São Paulo – The government of Rio Grande do Sul launched this Wednesday (20th) at the government seat Palácio Piratini, in Porto Alegre, the Gaza Humanitarian Aid Campaign to receive money donations for the victims of the conflict between the Hamas group and Israel. The government of Rio Grande do Sul has opened a current account at the Brazilian bank Banco Banrisul so deposits can be made. In the last quarter this year, the money will be sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which will use it to help Palestinians.
According to the chief of cabinet of Rio Grande do Sul state governor, Tarso Genro (affiliated to PT), and campaign coordinator, Ricardo Zamora, the idea to create the campaign to help Palestinians arose nearly 20 days ago, when Genro met with the Palestinian ambassador in Brasília, Ibrahim Alzeben. “The governor made a visit to the ambassador to show support to the situation in Gaza and on that occasion the idea to make the campaign emerged. We began to work on this project ever since,” Zamora told ANBA this Thursday (21st).
According to Zamora, money donations are the best way to secure the support to Palestinians in Gaza. “Due to the blockade and the difficulties to access Gaza it is hard to send food and medicine to the needy,” he said. Local authorities, dignitaries of Palestinian community in Rio Grande do Sul and the CEO of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, participated of the launching ceremony of the campaign.
Alzeben said humanitarian aid is necessary to supply items such as potable water and food to the refugees. “Prior to this new aggression, a large part of the residents in Gaza was comprised of refugees. But now, all of the people there are refugees. It is a population of 1.8 million refugees,” he said.
According to Alzeben, prior to the conflict, 20% of the houses in Gaza needed to be rebuilt, as they had been damaged in previous conflicts. “Now we cannot know. In the last cease-fire, it was possible to recover the bodies. But now the aggression has been resumed. As of now we cannot evaluate the level of destruction,” he said.
Alzeben thanked the initiative of the Rio Grande do Sul government and the help of the Brazilian people. He said the donations will be used by the UNHCR to offer shelter to 400,000 people and to supply water, food, electricity and fuel to the conflict victims. However, he said this is not enough while the conflict lingers. “The best humanitarian aid Palestinians can receive is to end this situation,” he said.
Service
Donation deposits can be made to the Banrisul Bank:
Branch: 0100
Current account: 03. 358022. 0-6
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
