Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020
121. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if additional supports have been provided to the Palestinian people to help suppress the current Covid-19 surge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28427/20]
View answerIreland recognises that the Palestinian people are particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, a vulnerability that is closely linked to an overburdened healthcare system, and civilian populations suffering from insecurity, displacement, conflict and poverty. The most recent data available from the WHO records a total of 50,115 cases in the occupied Palestine territories, with 360 deaths.
Ireland’s 2020 development and humanitarian assistance to Palestine will amount to €16.2 million, of which €14.3 million has been disbursed to date. Irish funding balances awareness that the humanitarian crisis which the Palestinian people faced before COVID-19 continue with the need to also respond to the additional demands presented by the pandemic in the region.
Irish support this year includes €7 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), including an additional €1 million disbursed in September to support the Agency’s continued provision of critical services such as healthcare, education and humanitarian relief in these difficult circumstances.
In addition, Ireland has provided €1.18 million towards the social protection response to COVID-19, comprising €1 million in direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority’s Cash Transfer Programme for vulnerable families; and €180,000 to the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund’s COVID-19 response in the West Bank and Gaza.
Ireland has also provided €3 million to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education; €500,000 to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), additional to Ireland's core support for OCHA; €125,000 in support of Oxfam’s COVID-19 health response in Gaza; and €200,000 to the West Bank Protection Consortium, which seeks to protect Palestinians in the West Bank from forcible transfer. A further €564,000 has been disbursed to civil society organisations advocating for human rights and peace in the region.
