wfn.org | [MECC] News Report on Palestinian Refugees

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

MECC/Department of Service to Palestine Refugees Shares News from Palestine

Middle East Council of Churches
Office of International Ecumenical Relations
P.O. Box 5376, Beirut, Lebanon

Guirgis Ibrahim Saleh, General Secretary
mecc@cyberia.net.lb or guirgissaleh@cyberia.net.lb

+961-1-353-938
http://www.mec-churches.org/

Executive Secretary of the MECC/Department of Service to Palestine Refugees
(DSPR), Dr. Bernard Sabella informs us that the DSPR just finished an
extensive evaluation of all programs and the evaluation report has appeared
and was circulated to partners. The department is now actively engaged in
working out Log Frames and Plans of Action based on the recommendations of
evaluations. "We expect that within a couple of years, by end of 2007, some
of the programs we are now conducting will be closed". The programs will
focus in the future on Vocational Education, Health and Community
Development and the target groups will be women and youth. "In community
development" says Dr. Sabella, "we will strive to be away from
infrastructure and more into capacity building of the various groups with
whom we work. As to the process of Log Framing and developing Plans of
Action, it has already started and all in DSPR are diligently working to
implement the evaluation recommendations."

DSPR will be represented in the WCC Global Ecumenical Network for Uprooted
People (GEN) 2005 meeting in Miami, Fla., by Dr. Bernard Sabella, who will
be briefing the network on the Palestinians displaced or potentially
displaced as a result of the construction of the Israeli separation wall.

We are also informed that the DSPR/ACT appeal MEPL51 was extended till the
end of the year as a result of the still persistent needs of the
Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip. The situation in the West Bank
as well is quite difficult, especially for communities surrounded and
engulfed by the separation wall.

Views on the Gaza Withdrawal

As to the withdrawal from Gaza, it is seen in mixed perspectives says Dr.
Sabella. "On the one hand it is good that the settlers are gone; on the
other, Israeli military authorities, as of this moment, are planning to keep
control of the borders of Gaza Strip, thus making it difficult for thousands
of Palestinians to move in and out of the Strip freely. As a result, there
is a fear that Gaza would become a virtual big prison". DSPR/Gaza and the
rest of the region are concerned about the possible adverse effects of the
imprisonment of over 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and see it
imperative that all partners, churches and all peace loving peoples
worldwide would come together to demand open borders for the Gaza Strip with
Egypt.

For more information, kindly contact DSPR Executive Secretary, Dr. Bernard
Sabella at dspr@netvision.net.il