The executive director of an umbrella group representing more than 100 international aid agencies operating in the occupied Palestinian territory has told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the body proposed to oversee Gaza is failing to deliver on the rights of Palestinians.
– Athena Rayburn, who heads the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), said Trump’s Board of Peace should be judged on whether it is protecting civilians, bringing about an end to Israel’s illegal presence and moving towards self-determination for Palestinians.
– “By these basic measures, the Board of Peace is failing,” she said.
– The board was created under UNSC Resolution 2803, which Rayburn said had helped reduce hostilities, “but has also so far functioned to further entrench Israel’s unlawful presence”.
– “The rights of Palestinians in Gaza have been made subordinate to the far-reaching, capricious and arbitrary requirements of its occupier,” she said.
– Rayburn says the arrangement has also “normalised a situation in which two million people are trapped and dependent on humanitarian assistance that is controlled and restricted by the state that has designed the scarcity”.
https://aje.news/ubxd5s?update=4888540