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UN: Almost half of Palestinians in Gaza, W. Bank are food insecure
By The Associated Press

The United Nations said Thursday that the Palestinian economic crisis had left almost half the people in Gaza and the West Bank food insecure.

The crisis has made previously secure workers - fishermen, farmers, and small traders - increasingly desperate, the World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization said in a report Thursday.

Poverty has risen since the international community cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas militants won parliamentary elections last year.
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Kirstie Campbell, spokeswoman for the WFP, said 46 percent of Palestinians are now food insecure or vulnerable. In 2004, 35 percent of Palestinians were food insecure, she said.

Many people, who cannot afford to buy food, have been forced to sell off
valuable assets such as land or tools, the report said.

To tackle the growing need, the WFP increased its food assistance by 25
percent in the past year, feeding some 260,000 non-refugees in Gaza and
400,000 in the West Bank. Another UN agency, UNRWA, handles food distribution for refugees.

The poorest families are now living a meager existence totally reliant on
assistance, with no electricity or heating and eating food prepared with water from bad sources. This is putting their long-term health at risk, said Arnold Vercken, WFP Country Director.

Campbell called the increased humanitarian assistance a Band-Aid solution.

In order to improve the situation, we need economic growth, progress, and
restoring trade links between the West Bank and Gaza, she said.

UN rights expert says Israeli actions in PA similar to apartheid
An independent report commissioned by the United Nations compares Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza to apartheid South Africa..

The charges that drew angry rebukes from Israel and were sure to revive charges that the United Nations Human Rights Council is biased against Israel.

The report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the council, is to be presented next month, but it has been posted on the body's Web site. In it, Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, says Israel's laws and practices in the Palestinian territories certainly resemble aspects of apartheid.

The 24-page report catalogues a number of accusations against the Jewish state ranging from restrictions on Palestinian movement, house demolitions and preferential treatment given to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

"Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group - Jews - over another racial group - Palestinians - and systematically oppress them?" he asks.

Israel says it aims mainly to prevent Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Israelis in the past six years, and officials note that violence broke out in 2000 after Israel's proposal to pull out of the vast majority of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for peace was rejected.

Its ambassador in Geneva criticized Dugard for directing attacks only at Israel. Any conclusions he may draw are therefore fundamentally flawed
and purposely biased, said Yitzhak Levanon.

The report will be presented next month at the 47-nation rights council's
first session of the year. The new body has been widely criticized - even by its founder, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - for only censuring one government in the world, Israel's, over alleged abuses.

Dugard's report accuses Israel of terror by F16 fighter jets setting off sonic booms above residential areas. In the West Bank residents live in fear of settler terror.

He says it is grossly inaccurate to say Israel's 2005 removal of settlers and soldiers from Gaza constituted an end to its occupation of that territory, captured from Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War. "Israel retained control of Gaza's air space, sea space and external borders, and the border crossings," he writes. "Gaza became a sealed off, imprisoned and occupied territory."

War crimes have been committed by both sides, he says: "This applies to
Palestinians who fire Qassam rockets into Israel; and more so to members of the Israel Defense Forces who have committed such crimes on a much
greater scale.

Dugard was appointed in 2001 as an unpaid expert by the now-defunct UN Human Rights Commission to investigate only violations by the Israeli side, prompting Israel and the United States to dismiss his reports as one-sided.

Israel refused to allow him to conduct a fact-finding mission on its Gaza offensive last summer
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  1.   Food for thought 16:47  |  Gabe1 22/02/07
  2.   Gabe 1 and the milk of human kindness 16:59  |  Marilyn 22/02/07
  3.   They coined a new phrase especially for the pampered pals 17:02  |  Absolute Sweden 22/02/07
  4.   so. we know whoses fault that is.haaretz start teaching about 17:04  |  ralph 22/02/07
  5.   Maybe they should eat their Qassams and suicide belts? 17:08  |  Richard S 22/02/07
  6.   Re#1 17:08  |  Joe 22/02/07
  7.   TO Gabe1 - Food for thought 17:20  |  Steve Beikirch 22/02/07
  8.   Right on Gabe1 17:24  |  Omar 22/02/07
  9.   But they dont lack missles to attack civilians in Sderot? 17:25  |  David 22/02/07
  10.   UN 17:26  |  Luis Gomberoff 22/02/07
  11.   There was a report by IMF that aid has doubled ... 17:27  |  Tom 22/02/07
  12.   To Gabe1 @1 17:30  |  Human 22/02/07
  13.   #2 Marilyn - To paraphrase Marie Antionette 17:39  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  14.   Food insecure - who thought of that phrase? 17:55  |  Chick Corea 22/02/07
  15.   Food insecure - who thought of that phrase? 18:01  |  Chick Corea 22/02/07
  16.   Food insecure - who thought of that phrase? 18:01  |  Chick Corea 22/02/07
  17.   `Food insecure` who thought up that one? 18:02  |  Chick Corea 22/02/07
  18.   Marilyn #2 and navel gazing 18:07  |  Gabe1 22/02/07
  19.   Pals need money-management 18:16  |  Alicia 22/02/07
  20.   What we call a mass starvation? 18:21  |  Sabra 22/02/07
  21.   Millions in Africa die regularly of starvation and 18:22  |  Gadi 22/02/07
  22.   Silly ignorant Marilyn # 2 18:23  |  ChanahS 22/02/07
  23.   Suha Arafat 18:29  |  curious 22/02/07
  24.   Chick Chorea in the land of the free 18:34  |  Marilyn 22/02/07
  25.   SACRIFICES FOR JIHAD and TERROR 18:35  |  B 22/02/07
  26.   Saudi Arabia will break this starvation blockade 18:40  |  Clickfool 22/02/07
  27.   Bleeding hearts and empty brains 18:44  |  The Equalizer 22/02/07
  28.   They do not know how to farm 18:47  |  Efox 22/02/07
  29.   re: Alicia 18:58  |  Efox 22/02/07
  30.   THEY CHOSE BULLETS AND BOMBS OVER BREAD AND BUTTER 18:58  |  Yishai Kohen 22/02/07
  31.   #21 Crocidile Marliyn Yes, this is the land of the Free 19:02  |  Chick Corea 22/02/07
  32.   re: Clickfool 19:02  |  Efox 22/02/07
  33.   Starved? 19:03  |  Edifice 22/02/07
  34.   Yet they receive largest per capita assiatnce in the world 19:18  |  Ben 22/02/07
  35.   Please forward all pleas for cash to Suha.. 19:24  |  SLAVO 22/02/07
  36.   Doesn`t this bother the donors? 19:36  |  Joshua 22/02/07
  37.   I guess a diet of hatred ain`t so filling. 19:37  |  Observer 22/02/07
  38.   Starving palestinians 19:44  |  Philippe 22/02/07
  39.   If Only.... 19:51  |  MP 22/02/07
  40.   Again, how is Gaza Israel`s problem? 20:09  |  David G 22/02/07
  41.   The Palestinians have no one to blame but themselves for the .... 20:32  |  Nadav 22/02/07
  42.   Ben #34 20:33  |  Mike 22/02/07
  43.   Palestinian aid vs. Marshall plan 20:43  |  Michael O. 22/02/07
  44.   Apartheid, again! 20:49  |  Tosefta 22/02/07
  45.   "food insecure" ? A new one! Means not yet hungry ! 20:50  |  redmike 22/02/07
  46.   Bad news, Gaza is Occupied! 20:53  |  Tosefta 22/02/07
  47.   The real fact 20:54  |  Edifice 22/02/07
  48.   Pal cutting of nose to spite face 20:56  |  William 22/02/07
  49.   Mike - do you have proof?? re:Ben #42 20:58  |  William 22/02/07
  50.   not aparteid 21:02  |  jack 22/02/07
  51.   Starvation! 21:03  |  Rustam 22/02/07
  52.   They Should Trade Some Weapons In For Food 21:05  |  Jane 22/02/07
  53.   If you don`t think of the Palestinians as "food unsecure" 21:07  |  jack 22/02/07
  54.   Tosefta,Dugard,Tali Fahima ,Ahmadijad can`t be wrong on Israel 21:07  |  Absolute Sweden 22/02/07
  55.   half the population of the world is "food insecure". 21:13  |  jack 22/02/07
  56.   Dugard 21:15  |  Edifice 22/02/07
  57.   food insecure? how ridiculous 21:19  |  josh 22/02/07
  58.   menfolk have decided to fight? 21:20  |  jack 22/02/07
  59.   #42 Mike: It wasn`t a question 21:22  |  Ben 22/02/07
  60.   William #49: Of course Mike has no proof 21:25  |  Ben 22/02/07
  61.   to marylin 21:33  |  josh 22/02/07
  62.   Starving children 21:34  |  tadchase 22/02/07
  63.   Marilyn - Who is blowing who? 21:40  |  David Israel 22/02/07
  64.   # 44 Tosefta: By all means, let`s change the subject 21:40  |  Michael O. 22/02/07
  65.   Food Insecure 21:40  |  Connie 22/02/07
  66.   Nadav #41 21:44  |  Gabe1 22/02/07
  67.   #24 Marilyn is sooo concerned 21:46  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  68.   Tosefta 21:47  |  Gabe1 22/02/07
  69.   # 24 Silly Marilyn again 21:47  |  ChanahS 22/02/07
  70.   No Jews allowed in Gaza or West Bank and other places too 21:49  |  Avi 22/02/07
  71.   Hungry Pali`s 21:51  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  72.   Human 21:52  |  Gabe1 22/02/07
  73.   Only Saddam sent checks 21:53  |  ChanahS 22/02/07
  74.   Now, eat the fruits of Arafat`s economic boycotts! 21:54  |  Joe 22/02/07
  75.   The Arab Nations and the Jews 21:54  |  Nathan 22/02/07
  76.   Let`s do it the Philadelphia way 21:58  |  * BEN JABO 22/02/07
  77.   Greenhouses and Borders 22:04  |  Mark 22/02/07
  78.   #2 Marilyn, Gabe 1 is 100% right 22:09  |  TOMY 22/02/07
  79.   William #49 22:17  |  Mike 22/02/07
  80.   #7 Steve Beikirch can not take the idea 22:18  |  TOMY 22/02/07
  81.   Arab are followers of fatalistic beliff,