Press Release

OFID Director-General announces US$3 million grant to UNRWA at International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

37/2008 November 27, 2008 Vienna, Austria
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While delivering a statement yesterday at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which held in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), announced a US$3 million grant to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East). Mr. Al-Herbish explained that the OFID grant would help provide essential food supplies and medicines to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, where newly-enforced, strict closures were preventing the population from accessing essential goods.

Mr. Al-Herbish recounted OFID’s commitment to easing the hardships suffered by the Palestinian people, which dated back almost three decades when the institution issued its first grant to the Territory. He also spoke of the OFID Special Grant Account for Palestine, which was established in 2002 in response to the onset of the second Intifada. The Special Grant Account, which was endowed with US$10 million, was replenished several times, and now stands at US$70 million.

“All of us here have at least one thing in common,” stressed Mr. Al-Herbish, and that is “the desire to see the Palestinian People’s right to an independent and sovereign State made into a reality.” The Director-General concluded on the note that he wished to join “friends and colleagues worldwide who are re-affirming their support and assistance to the Palestinian people.”

Opening remarks of the event were made by Chairperson Her Excellency Ms. Norma Goicochea Estenoz, Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations Office in Vienna and Representative of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The UN Secretary-General’s message was delivered by Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, Director-General, United Nation’s Office in Vienna. HE Dr. Helmut Boeck, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office in Vienna, delivered the host country address. Other dignitaries in attendance who also spoke were HE Mr. Mikhail Wehbe, Permanent Observer, the Permanent Observer Mission of the League of Arab States to the United Nations Office in Vienna; HE Mr. Shahbaz, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Office in Vienna and Representative of the Chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference; and, HE Dr. Zuheir Elwazer, Permanent Observer, the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations Office in Vienna.