Palestinians With $50 Vouchers

"Palestinian families are now spending about 60 percent of their income on food," said Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, WFP Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territories. In response, the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a food voucher operation. This will assist 30,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories. Developed and initiated in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority, the US $6.7 million voucher project had its first distribution on April 1, 2009 in Qualqilya. Contributions to the voucher program include $2.5 million from Saudi Arabia and $2 million from France.

Since 2008, the price of basic food commodities such as wheat flour, sugar, rice, oil, pulses and milk have increased by almost 70%. The monthly voucher that a family receives amounts to NIS200 (US$50). A study by the WFP in July 2008 concluded that because of the occupied Palestinian territories' dependence on imports, the people in the occupied territories are highly vulnerable to the impact of global food prices. Families will be able to use the vouchers in selected shops for various basic foods.

In 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) created a voucher program to support 20,000 families that were selected to receive vouchers every six weeks. The ICRC worked with the WFP to distribute food and household items to 30,000 vulnerable families in more than 30 villages. After the launch of the WFP voucher program, the vouchers will continue to be distributed in Hebron, Nablus, and Tulkarem, with Action Contre la Faim (ACF) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), the Occupying Power has the right to protect itself, but the measures used to protect themselves must allow the occupied population to live as normally as possible. Article 55 states that the Occupying Power has the duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population. It guarantees access to food, water and medical assistance, as well as employment and education at all times. Visits to protected person by the representatives of organizations, whose object is to give spiritual aid or material relief to such persons, are supposed to be faciliated as much as possible. Recently, the WFP also launched food voucher programs in Burkina Faso, the first of its kind in Africa, to help people suffering from the impact of high food prices in urban areas.