, UNRWA delivers some 250 tons of food aid per day in Gaza alone as part of a wider pr
ogramme
of emergency assistance to refugees, initiated shortly after the outbreak of strife in the West Ban
k and Gaza
Strip in September 2000. Since then, the Gaza Strip has been locked into a deep socio-economic cri
sis resulting
from the prolonged closure of its border with Israel, the destruction of thousands of homes as well
as of
agricultural and local industrial assets. Almost two out of three households in Gaza live below th
e poverty
line, and more than half its workforce is unemployed.

UNRWA is not alone in facing chronic obstacles to the flow of humanitarian assistance. These have b
een
experienced by all UN agencies operating in the West Bank and Gaza, whose Agency heads in a joint
statement on 26 March called, without success, on the Government of Israel to loosen the restrictio
ns
currently in force in Gaza.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The suspension of UNRWA's emergency food aid in the
Gaza Strip will further distress communities already struggling to cope with unrelieved economic ha
rdship and
malnutrition. If the new restrictions in Gaza continue, I fear we could see real hunger emerge for
the first time in
two generations. Israel's legitimate, and serious, security concerns will not be served by hinder
ing the
emergency relief work of the United Nations. I appeal to the authorities to lift these restrictions
and enable us
to resume our food distributions in Gaza."
_____________________________________

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