New Warning On Palestinian Crisis
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Courtesy Of: The BBC
Friday, 23 June 2006

A UN rapporteur has said the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories has worsened seriousely because of the aid boycott.

...John Dugard, who visited the territories recently, likened the boycott to economic sanctions.

...He said the boycott was causing ordinary Palestinians to lose faith in the international community.

He described ordinary people in the Palestinian territories as traumatised. Medical services were in short supply, he said, so too was food.

The growing restrictions on movement caused by Israel's security barrier were partly to blame, Mr Dugard said, but the biggest factor was the economic freeze imposed by the international community.

As a result of the aid freeze, Mr Dugard said, the Quartet of the Middle East negotiators made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, was losing credibility among Palestinians.

"The Quartet has made it virtually impossible for the Palestinian Authority to meet its responsibilities in respect of medical supplies and other services," he said.

"The Quartet seems to have changed its policy from that of peace facilitator to policeman."

Mr Dugard said the Quartet was in danger of becoming so discredited that it might be better for the UN and the EU to withdraw from it altogether.

"The Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions, the first time that an occupied people have been so treated," Mr Dugard said.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5109252.stm