Last update - 00:00 04/11/2007
PA awards former Mideast envoys Wolfensohn, Hansen prize for excellence
By The Associated Press
Two former international envoys to the Middle East, James Wolfensohn and Peter Hansen, were honored Sunday by the Palestinian Authority in the
West Bank.
Wolfensohn, a former representative of the Quartet of Mideast mediators, and Peter Hansen, a former head of the UN Relief and Works Agency, were given the Palestine Prize for Excellence and Creativity.
The awards were given out for the first time this year, in a ceremony led by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Other recipients included a local animation company, a pharmaceutical firm and a Ramallah policeman who has delighted motorists with carefully choreographed moves in directing traffic.
Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, was asked in 2005 to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after Israel's pullout from the area. Wolfensohn accomplished less than he had hoped and saw his last achievement, the creation of a gateway to the world for Gazans, unravel after Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza last month.
Hansen headed the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which provides education, health care and emergency food aid for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Accepting the prize Sunday, Hansen said "Palestine might be pushed into poverty, but in terms of human resources, Palestine is as rich as any country in the world and this award has brought our attention to that."