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REPORT: The occupied Palestinian territories: Dignity Denied, International Committee of the Red Cross
PALESTINE: Red Cross Demands Mid-East Action - S.O.S.
British Broadcasting Corporation
Sunday 16 December 2007
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for immediate political action to contain the “deep crisis” in the West Bank and Gaza.
The statement was an unusual departure from its normally non-political stance.
The ICRC said the measures imposed by Israel had denied the Palestinian population the right to live a normal and dignified life.
The organisation says humanitarian assistance cannot possibly be the solution in Gaza and the West Bank.
The statement comes just days before a major donor conference in Paris.
BBC Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes says politics is not usually a word which features in the language of the international Red Cross: the famously neutral organisation tends to work quietly in conflict zones, and when it does speak, it speaks of numbers of injured treated, or numbers of detainees visited. But the ICRC now says that life in the West bank and Gaza Strip has become so dreadful that no amount of humanitarian aid can really help.
“Why do we call for political action?
Because actually we do not think that humanitarian aid can solve the problem,” said Beatrice Megevand Roggo, ICRC director of operations for the Middle East.
REPORT: The occupied Palestinian territories: Dignity Denied, International Committee of the Red Cross (Dec. 12)
