<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1255"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Palestinians don't even have weather </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tanya Reinhart</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The entire article is at: <A href="http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/display.php3?article_id=51972">http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/display.php3?article_id=51972</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>...A few days ago it snowed in Jerusalem.  On Tuesday, Ferbruary 25th, the cold wave featured in all Israeli papers as the main news.  Even in my heated home in Tel Aviv it was cold.  My thoughts wandered to my Palestinian friends - colleagues from Bir Zeit University. How does the snow fare with a family that still has a home, but not that much money to heat it? And what's with those who no longer have a home?  It snowed in Jenin as well. How did the Jenin refugees survive the cold, and those who were recently made to flee from Hebron? And what about the old people, for whom the cold is particularly dangerous?  Where did the new homeless of Gaza spend the night - those whose homes were destroyed that same day?  Is UNRWA still able to provide them with blankets and tents?  At the beginning of February, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA), renewed its emergency appeal to the international community for urgent contributions for the first half of 2003.  They stated that without these contributions, which have decreased lately, their budget would end in March</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That same day, however, Ha'aretz reported a new campaign, launched by the Israeli security echelons, to confiscate funds that are transmitted to the Palestinians through Israeli banks - "tens of millions of dollars a year...mainly from charity organizations in the Arab countries and in Europe". (Amos Har'el, Hebrew edition only).  While UNRWA is on the verge of collapse, the Palestinians should be deprived also of the charity funds that help them survive.   </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is not an isolated incident, but one more step in a systematic Israeli policy of economic strangulation. Already in June 2002,"internal conclusions of the security echelons, following operation 'Defensive Shield', assessed that...the financial reserves of the Palestinian authority are reaching the bottom... In a future not far off, the majority of Palestinians will only be able to maintain a reasonable life through the help of international aid." (Amos Har'el, Ha'aretz, Hebrew edition, June 23, 2002).  At the same time, Israel, aided by the Jewish Lobby in the US congress, opened a campaign to restrict international aid, and demanded a "reconsideration" of UNRWA's operations in the occupied territories...</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>