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Palestinian Aid Grounded for 6 Days at South African Airport
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| Palestinian children await aid |
PRETORIA,
July 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Humanitarian aid for
Palestinians collected by South Africans has been grounded for six
days at Johannesburg International Airport by technicalities, a
foreign ministry official said Tuesday, July 2.
“The
flight had collateral insurance for 10 million dollars [euros]. This
is sufficient for Africa, but it does not meet the Israeli requirement
for 65 million dollars,” the official, who accompanied Deputy
Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad to the Middle East last week, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
500,000 dollars’ worth of aid, which was supposed to have
accompanied Pahad on his mission last Wednesday, includes food and
medical equipment.
“The
Israeli civil aviation authority found that the section on dangerous
goods had not been fully completed,” said the official, who declined
to be named.
He
said the clearing agent submitted papers for the charter plane only
last Tuesday, June 25.
“The
old aircraft does not meet Israeli noise requirements and will not be
allowed to land at a major urban airport,” the official said.
But
he said the foreign ministry was confident the ageing Ilyushin charter
plane would eventually take off.
“We
have taken this to the highest level,” he said. “Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres has promised to try to sort this out and you cannot go
higher than that.”
Pahad
returned from the region on Sunday, June 30, having seen both Peres
and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Imtiaz
Sooliman, leader of the South African-based charity organization Gift
of the Givers which collected the 38.5 ton of supplies is due to
return on Wednesday, July 3.
Pahad
said the South African government would match the charitable
assistance with a four-million rand (400,000-dollar) donation to the
Palestinian health department in Ramallah.
Pahad,
who is attending an Organization of African Unity conference in
Durban, was not immediately available for comment.
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