Brussels, 02/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 March, Pierre Krähenbühl, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), called for greater political and diplomatic engagement from the EU in the Middle East. Europe should be concerned about the Middle East and the situation in Gaza, he told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
“There is nothing more important than exercising commitment and political action in order to deal with the political causes of the situation in the region. This can only take the form of dialogue, with you, with the stakeholders, and with a major contribution of the EU to this process”, he said, adding that “initiatives were necessary on a political level from the different actors”. Stating that 65% of the population in Gaza was less than 25 years old, Krähenbühl said he believed that this represented “a real time bomb”, because these young people are educated but have no perspective for the future. “What will the cost be for the next decade of not sitting at the same table to settle the conflict?” he asked. “Do you think a conflict or the lack of politics has led to less radicalisation? No! The cost of not being involved politically is huge”, he warned.
Krähenbühl called for “institutional support” for the UNRWA (which is celebrating its 65th anniversary), “both from a political and financial point of view”. He stated that UNRWA needed $720 million for the reconstruction of Gaza and that it had currently had $125 million, $100 million of which had already been disbursed. Due to a lack of funding, it has had to suspend its reconstruction programme. Krähenbühl added that while 80,000 people in Gaza had benefitted from UNRWA food aid in 2000, this number today stood at 860,000 “after 7-8 years of blockade”. He said he believed this figure was “shameful” in the view of a population of 1.5 million in Gaza, “without adding those who depend on aid from the World Food Programme”. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)