Palestinians get olive oil aid

Press, 29 December 1988, Page 11

Palestinians get olive oil aid

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The European Community is sending Italian olive oil as emergency food aid to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where there is a big olive oil surplus. The E.C. representative in Israel, Gwyn Morgan, confirmed that the oil was part of a package of emergency food aid financed by the 12-nation Community’s executive commission for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (U.N.R.W.A.) for Palestinian refugees. Asked why the E.C. had sent olive oil, Mr Morgan said: “The European Commission is innocent of deciding what to send. It simply answers requests

from U.N.R.W.A.” A record West Bank harvest yielded more than 30,000 tonnes of olive oil, most of which Palestinian producers have been unable to sell because Jordan, the West Bank’s traditional export market, has decided to buy none this year. An U.N.R.W.A. spokesman said he could not check the report because the organisation was closed for Christmas. Paradoxically, Italy, the E.C.’s biggest olive oil producer, has been discussing with the Palestine Liberation Organisation buying surplus West Bank olive oil for sale to the United States, diplomatic sources said.