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For Immediate Release

February 22, 2003

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CFL ALERT: ONE BILLION DOLLARS NEEDED TO FEED PALESTINIAN REFUGEES.

The U.N. agency that provides food for Palestinian refugees says it will stop emergency aid unless it receives $1 billion. The United Nations Relief Works Agency, or UNRWA, says that it will need donations to continue feeding the refugees after March of this year. Agency director Peter Hansen said: "We are scraping the bottom of every barrel and stretching every dollar we have, but without immediate donations our emergency operations are going to grind to a halt."

UNRWA activities have been necessary to care for the millions of refugees (descendants included) who were disenfranchised and banished from their land by Israel in 1948. CFL believes that the US and the entire world has an obligation to care for the Palestinians who suffer under occupation.

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Talking Points

*Israeli delegations were in D.C. this week requesting $14 billion more in American welfare to continue to carry out atrocities against innocent Palestinian civilians. We cannot provide funds to a government which is preventing millions of Palestinians from going to work and earning enough to eat.

*The U.S. (and other countries) have a responsibility to care for refugees whose rights are not upheld by the UN.

*It is an affront to humanity that Israel is allowed to starve an entire population. Physicians for Human Rights has stated repeatedly that Palestinians are suffering from malnutrition and other ailments caused by the collective punishment that Israel is inflicting on millions of Palestinians.

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Citizens for Fair Legislation is a grassroots organization committed to encouraging a fair domestic and foreign policy with an emphasis on the US/Arab world.

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