US embassy cable - 04TELAVIV2042

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 002042 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2009 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, KWBG, PREF, PREL, GZ, IS, GAZA DISENGAGEMENT, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS, HUMANITARIAN AID 
SUBJECT: COGAT SAYS UNRWA-IDF CONTAINER DISPUTE MAY BE SOON 
RESOLVED 
 
REF: TEL AVIV 1911 
 
Classified By: Pol/C Norm Olsen, per 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary: UNRWA April 1 announced the suspension of 
its emergency food distribution program in the Gaza Strip. 
UNRWA Deputy Director of Operations in Gaza, Krister Nordahl 
confirmed to Poloff April 2 that UNRWA, frustrated by what it 
sees as the IDF's refusal to find any interim measures to 
check outgoing shipping containers (reftel), refused in turn 
to import more food to replace now-exhausted stocks until the 
problem is resolved.  The IDF has blocked all containers 
leaving Gaza since two suicide bombers used a hidden 
compartment in a container to smuggle themselves out of Gaza 
and into Ashdod, killing 10 Israelis.  COGAT representative 
Daniel Beaudoin assured ECON/C the evening of April 1 and 
again on April 2, however, that the IDF's new security 
systems would be in place o/a April 4 at the Karni Crossing, 
thus allowing at least some of UNRWA's empty containers to 
exit the Gaza Strip and the food program to re-start. 
Although differences remain between the two sides as to the 
number of containers that will be allowed, at least 
initially, out through Karni, if the COGAT date of April 4 is 
met, the negative impact of the suspension on beneficiaries 
should be minimal.  End Summary. 
 
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UNRWA Suspends Food Program in Gaza 
----------------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) UNRWA announced April 1 the suspension of its 
emergency food aid program in the Gaza Strip due to the GOI's 
continuing refusal to allow the movement of empty shipping 
containers out of Gaza.  The problem, which had been building 
since two Gaza suicide bombers smuggled themselves into 
Ashdod port March 14 and killed 10 Israelis, came to a head 
March 26 when UN agencies first went public (reftel).  A 
series of discussions between GOI and UNRWA officials the 
week of March 29 failed to resolve the issue, according to 
Krister Nordahl, UNRWA Deputy Director of Operations in Gaza. 
 Nordahl confirmed to Poloff April 2 that, although the IDF 
will/will allow UNRWA food containers to be shipped into 
Gaza, the IDF (citing the double suicide bombing at Ashdod) 
was still not/not allowing any containers -- empty or 
otherwise -- to be shipped back out until improved security 
measures are in place at Karni Terminal and IDF staff receive 
the appropriate training in their use.  Nordahl said that, in 
light of the IDF's position and the demurrage charges 
accruing from blocked containers, UNRWA had no choice but to 
cease imports. 
 
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Situation Not Yet Catastrophic, and Might be Resolved Soon 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
3.  (C)  Nordahl explained, however, that not all 600,000 
UNRWA emergency food beneficiaries (128,000 families) would 
be affected immediately.  The food distribution cycle rotates 
over a 45-day period; those who received their food parcels 
in the last cycle would be fine for the next 45 days. 
Furthermore, Nordahl said he had been told the evening of 
April 1 by COGAT that the GOI expected to have the improved 
systems in place o/a April 4, after which five shipping 
containers per day could exit through Karni.  The program 
requires the importation, however, of 20 containers (250 tons 
of foodstuff) per day to meet beneficiaries' needs. 
 
-------------------------------- 
COGAT Working to Fix the Problem 
-------------------------------- 
 
4. (C)  Daniel Beaudoin, head of the COGAT's Foreign 
Relations Branch, confirmed to ECON/C on April 1 that the IDF 
was hoping to have new security systems in place at Karni 
within days and that the IDF is in the process of training 
personnel to screen the empty containers.  When ECON/C 
contacted Beaudoin again April 2, he said the new screening 
would definitely begin Sunday, April 4.  He said he did not 
know how many containers would be released per day, but 
insisted "it would be more than five."   Beaudoin 
acknowledged that UNRWA needed the release of 20 containers 
per day to do its job adequately. 
 
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Comment 
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5.  (C)  UNRWA has drawn the battle lines clearly on this 
issue and is holding firm in its position vis-a-vis the IDF: 
no new containers to go in until the IDF lets the empties 
out.  UNRWA was frustrated by what it saw as the IDF's 
refusal to find any interim measures, such as visual 
inspection of the simple plate steel containers.  By going 
public and increasing the pressure, UNRWA clearly hopes to 
force the GOI to act, and may have at least partially 
accomplished this if COGAT's assurances to us are any 
indication.  UNRWA seems satisfied -- for the moment -- with 
COGAT's assurance that the containers will begin moving no 
later than April 4, and thus the negative impact on 
beneficiaries will be relatively small.  If that date should 
slip or the number of shipping containers remains severely 
limited, however, that negative impact would rapidly 
increase. 
 
6.  (U)  UNRWA Press Release. 
 
Begin Text of UNRWA April 1 Press Release: 
 
UNRWA suspends emergency food aid to Gaza 
 
Gaza - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for 
Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today stopped distributing 
emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza 
Strip, or approximately half of the refugees receiving UNRWA 
food aid in the occupied Palestinian territory, following 
restrictions introduced by Israeli authorities at the sole 
commercial crossing through which the Agency is able to bring 
in humanitarian assistance.  Stocks of rice, flour, cooking 
oil and other essential foodstuffs that UNRWA provides to 
refugees reduced to poverty, or otherwise affected by a 
humanitarian crisis now in its 42nd month, have been fully 
depleted. 
 
Efforts to persuade the Israeli authorities to lift the 
restriction on the transport of UNRWA's empty food containers 
out of Gaza have so far failed, forcing the Agency to suspend 
the delivery into Gaza of 11,000 tons of food from Ashdod 
port to avoid a bottleneck which would result in prohibitive 
costs.  Under normal circumstances, UNRWA delivers some 250 
tons of food per day in Gaza alone as part of a wider program 
of emergency assistance to refugees, initiated shortly after 
the outbreak of strife in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 
September 2000.  Since then, the Gaza Strip has been locked 
into a deep socio-economic crisis resulting from the 
prolonged closure of its border with Israel, the destruction 
of thousands of homes as well as of agricultural and local 
industrial assets.  Almost two out of three households in 
Gaza live below the poverty line,  and more than half its 
work force is unemployed. 
 
UNRWA is not alone in facing chronic obstacles to the flow of 
humanitarian assistance.  These have been experienced by all 
UN agencies operating in the West Bank and Gaza, whose Agency 
heads in a joint statement on March 26 called, without 
success, on the GOI to loosen the restrictions currently in 
force in Gaza. 
 
UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The suspension 
of UNRWA's emergency food aid in the Gaza Strip will further 
distress communities already struggling to cope with 
unrelieved economic hardship and malnutrition.  If the new 
restrictions in Gaza continue, I fear we could see real 
hunger emerge for the first time in two generations. 
Israel's legitimate, and serious, security concerns will not 
be served by hindering the emergency relief work of the 
United Nations.  I appeal to the authorities to lift these 
restrictions and enable us to resume our food distributions 
in Gaza." 
 
End text of UNRWA press release. 
 
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