UNRWA warns: Palestinian small businesses face economic and financial siege

[ 01/09/2007 - 09:47 AM ]

VIENNA, (PIC)--

Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner-general of UNRWA, has warned that the Palestinian businesses and micro enterprises is facing formidable challenges as they operate in a state of economic and financial siege that is limiting their capacity for normal development and growth.

At a signing ceremony for receiving 4.5 million dollars from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), which was held in Vienna, Grandi stated: "OFID’s support will ensure that UNRWA can extend its services to thousands more Palestinian micro enterprises for the coming years. It will also contribute to combat the dangerous symptoms of economic despair and loss of dignity, by providing crucial resources that Palestinian households and businesses can use to build a better future."

UNRWA said that the OFID's previous contributions to the PalFund of $2.5 million enabled UNRWA to finance over 2,600 loans to Palestinian micro enterprises in the West Bank and Gaza, pointing out that after the beneficiaries repaid their loans UNRWA was able to finance a further 6,600 loans worth $7.5 million from the trust fund.

In another context, two Russian planes loaded with tons of foodstuffs and medicines, arrived in the Jordanian capital, Amman, for the besieged Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

According to sources in the information service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency, the two planes are laden with 10 tons of medical supplies and medicines, and 36 tons of canned food, baby food, cereals, and sugar as assistance from the Russian government.

The Russian foreign ministry expressed hope that all the concerned parties would facilitate the transport of the humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, calling on the international community to provide urgent aid to the Palestinians to overcome this difficult period, and to prevent a human tragedy in the Palestinian lands.

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Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi) should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein.

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