Japan's Emergency Assistance to the Palestinians to Support the Middle East Peace Process

March 21, 1997

1. The Government of Japan decided on March 21 (Fri.) to extend the emergency grant aid totalling 11 million dollars to the UNDP Japan-Palestine Development Fund to assist the Palestinians, who are now facing economic difficulties such as rising unemployment. This aid will be used to finance projects for employment generation in Hebron, Bethlehem and Gaza. The total of Japan's aid to the Palestinians since September 1993 has reached about 270 million dollars with this aid, and 6 million dollars in grants-in-aid for the projects for Improvement of Fire Fighting Services in the Gaza Strip and Increase of Food Production, which were decided on March 15 (Sat.).
   
   
2. While the Middle East peace process is in difficulties, the economic situation in the Palestinian Interim Self-rule Area is worsening as a result of the economic closure imposed by Israel on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for more than a year. Japan has decided to assist projects covering the Hebron area where the Israeli forces have been re-deployed, according to the Hebron Agreement made in January, Bethlehem, a neibouring town of Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip where a high jobless rate continues. The present contribution is additional emergency assistance following the three-million-dollar aid to UNDP which was pledged in September 1996 when Chairman Yasser Arafat, visited Japan, and another aid of 3.5 million dollars to the Holst Fund of the World Bank pleadged in November 1996.
   
   
3. Japan has been extending actively assistance to the Palestinians in order to nurture an environment conductive to advancing the Middle East peace process. In addition, it has been participating actively in the multilateral talks and the Middle East and North Africa Economic Conference. It has also dispatched a unit of the Self-Defense Forces and other personnel to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in support of the peace process since February last year. Japan has been actively engaged in the consultation with the parties concerned through the visit of Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda to the Middle East in August, the visit of Chairman Yasser Arafat to Japan in September, and the visit to Japan by Mr. David Levy, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister of Israel in February.