UN warns it cannot replace the Palestinian Authority
He referenced in particularly the permit system that allowed Palestinians in Gaza to leave the Strip, so they could receive emergency medical care in Israel.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF, GREER FAY CASHMANThe United Nations Security Council, February 28, 2020(photo credit: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS)
The United Nations has warned it does not have the capacity to take over tasks that the Palestinian Authority has abdicated to protest annexation, particularly when it comes to the fulfillment of PA agreements with Israel regarding humanitarian issues.“We cannot replace the Palestinian Authority,” UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process Nickolay Mladenov told the Foreign Press Association on Thursday. He highlighted for the second day in a row the problems that have arisen from the PA’s decision to suspend its agreements with Israel.PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to “absolve” the commitments Palestinians undertook within the Oslo framework in the 1990s has meant that the PA has refused to accept tax revenues from Israel and therefore lacks the funds to pay the salaries of Palestinian public servants, Mladenov said.“All of these steps in response to the prospect of annexation are already beginning to bite,” he said.“We see, as the United Nations, across our entire network the effects on the ground,” he added. “The ending of civilian coordination has meant that an increasing number of Palestinian civilians, children [and] cancer patients in Gaza, in particular, are unable to travel [to Israel for treatment]. We have already had one very sad fatality.”Mladenov cited the death of Omar Yaghi, an eight-month-old Gazan, of cardiac issues on June 18. He had not been able to receive an exit permit for a May operation at Sheba Medical Center because the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee stopped processing permits for medical patients in response to the annexation plan. Physicians for Human Rights and Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement and Access have both highlighted Yaghi’s story.In an effort to sidestep the frozen process, Physicians for Human Rights advocated that his family receive a travel permit directly from the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) at the Erez crossing. The infant, however, died three days before the June 21 date of his surgery, according to Physicians for Human Rights.The organization has warned that there are hundreds of patients who have been denied medical treatment since the PA suspended exit permits.In his talk to the Foreign Press Association, Mladenov said this was only one of the issues that arose from the suspension of cooperation. The PA has stopped processing shipments of goods and has halted coordination work on humanitarian projects, he said.“While we are prepared to provide support on an emergency basis, the UN cannot replace the Palestinian Authority,” Mladenov said. “It is critical that humanitarian and other assistance not be delayed or stopped.”
“This slow grinding down of civilian coordination will have an effect on the lives of the Palestinian people,” he said.It also will make it more difficult for the Palestinian security forces to continue their work and threatens their viability in the long run, he added.
